Author

1
Author

• Full name Nelle Harper Lee
• Born April 28, 1926
• Nickname Nelle
• Hometown Monroeville, Alabama

2
Semi-autobiographical

• Loosely based on her life
• Used real people as characters
• Setting
• Historic events in Alabama

3
Similarities Between Her Life and Book

• Father-lawyer, newspaper editor, defended two
  black men in MS
• African-American housekeeper
• Mom died in 1951, but had nervous condition,
  emotionally absent
• Neighbor who got into trouble, hidden away

4
Book

• Published 1960
• Most famous award won Pulitzer
• Narrator Scout
• Setting Maycomb, AL

5
Genre

• To Kill a Mockingbird is a
• coming of age novel as well as a
• courtroom drama
• the story centers around the growing up of the
  main character, Scout, and a court case of a
  black man (Tom Robinson) accused of raping a
  white woman.

6
Characters

• Main Character Scout (a girl!)
• (Jean Louise Finch)
• Brother Jem Finch
• Father Atticus Finch
• Calpurnia Housekeeper

7
Characters
Jem
Scout
Calpurnia
Atticus
8
Neighbors

• Miss Maudie-across street
• Radleys-strange family down block
• Dill-friend of Scout and Jem
• Miss Dubose-cranky neighbor
• Miss Stephanie-gossipy neighbor

9
Other Awards

• Modern Library Best Novel-5
• Radcliffe Publishing-4
• Best Novels of 20th century-15
• Librarians Must Read List-1
• ALA most challenged-4
• Why? Profanity, racial slurs

10
Movie

• Director Robert Mulligan
• Award-winning actor Gregory Peck as Atticus
• Year 1962
• Oscars actor, art direction, screenplay
  (nominated 5 more)
• Cameo-Robert Duvall as Boo

11
Truman Capote

• Truman Capote is a famous writer who wrote In
  Cold Blood with the help of Harper Lee
• Capote grew up with Lee on her street in Alabama
• In the book, he is called Dill

12
Scottsboro Trial

• March 25, 1931
• 9 black youths accused of raping 2 white women
  (13-21 yrs. old)
• Sentenced to death by all white juries, except 13
  yr. old
• One of worst travesties of justice

13
Emmett Till

• 1941-1955
• 14-yr old Chicago boy murdered in MS by lynch mob
  for whistling at white woman
• Mother insisted on open casket gtgtgtCivil Rights
  Movement

14
Jim Crow Laws

• 1876-1965
• Separate but equal laws schools, bathrooms,
  transportation, public places
• Especially in the South

15
Franklin Roosevelt, New Deal

• 1933-1938 Programs started by Roosevelt during
  Great Depression
• Govt. Agencies Social Security, FHA, FDIC
  (welfare)

16
Social Class in the Jim Crow South
Professionals Finchs
Poor whites Cunninghams
African-Americans Tom, Calpurnia
Even poorer whites Ewells