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