Literature Exam: Different Cultures text – Section B

Lesson Objectives:1. To understand the requirements for the Literature

essay.2. To revise key characters, themes and contexts in the

novel.

Literature Exam

1 Hour 45 MinutesSection A - Literary Heritage – Animal FarmThis is an extract based, 4 part question.Section B – Different Cultures – To Kill A

MockingbirdThis is a essay question on themes, characters and

context.

Section B – Different cultures text

This question will focus on a theme/character.

You must know your novel well, particularly where to find quotes.

You must know your novel’s context and background links as well.

To Kill a MockingbirdEITHER19 In what ways are Bob and Mayella Ewell significant in the novel?

You must consider the context of the novel.Use evidence to support your answer.

(Total for Question 19 = 40 marks)OR20 Explore the presentation of Finch family life.

You must consider the context of the novel.Use evidence to support your answer.

(Total for Question 20 = 40 marks)

Example questions

Revision for Section BCharacter studyLook at the main characters from your novel.• Write a short summary about them.• Link them to themes and explain the link.• Write down their key moments in the novel.• Link them to context and explain the link.• Find key quotes.

1. Civil Rights MovementTo Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960 at the beginning of the black Civil Rights Movement. Although it was almost 100 years since slavery was abolished in America black people were still being treated as second class citizens.Blacks, who had fought for their country during the Second World War, were starting to demand more civil rights, such as their right to vote. The black Civil Rights Movement took on new strength and Alabama was an important centre in this movement.

2. American SlaveryBlack people were originally brought from Africa to America during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They were forcibly transported across the Atlantic in slave ships (in which many died) and sold as slaves to work on sugar and cotton plantations in the Caribbean and the southern states of north America. They had no rights and were seen by their white owners as little more than animals or machines.Even after the abolition of slavery in 1865, the blacks were still almost powerless. The whites had too much to lose to allow blacks any rights. Nothing was equal: blacks had the worst of everything while whites had the best.Such was the hatred of blacks by the whites - especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when money was tight for everyone - that it was common for blacks to be lynched or hanged by a mob well into the 20th century - so there was good reason for Atticus to sit outside the jail to protect Tom Robinson before his trial.

3. Segregation and InjusticeIn the 1930s, although 50% of the population of Southern towns were black, they had no vote and could not marry whites. The policy of segregation meant that blacks had to have their own schools, their own churches, their own football teams, even their own cemeteries.In the novel, Scout and Jem get into trouble with Aunt Alexandra for attending the blacks' church. The blacks file into the courthouse after the whites and have to sit up in the balcony, away from the whites.Ku Klux Klan vigilantesSome whites formed vigilante groups to intimidate and even murder blacks; and right up until the 1950s it was common for black men to be accused of assaulting white women on the basis of little or no evidence. Harper Lee may have based her novel in part on a case in Scottsboro, Alabama.

4. The Scottsboro CaseIn 1931 when Harper Lee was 5, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women on a train. After a series of bitter trials, four of the men were sentenced to long prison sentences - even though prominent lawyers argued that the accusations were false.It was later discovered that the women were lying.

5. The Great Depression

The 29 October 1929 was known as ‘Black Tuesday’ in America. The huge crash of the stock market brought and end to the prosperity that had characterized the United States throughout the 1920s, and signalled the start of the Great Depression.

Unemployment rose from around 3% in 1929 to over 26% by 1934. Many of the poorest members of US society suffered badly, and at one point it was estimated that 34 million men, women and children had no income at all. Many people were evicted from their homes and ended up living in shanty towns.

6. Harper LeeThe story of To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the 1930s in a small town in Alabama in the southern United States - much like the town where the author Harper Lee herself grew up. To understand what the book is saying about racism, you need to know something of the history of race relations in the southern USA.“People are people anywhere you put them,” she declared in a 1961 interview. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it, with revisions, in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement.

Characters

Character: Tom Robinson

Tom is a simple an honest man who tries to be polite and do the right thing. He is the victim of a false accusation which ruins his life an leads to his death.

Themes: Tom Robinson

Racism/Prejudice – He is victimised because of his race and treated differently.

Justice – He isn’t given a fair trial.

Key moments:

1. The court Jail – Scared by the mob.

2. The courtroom giving evidence, comes across as nervous, reveals he has a lame left arm, shocks people by saying he pitied Mayella.

Context or background links

1. Segregation and Injustice –He doesn’t receive a fair trial.

2. Scottsboro case – Tom’s trial is very similar.

3. Civil Rights movement – Represents the lack of civil rights black people had at this time.

Key quotes: "I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], but they did

it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep."-Atticus talking to Jem (225)

“The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.”

Chapter 23

Context/ The backdrop of the novel

1930 – Maycombe. All the characters and the things that affect them

1930 – Real life(Scottsboro case)

Harper Lee as a 5 yr old witnessing injustice

1960 – Civil rights movement. When the novel was written; a backdrop of segregation and violence

Theme How is it linked to the novel?

Can it be linked to the novel’s context?

Quotation

Childhood Scout’s Perspective, Jem growing up, myths, school, friendship, games.

Harper Lee – She is scout.

Chp 1 Boo radley game Chp 2 first day of school. Scout stopping the mob chp 15

Poverty and social class

Racism/Prejudice

Justice

Good vs. Evil

Education

1. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. 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.” Chp 11

2. “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat gardens or nest in corncribs they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us that's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird"

3. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

4. “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box…” Chp 23

5. “Jem’s nose wrinkled. “Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?”“Not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit themhardest.”Atticus said professional people were poor because the farmers were poor. As Maycomb County was farm country, nickels and dimes were hard to come by for doctors and dentists and lawyers. Entailment was only a part of Mr. Cunningham’s vexations. Chp 2”

6. “The old house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street wethought we saw an inside shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible movement,and the house was still. “Chp 1

For each quote answer the following;

1. Who said it?

2. What or who is it about?

3. What theme(s) can it be linked to?

4. What context info can it be linked to?

5. What are the key words and why?

Extension

Turn one of the quotes into a Point, Evidence, Explain paragraph.

Paragraph structure

1st sentence: Theme or Character:The theme of education is very prominent in To kill a Mockingbird.2nd sentence: Theme or Character:One example is the moral education the character of Scout receives.3rd sentence: Quote:“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point

of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”4th/ 5th Sentence: Key words in the quote:This quote emphasises the idea that Scout is starting to see the world from

other people’s perspectives. The idea that she would ‘climb’ into someone to experience their lives shows she is learning about the world around her.

6th Sentence: Link to Context:This idea of a moral education links to the education Harper Lee received as a

girl growing up in the thirties. Unlike the community around her, Harper Lee learnt to empathise with people who were different to her.

• The theme of education is very prominent in To kill a Mockingbird. One example is the moral education the character of Scout receives. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” This quote emphasises the idea that Scout is starting to see the world from other people’s perspectives. The idea that she would ‘climb’ into someone to experience their lives shows she is learning about the world around her. This idea of a moral education links to the education Harper Lee received as a girl growing up in the thirties. Unlike the community around her, Harper Lee learnt to empathise with people who were different to her.

1. Write about Scout’s education in To Kill a Mockingbird.Write about:• what she learns from different people and events• how the writer shows Scout’s education.

2. Write about the ways that Lee shows the significance of the title To Kill a Mockingbird.

3. What is the importance of Boo Radley in the novel? How does Harper Lee show his importance?

Write about:• The ways that Harper Lee presents Boo Radley in the novel• The ways that Harper Lee uses Boo in the novel.

4. How does Harper Lee convey attitudes to race in To Kill a Mockingbird ?

5. How does Lee present the events of the trial and what do you think is the importance of the trial in To Kill a Mockingbird?Tomorrow in Miss Angel’s lesson you will have a timed essay on one of these questions.

Today we’re going to do essay plans for at least one question then you’re going to pick one to answer.

Your Essay Plan

Theme Character ContextCharacter Theme Context

For Example “Scout’s Education” means you have to talk about all the things Scout learns, which will cover a number of themes and contexts.

Whereas the “significance of the title To Kill a Mockingbird” question needs to be linked to characters and themes, then context.