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To Kill A Mockingbird
± Author ‡ Harper Lee

‡ Born ‡ 1926

‡ Life ‡ Grew up in Alabama

‡ Lived in New York for a
Period of Time
‡ After success of To Kill a
Mockingbird became
somewhat of a recluse
avoiding interviews and
only writing sporadically
To Kill A Mockingbird
± Response ‡ Mixed reviews upon
release

‡ Critics ‡ Enormous success with

general population

‡ Has sold over 15 million

‡ Sales
copies
‡ One of the most popular
stories read at the high
school level
To Kill a Mockingbird
‡ Starred Gregory Peck
± Movie Version as Atticus Finch
‡ Academy Award-
winning film

± Other Awards ‡ Won the Pulitzer

Prize in 1961
‡ To Kill a Mockingbird
‡ Probably at least partly
± Background Information
based on Lee¶s own
experiences growing up
in Alabama
‡ During Lee¶s youth she
witnessed the famous
Scottsboro Trial
± In the trial black men were
accused of raping 2 white
women and were unfairly
sentenced
± The result of the
Scottsboro trial is largely
thought to be inspiration for
Lee¶s novel
‡ Literary Focus
± Published ‡ 1960

± Genre ‡ Social Protest; courtroom

drama

± Setting (PLACE) ‡ Maycomb, Alabama

± Slow and old-
fashioned; slightly
backwards; still has
very strong racist
elements
‡ Literary Focus
± Setting (TIME) ‡ 1933-1935
‡ Maycomb is struggling
mightily through the Great
Depression

± Point of View ‡ Scout Finch¶s 1st Person

Point of View
± Told from the Point of View
of Scout as an adult
reflecting back on her
childhood experiences and
growth
‡ Overview ‡ Scout Finch is the narrator of
the story and opens the novel
as an adult woman reflecting
back on key events in her
childhood.
‡ The novel covers a two-year
period during Scout¶s youth
and focuses on her maturation
from an innocent child to
someone who witnesses both
the good and evil of man¶s
nature
‡ She lives with her father,
Atticus, a widowed lawyer, and
her older brother, Jem
‡ Overview ‡ The novel is divided into
± Part I: The Reclusive Boo two primary sections:
Radley ± Part I: The focus is on the
Scout and Jem¶s
fascination with a reclusive
neighbor named Boo
Radley.
± Scout, Jem and a close
friend, Dill, develop a
strange relationship with
Boo over the course of the
novel

± Part II: The Trial of Tom
Robinson
± Part II: The focus is on the
trial of Tom Robinson, who
is accused of raping a
white woman. Scout¶s
father, Atticus, defends
Tom. The family must deal
with the racial
repercussions that follow.
‡ Themes and Conflicts ‡ Racism
‡ Unfair Judgment
‡ Social Structures
‡ Sympathy and
Understanding
‡ Moral Nature of Man
‡ Childhood Innocence
‡ Human Capacity for
Goodness versus Human
Capacity for Evil
‡ Moral Education versus
Academic Education
‡ Literary Focus
‡ Symbolize the innocence
± Symbols and kind nature of many
‡ Mockingbirds individuals
‡ ³Mockingbirds don¶t do one
thing but«sing their hearts
out for us. That¶s why it¶s a
sin to kill a mockingbird.´
‡ A large majority of the novel
focuses on the sin of
injuring those individuals
who who are innocent and
³mockingbirds.´
‡ Some of these
³mockingbirds´ include both
Boo Bradley and Tom
Robinson
‡ Characters ‡ Narrator and
± Scout Finch protagonist
‡ Intelligent and tough;
tomboy
‡ Loses some of her
innocence throughout
the novel and sees
that all men are not
necessarily good
‡ Atticus Finch ‡ Scout and Jem¶s
father
‡ Widowed
‡ Respected lawyer,
who has a strong
beliefs connect to
morality and justice
‡ Jem Finch ‡ Scout¶s brother
‡ 4 years older than
Scout and grows
away from her
imaginative games as
the novel progresses
‡ Guards Scout and is
protective of her
‡ Dill Harris ‡ Loosely based on the
famous writer Truman
Capote
‡ Summer friend to Jem
and Scout
‡ Confident and
imaginative
‡ Boo Radley ‡ Reclusive neighbor of
Jem and Scout
‡ Product of an abusive
childhood and family
‡ Symbolically a
³mockingbird´²an
innocent torn down by
the unkind acts of
others
‡ Tom Robinson ‡ A black man accused
of raping a white
woman

‡ Tom¶s generous
nature and
responsibility stand in
sharp contrast to the
lies and
irresponsibility of the
people who have
accused him of
breaking the law