صورة إلضافة األيقونة فوق انقر
Done By:
Amany Jouda Walla Abdel-Rahman
Submitted To:Dr. Ayman El-Hallaq
To Kill A Mockingbird
IUG, Second Semester, 2012
2032008197220420081489
Key literary facts Author Title Background Information Characters & Plot structure Setting Themes Symbols
Outline
Author: Harper Lee
Type of work: Novel
Genre: Coming-of-age story; social drama;
courtroom drama; Southern drama
Narrator: Scout narrates the story herself,
looking back in retrospect an unspecified number
of years after the events of the novel take place.
Tone: Childlike, nostalgic; as the novel progresses,
increasingly dark, and critical of society
Key literary facts
An American novelist
Born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, US
Father was prominent lawyer
Studied law at the University of Alabama
The author of one novel, but it was a novel
that had an extraordinary impact on
American society: “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Harper lee
Her Writings:
1. “To Kill a Mockingbird”, her only novel
2. “Love--In Other Words”, a short essay
3. “Christmas to Me”, an essay
4. “When Children Discover America”, an essay
5. “Romance and High Adventure”, a paper
6. “Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey”
Cont’d… Harper lee
Despite being Lee's only published book, TKMB led
to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom of the United States for her contribution to
literature by President George W. Bush at the White
House in 2007.
Cont’d… Harper lee
The title of To Kill a Mockingbird refers to the
local belief, introduced early in the novel and
referred to again later, that it is a sin to kill a
mockingbird. Harper Lee is subtly implying that
the townspeople are responsible for killing Tom
Robinson, and that doing so was not only unjust
and immoral, but sinful.
Title
صورة إلضافة األيقونة فوق انقرMockingbird: an American bird that copies the songs of other birds.
First person
Story is told by Scout, a six-year-old girl
Harper Lee is actually a woman; Scout
represents the author as a little girl although
the story is not strictly autobiographical
Point of View
The story’s narrator
Although now an adult,
Scout looks back at her
childhood and tells of the
momentous events and
influential people of
those years.
Scout is six when the
story begins.
Jean Louis Finch-”Scout”
Although the novel wasn't supposed to be an
autobiography, the time period and some events seem
to match the novel.
Harper Lee seems to act a lot like the character in her
novel Scout.
TKMB is semi-autobiographical for a number of reasons:
1. Lee grew up in Alabama
2. Father was prominent lawyer
3. In the 1930's Harper Lee would be around the age of
five and Scout was about the same age.
Is TKMB an Autobiography??
TKMB includes several
references to historical
events.
Understanding the times
helps to understand the
novel
Background Information
Hitler, chancellor of Germany,
believes that Jews, African
Americans, and other races are
inferior to Anglo-Saxons.
Life During the 1930s
Legal Segregation in Alabama1923-1940
No white female nurses in
hospitals that treat black
men
No interracial marriages
Separate waiting rooms for
whites and blacks
Segregated theatres
Cont’d … Racial Discrimination
Separate schools
Cont’d … Racial Discrimination
Segregated water fountains
A cafe near the tobacco market. (Signs: Separate doors for "White" and for "Colored.“) North Carolina, 1940
Setting
Maycomb, Alabama(fictional city)
1933-1935
Characters&
Plot Summary
TKMB is a novel about growing up under extraordinary
circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United
States. The story covers a span of three years, during
which the main characters undergo significant changes.
TKMB deals with the issues of racism that were
observed by the author as a child in her hometown of
Monroeville, Alabama.
The novel tells the story of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a
small southern town whose family is ostracized when
he defends a black man accused of raping a white
woman.
Summary
Atticus Finch
Scout(Jean
Louise)Finch
Boo Radley
Bob Ewell
Tom Robinson
kill
s
vow
s re
venge o
n
Att
icus
Father
Jem Fincholder brother
younger sister
defe
nd
s To
m in
cou
rtaccuses him of rape Mayella
Ewelld
ep
en
ds
on
his
defe
nse
an
d
pro
tect
ion
saves from Bob’s
attackbreaks Jem
’s
armatt
em
pts
to k
ill
esc
ort
s hom
e a
fter
savin
g Jem
’s life
his daughter
صورة إلضافة األيقونة فوق انقر
Good vs. Evil Moral Education Social Inequality Prejudice Fear of the Unknown Bravery Trust Truth Femininity
Themes
Moral reasoning by Atticus Finch
Acts of “Boo” Radley
Acts of the Ewell family: deception, harassment,
lies and violence
Good vs. Evil
The novel approaches this question by dramatizing
Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of
childhood innocence, in which they assume that
people are good because they have never seen evil,
to a more adult perspective, in which they have
confronted evil and must incorporate it into their
understanding of the world.
people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are
not prepared for the evil that they encounter, and,
as a result, they are destroyed.
Cont’d… Good vs. Evil
Even Jem is victimized to an extent by his discovery
of the evil of racism during and after the trial.
Atticus Finch, who is virtually unique in the novel in
that he has experienced and understood evil without
losing his faith in the human capacity for goodness.
Scout at last sees Boo Radley as a human being. Her
newfound ability to view the world from his
perspective ensures that she will not become jaded
as she loses her innocence.
Cont’d… Good vs. Evil
The treatment of Tom Robinson
Division between blacks and whites during time
period
Treatment of whites who defend blacks
Social Inequality, Racism &Discrimination
The education of children is necessarily involved in
the development of all of the novel’s themes—how
they are taught to move from innocence to
adulthood.
Scout's real education occurs outside of school.
This theme is explored most powerfully through the
relationship between Atticus and his children, as he
devotes himself to instilling a social conscience in
Jem and Scout.
Moral Education
The novel’s conclusion about education is that the
most important lessons are those of sympathy and
understanding, and that a sympathetic,
understanding approach is the best way to teach
these lessons. In this way, Atticus’s ability to put
himself in his children’s shoes makes him an
excellent teacher, while Miss Caroline’s rigid
commitment to the educational techniques that she
learned in college makes her ineffective and even
dangerous.
Cont’d… Moral Education
Scout's world is a safe place — her greatest fears
are largely products of her own imagination. So even
though she is terrified to pass by the Radley house,
she takes the gum she finds in their tree.
As Scout moves from innocence to maturity — part
of a coming-of-age story — she will learn that she
can't always trust those things that appear safe.
Trust
Scout & Jem face harsh criticism from their
peers and they’re called “nigger lovers”
because Atticus, their father, chooses to defend
an innocent man.
Ewell Family is a victim of social prjudice.
Everyone assumes that they’re called “no
good”.
Prejudice
Mockingbirds
Boo Radley
Symbols
The title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little
literal connection to the plot, but it carries a
great deal of symbolic weight in the book.
In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the
“mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of
innocence. It symbolizes everything that is
Good and Harmless in this world. Thus, to kill a
mockingbird is to destroy innocence..
Mockingbirds
Two characters in the novel can be identified as
mockingbirds: Tom Robinson & Boo Radley—
innocents who have been injured or destroyed
through contact with evil.
Cont’d… Symbols… Mockingbirds
As the novel progresses, the children’s
changing attitude toward Boo Radley is an
important measurement of their development
from innocence toward a grown-up moral
perspective. At the beginning of the book, Boo
is a source of childhood superstition. As he
leaves Jem and Scout presents and mends
Jem’s pants, he gradually becomes increasingly
and intriguingly real to them.
Boo Radley
At the end of the novel, he becomes fully
human to Scout. Boo, an intelligent child ruined
by a cruel father, is one of the book’s most
important mockingbirds; he is also an important
symbol of the good that exists within people.
Despite the pain that Boo has suffered, the
purity of his heart rules his interaction with the
children. In saving Jem and Scout from Bob
Ewell, Boo proves the ultimate symbol of good.
Cont’d… Symbols… Boo Radley
"Mockingbirds don't do one
thing but make music for us to
enjoy. They don't eat up
people's gardens, they don't
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."
Finally …
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