2. AUTHOR: Harper Lee
• Born
April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee’s only published novel)
was published in 1960
• Youngest of four children
• Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Presidential Medal
of Freedom in 2007 (Highest civilian award in U.S.)
•Over 30 million copies, 40 different languages, 80
weeks on the best seller list
4. POINT OF VIEW
• 1st Person
• Story told by Scout
•Coming-of-age story
•Harper Lee is a woman
and Scout represents her
as a child; although the
story is not strictly
autobiographical
5. Social class in the Novel
•This is probably similar to
how class structure existed
during the 1930’ s in the
South.
• The wealthy, although
fewest in number, were
most powerful.
Examples of each social class:
•The Black
Community, although great
in number, were lowest on
the class ladder, and
thus, had the least
privileges
Wealthy – Finches
Country Folk – Cunninghams
“White Trash” – Ewells
Black Community – Tom
Robinson
6. MAIN CHARACTERS
• Scout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old
narrator of story
• Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother
• Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father,
a prominent lawyer
• 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
• Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook
7. TKAM Characters – Family Tree
Atticus Finch –
Father, lawyer, widower
Aunt Alexandra Atticus’s sister, a strongwilled woman with a fierce
devotion to her family
Mrs. Dubose An elderly,
ill-tempered ,racist neighbor
Arthur “Boo” Radley
Jean Louise “Scout” Finch -
Jem Finch
Scout’s brother
& playmate
The narrator and protagonist of the story
Calpurnia -
Charles Baker
Harris “Dill”
The Finch’s
African American
cook / maid
- Jem and Scout’s summer
neighbour and friend
Link Deas - Tom
Robinson’s employer.
Tom Robinson - African
American field hand
accused of rape
Bob Ewell - A drunken,
mostly unemployed
member of Maycomb’s
poorest family
Nathan Radley
Boo Radley’s
older brother.
Nathan cruelly cuts off
an important element of
Boo’s connection with
Jem and Scout
Mayella Ewell Bob Ewell’s abused,
lonely, unhappy daughter
The Cunninghams - A poor farmer
and his son Walter who is one of
Scout’s classmates.
A recluse whose whereabouts
are unknown. Boo dominates
the imaginations of Jem,
Scout, and Dill
Dolphus Raymond
has a black mistress &
children. Pretends to
be a drunk so to
explain his behavior
Heck Tate - The
sheriff of Maycomb
and a major witness at
Tom Robinson’s trial
Maudie Atkinson The Finches’
neighbour, a sharptongued widow, & old
friend of the family
“ Mr. Underwood
Publisher of Maycomb’s
newspaper.
8. Chapter one Introduction to Maycomb, Boo Radley Jem Scout and all
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why is Boo Radley imprisoned by his father?
List all of the people that live on Atticus, Jem & Scout’s street.
What do we learn about Atticus’ family in the first chapter?
What is Dill’s big plan?
What does Dill dare Jem to do?
Chapter two Scout goes to school
1. What sort of relationship do Scout and Miss Caroline have? Come up
with 3 adjectives , and give supporting evidence for each.
2. What do we learn about the Cunningham family this chapter?
3. How does this fit with the wider setting of the Novel?
4. What attributes do the Cunninghams display?
9. Chapter 3
Walter Cunningham comes home from school for lunch
1. What do we learn about Atticus’ character?
2. What distinction is made between the Cunninghams,
and the Ewells?
3. What does Atticus mean by… [complete the quote then
comment on it]
‘if you can learn a simple _______, Scout, you’ll get along a
lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really
_____________ a person until you __________ things from
his point of view – ’’Sir?’’ – until you _______ into his
______ and walk around in it.’
10. Chapter 4 Jem and Scout find things in the tree and play
‘Boo Radley’. Scout rolls into the Radley house in a tyre.
1. What is the first thing Scout finds in
the live Oaks by the Radley place?
2. What is the new game that Dill and Jem start playing?
3. What does Scout hear after her tyre hits the Radley house?
Chapter 5 Jem, Dill and Scout try to make
Boo come out, using a fishing line
1. Describe the relationship that Miss Maudie Atkinson has
with Jem and Scout. Find some evidence for you thoughts.
2. How do Jem and Dill try to lure Boo Radley out?
3. What advice does Atticus give to
Jem and Scout concerning Boo Radley?
11. Chapter 6 Jem, Dill and Scout creep into the Radley yard
at night and get shot at. Jem goes back for his pants.
• Why do Jem, Dill and Scout go to the
Radley house in the middle of the night?
• What does Nathan Radley do to scare Jem,
Scout and Dill away from the Radley place?
• Why does Jem return to the Radley place that same night?
Chapter 7 Nathan Radley plugs the hole in the tree,
after Scout and Jem get more stuff from it.
• What further information does Jem tell Scout about
the night they were scared off from the Radley house?
• List three other things that Jem and Scout find in the tree outside the
Radley’s house
• What reason does Nathan Radley give for
plugging the hole in the tree with cement?
12. Chapter 8 Snow in Maycomb. Miss Maudie Atkinson’s house burns down.
• Whose house is on fire?
• Where do Jem and Scout stand to watch the fire?
• Who gives Scout a blanket to keep warm?
• Chapter 9 Scout taunted by Cecil, but walks away. Christmas:
uncle Jack comes to stay, they go to Finch’s Landing for Christmas.
•
•
•
•
•
Why does Scout fight Cecil Jacobs?
Which case do we hear about for the first time?
What provokes Scout to fight her cousin Francis?
Why is Scout upset with her Uncle Jack?
Re-read the conversation between Uncle Jack and Atticus on Pg 93.
What does this add about living with integrity?
Pg 92 “„Uncle Jack, please promise me ________‟, please sir. ______ you
won‟t tell Atticus about this. He – he _______ me one time not to let anything I
heard about him make me ____, an‟ I‟d _______ him think we were _______‟
about _________‟ else instead. Please promise…‟”
13. Chapter 10 Atticus shoots Tim Johnson
• What present does Atticus give to Jem and Scout?
• Who is Tim Johnson?
• Why does Heck Tate (the policeman) make Atticus shoot Tim
Johnson?
• What nickname did Atticus have?
This novel is about integrity. Find and complete the following quote. It
comes from page 104 (or if your book is different to mine, the last page
or two of chapter 10)
“„If your father‟s anything, he‟s ________ in his heart.
_________________ a gift of God, a talent…. I think maybe he put his
____ down when he __________ that God had given him an unfair
____________ over most living things.‟’People in their ______
________ never take ________ in their talents,‟ said Miss Maudie.”
• Look at the quote above. In your opinion, what does it say about
living with integrity?
14. Chapter 11 Jem reads to Mrs Dubose.
What is Jem and Scout’s opinion of Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose?
What did Mrs Dubose say to really upset Jem?
How does Jem get revenge on Mrs Dubose?
What is Jem’s punishment for his revenge on Mrs Dubose?
What is revealed about Mrs. Dubose at the end of the chapter?
Atticus „This case, Tom Robinson‟s case, is something that goes to the
essence of a man‟s conscience – Scout, I couldn‟t go to church and
worship God if I didn‟t try to help that man.‟
„…before I live with other folks I‟ve got to live with myself. The one think
that doesn‟t abide by majority rule is a man‟s conscience.‟ Pg 111
‘ – I wanted you to see what real courage is…. It’s when you know
you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it
through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.’ Pg 118
15. 1930’s – Great Depression
Began when the stock market
crashed in October 1929
Businesses failed, factories
closed
People were out of work
Even people with money
suffered because nothing
was being produced for
sale
Poor people lost their homes
and were forced to “live off
the land.”
16. Racial prejudice was alive and well.
Although slavery had ended in 1864 , old
ideas were slow to change.
17. Gender Bias
(Prejudice)
•Women were considered
“weak”
•Women were generally not
educated for occupations
outside the home
•In wealthy families, women
were expected to oversee the
servants and entertain guests
•Men not considered capable of
nurturing children
18. LegaL issues of the 1930’s
that impact the story
•Women given the vote in
1920
•Juries were MALE and
WHITE
•“ Fair trial” did not include
acceptance of a black
man’s word against a white
man’s
19. To Kill a Mockingbird
SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE AS A THEME
20. Social acceptance in Maycomb during
the Great Depression
• Families prestige is based on how long the family has lived in
Maycomb.
• Black people are in the lower class.
• Drunks are in the lower class.
• Prejudice, racism, and discrimination are sociably accepted.
• Girls are to be ladies and boys are to be gentlemen.
• Kids go through phases, including swearing and fighting.
• Politeness and being social are necessities.
• Generally black people worked as servants and laborers.
• Children respect their elders.
• Kids don’t need to wear shoes.
• Girls should wear dresses and boys should wear pants.
• Murder and Rape trials are not fit for ladies to hear.
22. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the South
during the 1930’s. In those years, many Southern
states still followed a policy of racial segregation.
23. True or false?
• Black people during the 1930’s could not
speak to white people on the street.
– TRUE: Although there was no law stating this; it
was not socially accepted. White people would
often walk right passed as if not seeing anyone.
24. True or false?
• Blacks and whites attended separate schools
during the Great Depression.
– TRUE: School segregation wasn’t legally abolished
until 1954 with the Supreme Court’s decision that
schools could no longer be segregated in Brown v.
Board of Education.
25. True or false?
• Blacks and whites lived in separate parts of town.
– TRUE: Although in the novel Calpurnia spends the
night at the Finches to help out, the Finches had no
black neighbors in the part of Maycomb that they
resided. Blacks lived on the outskirts of town.
26. True of false?
• Even though segregation was practiced, it was
never considered legal by the courts.
– FALSE: Jim Crowe laws were state and local laws in the United States
enacted between 1876 and 1965 that mandated segregation in all
public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for
black Americans. The reality was that Jim Crowe laws led to treatment
and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for
white Americans.
27. True or false?
• Segregation was a matter of wealth. Well-todo blacks enjoyed the same legal rights and
privileges as well-to-do whites.
– FALSE: Socially the poorest white person still had a
higher social status than the wealthiest black
person. In Maycomb, Mr. Ewell, the town
drunk, has a higher social status than Tom
Robinson.
