To Kill a MockingbirdBy Harper Lee

Background to the Novel

SETTING OF THE NOVEL• Alabama

• 1930’s– Great Depression– Prejudice– Legal segregation– Ignorance

America in the 1930s

• WWI was over – WWII had not yet started

• Stock market crashed in 1929

• Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President in October 1932

1930’s - Great Depression• Stock Market Crash –

October 1929

• Businesses failed and factories closed

– People were out of work

– Even people with money suffered because nothing was being produced for sale.

• Poor people lost their homes, were forced to “live off the land.”

StatisticsPopulation: 123,188,000 in 48 states Life Expectancy: Male, 58.1; Female, 61.6Average salary: $1,368 Unemployment rises to 25% Food Prices: • Milk – 14 cents a quart

• Bread – 9 cents a loaf

• Round Steak – 42 cents a pound

Prices in 1930

• $100 Converted from 1930 to 2005 it would be equivalent to $1204

• Average new house – $7,145.00

• Average income per year – $1,970.00

• Gallon of gas –10 cents

• Average new car – $640.00

Fashion

Jim Crow Laws

• Slavery ended in 1864 but racial prejudice was alive and well

• Jim Crow Laws referred to the legal separation of races

• Blacks were not protected from discrimination by individuals or private companies

Racial separation (segregation)

Gender Bias (Prejudice)

• Women were considered “weak”

• Women were generally not educated for occupations outside the home

• In wealthy families, women were expected to oversee the servants and entertain guests

• Men not considered capable of nurturing children

Social Hierarchy in Alabama

1. Aristocrats - White upper class

2. White middle class

3. White lower class

4. White trash

5. Blacks

Aristocrats -White upper class

• Educated

• Legitimate claim to “Old South” plantation families.

• Real Wealth

White middle Class

• White

• Some education

• Property owners

• White Lower Class

• White• Little or no education• Sharecroppers/

Farmers

Poor White Trash

Refused educationOften alcoholic

Few or no work skillsOften had poor work ethic

Had the same opportunities as other white classes

Blacks

• Lowest on the social hierarchy

• Formal public education was prohibited

• Placed in lowest social class only because of race

Legal Issues of the 1930’s

• Women given the vote in 1920

• Juries were MALE and WHITE

• “Fair trial” did not include acceptance of a black man’s word against a white man’s

TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD

Prejudice

Race

Gender

Handicaps

Rich/Poor

Age

Religion

~ Characters ~▪ Atticus Finch ▪ Jeremey Atticus “Jem” Finch▪ Jean Louise “Scout” Finch▪ Tom Robinson

▪ Arthur “Boo” Radley

▪ Miss Maudie Atkinson

▪ Charles Baker “Dill” Harris

▪ Calpurnia

▪ Aunt Alexandra

▪ Mayella Ewell

Point of View

• First person– Story is told by Scout, a 10-year-old girl

– Harper Lee is actually a woman; Scout represents the author as a little girl although the story is not strictly autobiographical

Reading the Novel

• Setting is all important –be aware of the “where” and “when” as you begin

• Point of View – the novel is shaped by the voice of a young girl who sees the story from a position of naïve acceptance

• “Goodness vs. Ignorance (Evil)” is an important theme

“If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all

kinds of folks.

You never really understand a person until you consider things

from his point of view—until you crawl into his skin and walk around

in it.”

– Atticus Finch