mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… that's why it's a...
TRANSCRIPT
Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make
music for us to enjoy…
That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
To Kill A Mockingbird– Author
• Born
• Life
• Harper Lee
• 1926
• Grew up in Alabama• Lived in New York for a
Period of Time• After success of To Kill a
Mockingbird became somewhat of a recluse avoiding interviews and only writing sporadically
To Kill A Mockingbird– Response
• Critics
• Sales
• Mixed reviews upon release
• Enormous success with general population
• Has sold over 15 million copies
• One of the most popular stories read at the high school level
To Kill a Mockingbird
– Movie Version
– Other Awards
• Starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
• Academy Award-winning film
• Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961
• To Kill a Mockingbird– Background Information
• Probably at least partly based on Lee’s own experiences growing up in Alabama
• During Lee’s youth she witnessed the famous Scottsboro Trial – In the trial black men were
accused of raping 2 white women and were unfairly sentenced
– The result of the Scottsboro trial is largely thought to be inspiration for Lee’s novel
• Literary Focus– Published
– Genre
– Setting (PLACE)
• 1960
• Social Protest; courtroom drama
• Maycomb, Alabama
– Slow and old-fashioned; slightly backwards; still has very strong racist elements
• Literary Focus
– Setting (TIME)
– Point of View
• 1933-1935• Maycomb is struggling
mightily through the Great Depression
• Scout Finch’s 1st Person Point of View– Told from the Point of View
of Scout as an adult reflecting back on her childhood experiences and growth
• Overview • Scout Finch is the narrator of the story and opens the novel as an adult woman reflecting back on key events in her childhood.
• The novel covers a two-year period during Scout’s youth and focuses on her maturation from an innocent child to someone who witnesses both the good and evil of man’s nature
• She lives with her father, Atticus, a widowed lawyer, and her older brother, Jem
• Overview– Part I: The Reclusive Boo
Radley
– Part II: The Trial of Tom Robinson
• The novel is divided into two primary sections: – Part I: The focus is on the
Scout and Jem’s fascination with a reclusive neighbor named Boo Radley.
– Scout, Jem and a close friend, Dill, develop a strange relationship with Boo over the course of the novel
– Part II: The focus is on the trial of Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Scout’s father, Atticus, defends Tom. The family must deal with the racial repercussions that follow.
• Themes and Conflicts • Racism• Unfair Judgment• Social Structures• Sympathy and
Understanding• Moral Nature of Man• Childhood Innocence• Human Capacity for
Goodness versus Human Capacity for Evil
• Moral Education versus Academic Education
• Literary Focus– Symbols
• Mockingbirds
• Symbolize the innocence and kind nature of many individuals
• “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but…sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
• A large majority of the novel focuses on the sin of injuring those individuals who who are innocent and “mockingbirds.”
• Some of these “mockingbirds” include both Boo Bradley and Tom Robinson
• Characters– Scout Finch
• Narrator and protagonist
• Intelligent and tough; tomboy
• Loses some of her innocence throughout the novel and sees that all men are not necessarily good
• Atticus Finch • Scout and Jem’s father
• Widowed• Respected lawyer,
who has a strong beliefs connect to morality and justice
• Jem Finch • Scout’s brother• 4 years older than
Scout and grows away from her imaginative games as the novel progresses
• Guards Scout and is protective of her
• Dill Harris • Loosely based on the famous writer Truman Capote
• Summer friend to Jem and Scout
• Confident and imaginative
• Boo Radley • Reclusive neighbor of Jem and Scout
• Product of an abusive childhood and family
• Symbolically a “mockingbird”—an innocent torn down by the unkind acts of others
• Tom Robinson • A black man accused of raping a white woman
• Tom’s generous nature and responsibility stand in sharp contrast to the lies and irresponsibility of the people who have accused him of breaking the law