To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird

• A novel of strong contemporary national
  significance
• Chicago Tribune

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Mockingbird background
2001 One Book, One Chicago
when people speak their minds and bring to
discussion their own varieties of experience,
when they receive respect for their opinions and
the good will of their fellows, things change. It
is as if life itself takes on a new compelling
clarity, and good things get done.

- Harper
Lee
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Mockingbird Movie
1962
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
34 on the AFI top 100 list
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Mockingbird Movie
AFI top 50 movie heroes of all time
5. Will Kane (High Noon)
4. Rick Blaine (Casablanca)
3. James Bond (Lots of films)
2. Indiana Jones (Raiders)
1. Atticus Finch (TKAM)
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Harper Lee

• Born in 1926
• In Monroeville, Alabama

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Monroeville 7,000
Monroe County 24,000
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Understanding Harper Lee

• Since publishing TKAM, Lee has kept to herself,
  granting only a handful of interviews. The best
  look into her life, or at least an understanding
  of her childhood, is the book itself many
  aspects of TKAM are autobiographical
• Monroeville served as the model for Maycomb,
  where the story takes place.
• Lees friend and next door neighbor, Truman
  Capote, served as the inspiration for the
  character Dill.
• Lee gave all three of her mothers names to
  various characters in the book.
• Finally, Lee has stated that Atticus Finch was
  based largely on her own father.

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Why Just One?

• For such a talented writer, many people wonder
  why Lee would only write novel.
• When Lees cousin asked her that same question,
  her answer was, When you have a hit like that,
  you cant go anywhere but down.

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A few facts about the book

• Was Harper Lees only novel
• Set in early 1930s (starts in 1933)
• Published in 1960
• Won Pulitzer Prize in 1961

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A few more facts about the book

• Told in first person point of view
• Told by a six-year-old girl believable?
• Based on historical events
• Written in two main parts
• Part one characterization of Maycomb
• Part two putting Maycomb in motion, or
  revealing it during a controversial time

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What were some of the factors influencing Harper
Lee?

• Small town life
• The influence of neighbors and family members
• The Depression
• Segregation in the South

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The Great Depression

• Following a time of false prosperity and
  speculation in stocks during the 20s, Americas
  financial market fell to its knees in the 30s on
  October 29, Black Tuesday, the day the stock
  market crashed.

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The Great Depression
Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929
For a heavily agricultural region like the South,
the Great Depression hit especially hard, and
drove an already struggling area of the country
to the brink of poverty.
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The Great Depression
By 1932
Stock prices hit 20 of their previous value
International trade down 1/2
25-30 of workers unemployed
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The Great Depression
By 1933
- 11,000 of the 25,000 US banks had failed
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The Great Depression
In 1933
FDRs New Deal new laws and programs designed
to
eliminate unemployment
control banks and banking
support farmers
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The Great Depression
1935-1936
More new laws and programs
National Labor Relations Board
Works Progress Administration
Social Security System
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Franklin Roosevelt was President who got us out
of the Depression
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
-FDR
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Social Perspectives

• Blacks still considered second-class citizens
• Jim Crow laws segregation by law
• Menial jobs fieldhands
• Considered lazy and dishonest
• Treated harshly
• Themes of prejudice (class, gender, race, social)

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"Jim Crow" laws barred African Americans from
access to employment and to public places such as
restaurants, hotels, and other facilities. In the
South especially, blacks lived in fear of
racially motivated violence.
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An example of segregation-water fountains found
throughout Southern towns were separate for the
races.
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Brown vs. Board of Education desegregates
schools 1954
Central H.S. in Little Rock, AK desegregated.
National Guard keeps order 1957
1955 Emmett Till killed for talking to a
white woman Montgomery, AL Bus Boycott
1960 First of many lunch counter
sit-ins To Kill a Mockingbird published