To Kill a Mockingbird

By Harper Lee

• Harper wrote the book in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize for it.

• She wrote this novel during the peak of the civil rights movement.

Chapter 1

• The narrator gives us the following information:

• - her brother, Jem, broke his arm when he was nearly thirteen

• - her father is a lawyer

• - the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama

• We also learn:

• - that the narrator’s name is Scout

• - that her friend, Dill, has come to visit for the summer

• - that the Radleys live next door to the Finch family (Scout, Jem and Atticus)

The Radleys

• Jem and Scout are scared of the Radleys and especially of the “malevolent phantom”, Boo Radley. Here’s his story:

• - The Radley family always kept to themselves and this was odd in the town of Maycomb where everybody likes to know everybody’s business.

• - The Radleys had two sons. The youngest one got mixed up with the Cunninghams, a family from outside of town. This gang of young people liked to raise a little hell once in awhile –as young people are wont to do.

• _ The boys were ordered to go to the state industrial school. Mr. Radley refused to have his son sent there.

• Boo (Arthur) Radley’s punishment was to be served at home – a punishment far worse than the state industrial school.

• He was not seen again for fifteen years.• According the Miss Stephanie (a resident

of Maycomb), Boo once stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors.

• For this, he was locked in the courthouse basement for a spell.

• When old Mr. Radley died, Calpurnia (the cook at the Finch household) said “There goes the meanest man ever God blew breath into”.

• Nathan Radley, Boo’s older brother, returned home. He is just as mean as his father was.

Scout, Jem and Dill are fascinated with the mystery of Boo Radley.

Chapter 2

• Scout starts school and it is a disappointment.

• Miss Caroline Fisher is Scout’s teacher and she is a strict adherent to what Jem calls “The Dewey Decimal System”.

• (The Dewey Decimal System is actually a method of cataloguing books in a library.)

John Dewey

• What Jem really meant to say was that it was that Miss Fisher was implementing her version of the philosophy of education advanced by John Dewey.

• According to Dewey’s theories, children should learn by doing, not by studying from books. It is obvious from Lee’s book that she disagrees with this theory.

• Scout gets off on the wrong foot with Miss Fisher. First, she can already read. This irritates Miss Fisher. Secondly, she tries to explain the Cunninghams to Miss Fisher and for this she is accused of being impertinent.

• Miss Fisher was trying to give money to Walter Cunningham for his dinner, but he refused to take it.

• What Scout was trying to explain was that the Cunningham’s are too proud to accept charity.

• She knows this because her father, a lawyer, once did work for Walter’s father. Mr. Cunningham couldn’t pay for the services with money, but he made sure to pay with what he could.

• The Cunninghams are farmers and they are very poor because the of the Great Depression.

• The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most severe economic depression in history and it caused great hardship for many people.

“If he held his mouth right, Mr. Cunningham could get a WPA job, but his land would go to ruin if he

left it, and he was willing to go hungry to keep his land and vote as

he pleased.”

• “Holding your mouth right” means voting for the right political party (usually the one that is in power).

• The WPA was a government initiative in the United States during the Great Depression. It was the Works Progress Administration and it employed men to carry out public works projects such as building roads.

Directions:• 9 to 10 slides summarizing the chapter• Include background information when warranted (briefly

explain things like the American Civil War, prohibition, The Great Depression and other things mentioned, if necessary)

• Use two direct quotes from the book• Use images on every slide• Do not overcrowd your slides • “Wow” us. Don’t bore us. Don’t give us a headache.• Check for errors at least five hundred times.• Speak to us when presenting (don’t read from the

slides; fill in the blanks by explaining things)