Beginning Stuff

Author: Harper LeePublished: 1960

Interesting Facts: •Won a Pulitzer Prize -1961•TKAM is the only book Harper Lee ever wrote•The novel is semi-autobiographical which means it is partially based on Harper Lee’s actual life.

Similarities?Harper Lee's Childhood

•Grew up in 1930s - rural southern Alabama town •Father - Amasa Lee - attorney who served in state legislature in Alabama

•Older brother and young neighbor (Truman Capote) are playmates

•Harper Lee - an avid reader

•Six years old when Scottsboro trials were meticulously covered in state and local newspapers

Scout Finch's Childhood•Grew up in 1930s - rural southern Alabama town

•Father - Atticus Finch - attorney who served in state legislature in Alabama

•Older brother and young neighbor (Dill) are playmates

•Scout reads before she enters school; reads Mobile Register newspaper in first grade

•Six years old when the trial of Tom Robinson takes place

Similarities?The Scottsboro TrialsTook place in the 1930s

Took place in northern Alabama

Began with a charge of rape made by white women against African American men

The poor white status of the accusers was a critical issue.

This judge went against public sentiment in trying to protect the rights of the African American defendants.

The first juries failed to include any African Americans, a situation which causeed the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the guilty verdict.

The jury ignored evidence, for example, that the women suffered no injuries.

Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicated the trial.

Tom Robinson's TrialOccurs in the 1930s

Takes place in southern Alabama

Begins with a charge of rape made by a white woman against an African American man

The poor white status of Mayella is a critical issue. Atticus arouses anger in the community in trying to defend Tom Robinson.

The verdict is rendered by a jury of poor white residents of Old Sarum.

The jury ignores evidence, for example, that Tom has a useless left arm.

Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicate the trial of Tom Robinson.

A Little History• The Great Depression began in 1930’s and many

people struggled to live. • Poor people often lived “off the land”• This hardship made everyone more irritable and

tempers often flared.• Slavery had ended in 1864 but attitudes were

slow to change.• Racial Prejudice was common, the Jim Crow laws

are an example.• All juries were WHITE and MALE• “A fair trial” at this time meant a white man’s

word was believed over a black man’s.

A Little History• While African Americans were greatly

oppressed, another social group was also used and abused.

• Women were seen as “weak” and “inferior”. They were often not educated and were raised to nurture children.

• Ironically, men were not seen as able to raise children –although this is not so in our novel.

Social Class in the NovelThis is probably similar to how class structure existed during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although fewest in number, were most powerful. The blacks, although great in number, were lowest on the class ladder, and thus, had the least privileges.

Examples of each social class:

•Wealthy - Finches•Country Folk - Cunninghams•“White Trash” – Ewells•Black Community – Tom Robinson

Terms

• Themes• Motif• Symbols•Characterization• Foil• Allusion

ThemesTo remind you: Themes are the essential and universal

ideas explored in a literary work.

The Coexistence of Good and Evil•Are people naturally good or bad?•Truly innocent people, special individuals, children, or those with truly good hearts, are often destroyed by the evil of the world.

Coming of AgeChildren grow up and learn harsh truths about the “real” world.

The Existence of Social Inequality (Prejudice)Every society has a “pecking” order, an order of social classes. Is this right? Justifiable? Good? Children often see through this.

The novel is classified as two specific styles of fiction:

• Southern Gothic – The book includes some dreamy and thoughtful writing (the main character’s memories) but it also contains brutal material (painful real life stuff) such rape and the effects of racial prejudice

• Bildungsroman (Bill-duns-row-mon) – A literary term for a story that follows the growth and development of a character from childhood to adulthood.

MotifsMotifs are recurring elements that help to develop the text’s major themes.

Examples:–Gothic Details– Small Town Life– The Innocence of children

Gothic Details

•Gothic details in setting and plot. Gothic fiction features supernatural occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons, and so on.

Out of place in the normally quiet, predictable Maycomb, these details create tension and foreshadow the troublesome events of the trial and its aftermath.

• An unnatural snowfall

• A mysterious fire

•The creepy, run down Radley House

•A mad dog

• The ominous night of the Halloween party at the conclusion of the story.

Other Gothic elements in TKAM include:

Small-Town Life

• The slow-paced, good-natured feel of life in Maycomb.

• Small-town values and Gothic images are often juxtaposed (put side by side) to examine more closely the forces of good and evil.

• The horror of the fire, for instance, is lessened by the comforting scene of the people of Maycomb banding together to save Miss Maudie’s possessions.

SymbolsSymbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.–Mockingbirds–Boo Radley–The Mad Dog

Mockingbirds

• Miss Maudie explains to Scout: “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but . . . sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

• Mockingbirds eat bugs and sing beautifully, so it is sinful to kill a useful and innocent creature. In TKAM this bird symbolizes the destruction of innocence by evil.

• Throughout the book, a number of characters (Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as mockingbirds—innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil.

Boo Radley• In the beginning Boo symbolizes fear of the unknown, the boogey-man in the closet.

•By the end of the novel Boo symbolizes innocence and the desire to “be good” that is sometimes ruined by the world around us.

The Mad Dog• Symbolizes good and normal things that become evil and dangerous for a variety of reasons.

CharactersCharactersScout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old narrator of story

Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother (10)

Atticus Finch – A widower, Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.

Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who lives next door

Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer

Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman

Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

The Ewell’s- A poor white family, considered “white trash”

Other Terms• Foil – Characters that are opposites. Foil

character make each other seem more extreme. – Example: A red stain looks bad on a dark colored shirt, but

a red stain on a WHITE shirt looks REALLY bad. – A bad character next to a good character makes one look

REALLY bad and the other REALLY good.

• Allusion –a reference to a historical or literary event.– Many of the occurrences in TKAM seem like allusions to

real life events from the 1930s.

Setting• The area where the action and story line take place.

• The setting of TKAM is one of its most distinct and important features.

• The setting is one of the major reasons it is considered a Southern Gothic novel.

• Gothic novels rely on spooky and unworldly things and events, and Southern just means it takes place in the south.

• For example, Frankenstein is a gothic novel, if it were set in Atlanta it would be Southern Gothic.

• BTW, you will be expected to discuss the setting and how it impacts the novel.

ControversyControversyThere has been controversy surrounding the novel since its publication. Many individuals have even attempted to have it removed from classrooms, challenging the book’s treatment of black characters.

These people do not realize that to educate students about the horrors of prejudice and racism, one must first show it to them.

The book is not racist, it may contain terrible language but it has to so that you, the reader, can have a clear picture of how terrible these times were. And yes, black characters are treated terribly, but they were treated terribly in real life. This is history. These are facts. We cannot change what we do not acknowledge.

Yeah, is it really that good? Yes. Just yes. You may not understand everything the first time through or at your current age, but you will. Trust me.

Overall, the book has become legendary worldwide. Librarians actually ranked the book ahead of the Bible as a book “every adult should read before they die.”

Like wise, Atticus Finch is one of the greatest heroes of American Literature. He is the symbolic perfect father, and he is an amazing character. Recently the American Film Institute ranked Atticus the number #1 greatest hero of film- Even over Indiana Jones & James Bond!

Harper Lee, now 84, still resides in Alabama and New York. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature in 2007.

When asked why she rarely grants interviews or gives speeches, When asked why she rarely grants interviews or gives speeches, she said: she said:

“Well, it's better to be silent than to be a fool.”

Pretty ironic, considering she’s the author of one of the most influential and celebrated American books of all time.