To Kill a

Mockingbird
Background Notes

Author Harper Lee

Born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, a small city w/ a

population of about 7,000 people (the fictional Maycomb,
Alabama)

Her own childhood reflects that of the character

Scout

Her father Amasa was a lawyer whom she deeply admired

Her mothers maiden name was Finch

Character Dill is based off childhood friend

Character Mrs. Dubose is based off mothers mannerisms

Went to law school

Moved to New York and worked at an airline company to

finance writing career
In 1960 she published her only novel To Kill a
Mockingbird
Since 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird has never been out of print
At age 88, she is still alive and has moved back to her
childhood town
She rarely makes public appearances or gives
interviews

Setting of TKAM

Maycomb, Alabama (fictional city)

Small Southern town

Slow to change

Summer of 1933- end of Halloween 1935

Great Depression

Before WWII / when Hitler was elected to power

Prejudice and legal segregation

Although slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans were still

denied many rights

Southerners in Maycomb continue to believe in white supremacy.

Segregation exists in schools, public bathrooms, busses and many other

public places

Point of View

1st person

Told through the eyes of 6 year old girl

What is important about a 1st person narrator?

Sometimes the language of Scout will be that of her as a child;

other times, she will be speaking in the voice of an adult

Although the characters of the book harbor a lot of prejudice, Lee

uses certain characters to express her point of view

Atticus

Mr. Raymond

Main Characters

Scout (Jean Louise Finch) 6 year old narrator of the

story

Jem (Jeremy Finch) Scouts older brother

Atticus Finch Jem and Scouts father, a prominent and

respected lawyer who defends a black man accused of
raping a white woman

Arthur Radley (Boo) a 33 year old recluse who lives

next door

Charles Baker Harris (Dill) Jem and Scouts friend who

comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb every summer

Tom Robinson a respectable black man accused of

raping a white woman

Calpurnia the Finches cook

1930s History Great Depression

Result of the stock market crashed in 1929

Crashed because people borrowed loans on margin to buy stock

ON MARGIN =only need to invest 10% of loan

Could borrow $10,000 if you had $1000

USING MONEY YOU DONT HAVE!

Investors speculated that stock prices would keep increasing but they didnt

MARGIN CALL bank could call back full amount

When stock values began dropping, investors panicked and started selling their stock to
pay back their loan

BANK RUN everyone tried to get their money back at the same time

At the same time, the average citizen was pulling their savings out in cash from
banks

Couldnt pay back average citizen because they citizens savings to give out loans

Banks collapse / Go out of business

Ended in 1939 due to WWII

1930s History Great Depression

Prejudice in TKM

Racial Prejudice

Gender Roles

Social Snobbery

Ageism

Handicaps

Religion

Sexism / Gender Bias

Women were considered

weak.

Women were not educated for

occupations outside of the
home

Groomed to be wives and mothers

Men not considered capable of

nurturing children

Women won the right to vote

in 1920

Were still not allowed to serve

on juries in legal cases

KKK

After the Civil War, The Ku

Klux Klan was formed as a
secret society that
promoted white
supremacy using violence
and terrorism against African
Americans

However, after the 1920s

the KKK was no longer
secretive about their work
and public violence against
Blacks, including lynching,
became common
occurrences.

Jim Crow Laws

From the 1880s to the 1960s most states

enforced segregation through the Jim Crow laws

The idea was separate but equal

laws requiring the separation of whites from

persons of color in public transportation and
schools

Through these laws, legal punishments for

having contact with members of another race.

Civil Rights Movement

Civil Rights Movement 1954 -1968

In 1954, after 2 years in court, the
nation was shocked by a decision in
Brown vs. Board of Education to
grant Linda Brown, a Black fifthgrader, admission into a white
elementary school in Topeka, Kansas.
separate but equal idea struck
down
In the Fall of 1960, in the middle
of the Civil Rights Movement, To
Kill a Mockingbird was
published.

Desegregation

A national and international call for

desegregation of the South rang out
and Blacks and Whites all over the
country started putting pressure on
governments to amend the
segregation laws.

Those individuals, both Black and

White, who fought for Civil Rights
were under constant attack from
White Supremacists who were
unwilling to accept Black Americans
as equals

Many freedom-fighters died for their

efforts

Language in TKM

Atticus uses formal speech

Calpurnia uses white language in the Finch house and switches to black jargon
when amidst blacks
The Ewells use foul words and obscenities
Jem, Scout, and Dill will use slang words, typical of their age.
Tom Robinson uses language typical of the southern black such as suh fr sir
and chillun for children
Various derogatory terms for blacks will be used such as nigger, darky,
Negroes, and colored folk Lee uses such language to keep her novel
naturally in sync with common language of the times

Connotation vs. denotation

Although, it is shocking and offensive to us today, why is it important that these

offensive words are used in the novel?