The Author

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To Kill A Mockingbird

• The Author
• The Novel
• Historical Content- Great Depression
• Social Content Time Line

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR - HARPER LEE

• Related to Robert E. Lee
• Born in Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926

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HARPER LEE continued

• Grew up during the Great Depression
• Began writing at the age of seven
• Attended Huntington College then was an exchange
  student at Oxford University
• Studied law at the University of Alabama but
  never finished her degree

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MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR - HARPER LEE

• Moved to New York where she worked as an airlines
  reservations clerk
• She began writing full time for publication
  purposes
• Wrote TKAM in 1957
• Her cousin, Truman Capote, encouraged her to
  expand one of her many short stories into a novel

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ABOUT THE NOVEL

• Originally submitted to the publisher in 1957
• Took 2 ½ years to revise and edit
• Finally published in 1960
• Won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1961

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ABOUT THE NOVEL

• The story is about two children growing up in the
  South during the Great Depression and a Southern
  lawyer, in face of murderous threats and
  impossible odds, who stands up for what he
  believes is right and tries to show those around
  him a better way

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THE NOVEL continued

• It focuses on the people, attitudes, and laws of
  the South during this time period.
• The plot of To Kill a Mockingbird reflected Ms.
  Lees own childhood in Alabama and was greatly
  influenced by the training she received in law
  school

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MORE ABOUT THE NOVEL

• Lees life parallels the two children in the
  novel. She lived in a small Southern town, had a
  lawyer for a father, and even sat in a courthouse
  balcony to watch him defend his clients

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ABOUT THE NOVEL

• To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into
  over forty languages and it has been adapted into
  a movie

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ABOUT THE NOVEL CONT.

• Told in flashback
• 2 story lines each with its own climax
• First-person point of view
• Bildungsroman
• Covers approx. 3 years

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MAJOR THEMES OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

• Education is not limited to the classroom but is
  an important part of a persons everyday life.
• Prejudice is responsible for much social
  injustice.
• People often fear what they do not understand.

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MAJOR THEMES OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

• Courage is doing what you think is right when the
  odds of succeeding are against you.
• Maturation
• Pride

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THE HISTORICAL CONTENT The Great Depression

• The stock-market crash of 1929 paralyzed the
  nations economy. Banks curtailed their loans to
  businesses, businessmen cut back on production,
  and millions lost their jobs. Spending dwindled,
  factories and stores closed, and consumption of
  farm products declined.

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Migrant Mother

• At the height of the Great Depression in 1933,
  about 13 million Americans had no jobs, many had
  only part-time jobs, and more than 750,000
  farmers had lost their land.

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Elderly Couple during the Great Depression
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Soup Kitchen during Great Depression
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Family during Depression
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THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL TIME LINE

• 1861 Civil War Begins
• 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation
  Proclamation freeing the black slaves

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• 1865 Civil War Ends
• 1865 The 13th Amendment to the Constitution
  was the first of three amendments that were a
  consequence of the Civil War. It states that
  slavery must end in the United States and all of
  its territories.

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• 1868 --
• In the 14th Amendment the black Americans
  were granted citizenship and guaranteed their
  Civil Rights

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• 1870 --
• The 15th Amendment dealt with Black Voting
  Rights. It sought to protect the rights of
  citizens, particularly former slaves, to vote in
  federal and state elections

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THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL TIME LINE

• 1880s Jim Crow Laws
• Although African Americans now supposedly had the
  same rights as white society, they were still
  segregated. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks
  politically by making it difficult for them to
  vote. For instance, they required voters to pay
  a poll tax as well as prove that they could read.

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1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson

• The Supreme Court went even further to legalize
  racism by ruling that segregation was lawful as
  long as blacks and whites had access to equal
  facilities. (EX. Separate Water Fountains)

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Realize that not all of the Justices supported
this view, many felt that the Constitution is
colorblind and neither knows or tolerates classes
among citizens.
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1929 Beginning of the Great Depression

• Its been almost sixty years since blacks had
  been held in slavery, and unfortunately at this
  time they were still considered 2nd class
  citizens.

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• Realize that it took almost 100 years from the
  time the Civil War ended for the nations blacks
  to finally obtain equal civil rights as their
  white counterparts

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New Companies and Products

• Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup
• Skippy Peanut Butter
• Fritos
• 3 Musketeers Bar
• Alka Seltzer
• Bisquick
• Ritz Crackers

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New Companies and Products

• Ralston Purina
• Birds Eye Frosted Foods
• Revlon
• Gallo Winery
• Windex
• Newsweek Magazine
• Esquire

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THE END