To Kill a Mokckingbird WerkDocument

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

What's with the title?

'I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' (p.99)

What's with the title?

'"Your father's right', she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' (p.99).

Racial inequality & injustice

• Divided into two parts:
  Boo Radley fascination & Racial inequality. 
• Feelings are exposed during the trial
• Guilty because of his skin colour

Social Class

• Colour of their skim
• occupation
• financial status
• education

Loss of innocence & coming of age

• From naive to better understanding

"There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible."

What makes a hero?

• Different forms of courage
• Atticus is 'feeble' according to Scout
• The rabid dog
• Atticus taking the case

Gender Roles

• Scout being a tomboy
• Realises that she needs to get more feminine
• Calpurnia & Miss Maudie

How do we approach the 'n" word as we read To Kill A Mockingbird in class?

we do not say the word even when we are reading the text

We may say the word when we are reading it from the book

Summary

• To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee. Written in 1960, it is set in the mid-1930s in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama.

• Narrated by Scout Finch, a six-year-old tomboy who lives with her lawyer father Atticus and her ten-year-old brother Jem.

• Scout, Jem and their friend Dill try to make their reclusive neighbour Boo Radley leave his house. Boo has not been seen in Maycomb since he was a teenager.

Summary

• Many residents of Maycomb are racists

• Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman, though everyone knows he has little hope of winning.
• The reader sees the trial develop through the childlike eyes of Scout, as gradually both she and her brother learn some valuable life lessons from their father about tolerance, empathy and understanding.

Setting

• Maycomb, Georgia
• The Great Depression - 1933-1935
  
• Jim Crow laws
• Racial tension
• Published in 1960 at the height of the Civil Rights Movement
  

Historical Background

Great Depression

• Stockmarket crash 1929
• Lots of families plunged into poverty

Historical background

Slavery was abolished in 1864, towards the end of the American Civil War, but Southerners still believe in white supremacy.

Segregation exists.

Blacks may not sit in the same sections as whites. They have separate facilities as well, known as Jim Crow laws.

Jim Crow laws

Maycomb was fictional and based on Monroeville, Alabama where the author grew up

Social Inequality / social status 

What's with the title?

'I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' (p.99)

What's with the title?

'"Your father's right', she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird' (p.99).

Main Characters

Jean Louise - Scout-  Finch  

6  years old when the book starts

Daughter of Atticus Finch

Sister to Jem

Mother died

Tomboy, fisty girl

Jem Finch

10-13 years old 

Brother of Scout 

Son of Atticus 

Big Brother 

Atticus Finch

Dad to Jem and Scout

around 50 years of age

Lawyer

Kind, honest, patient, smart

Cal (Calpurnia)

The Finch's cook and general help

Second mother to Scout

Mother to Zeebo

loyal, kind, sometimes very bossy

Charles Baker Harris (Dill) 

One year older than Scout

Stays with his aunt Rachel in the summer

Father is ...? 

Mother can't really take care of him

Small for his age

Arthur (Boo) Radley

Neighbour to Scout, Jem and Atticus 

Mysterious and reclusive person with A Past

Tom Robinson

Field worker

Married with children

Accused of raping a white woman

Atticus is his lawyer

* note

This chapter does contain the "n" word,. 

 We have discussed this word and that it is bigoted language. 

bigoted =  unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion  in particular prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

Chapter 1-2-3

To prepare for the TEST on To Kill a Mockingbird, it is crucial that you keep up  with all the reading. After you have read a chapter, try to answer the questions in the booklet.