OUGD406
Book Analysis
To Kill a Mockingbird
About the author;
Nelle Harper Lee
was born in Monroeville, Alabama, in 1926. Like Jem and Scout, her father was a
lawyer. She studied at the University of Alabama and worked in New York. There
she began work on To Kill a Mockingbird,
in the mid 1950s. It was completed in 1957 and published in 1960 - just before
the black civil rights movement in America really took.
The novel won the Pulitzer Prize, America's top literary award, in 1961. It was adapted for the stage and was
also made into a successful film. Yet Harper Lee did not write any more novels.
She returned to Monroeville. She dies on 19th February 2016.
The story of To Kill a
Mockingbird takes place during the 1930s in a small town
in Alabama in the southern United States
American
Slavery
Black
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.
Segregation
and injustice
In 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.
Some
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.
The Scottocboro
Case
· In 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.
The novel is about
three years in the life of the Finch family: Atticus and his son Jem and
daughter Scout. Atticus is a lawyer and the central incident of the novel is
when he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, against the charge of raping a white
girl.
Jem (aged 10) and
Scout (aged 6) meet Dill (aged 7), who has come to stay with his aunt in
Maycomb during the summer vacation. Dill becomes interested in 'Boo' Radley, a
recluse who lives next door to the Finches and whom they have never seen. A myth has grown up locally about Boo and the
children are scared of him. It is Dill's idea to make Boo come out.
After that
vacation, Scout starts school. Since she can already read and write, yet is
told she is doing them wrongly by her inexperienced young teacher, she takes an
immediate dislike to school. She gets into trouble when she tries to explain to
her teacher why Walter Cunningham, from a very poor family, cannot borrow money
for lunch as he will not be able to pay it back. Jem invites Walter to lunch
with them.
Jem and Scout find
gifts, apparently left for them, in the knothole of a tree on the edge of the
Radleys' property.
The following
summer, Dill returns for the vacation. Jem accidentally pushes Scout in an old
car tyre right into the Radleys' yard, which terrifies her. The three children
act out spooky stories about Boo and Jem tries to deliver a note to Boo on the
end of a fishing pole. Atticus stops them and tries to make them more
considerate by thinking of things from another person's point of view.
However, on the
last day of the holidays, the three sneak onto the Radleys' property at night.
Nathen, Boo's older brother, shoots at them; as they make their escape, Jem
loses his trousers. When he goes back for them, he finds them neatly mended and
hung over the fence, as if waiting for him.
That autumn, Scout
and Jem find more presents in the knothole, including a watch, a spelling medal
and two figures of the children carved from soap. They realise the gifts must
be from Boo. Just when they are about to deliver a note of thanks, Nathan
cements the hole up.
One very cold night
there is a fire at their neighbour's, Miss Maudie. As Jem and Scout stand
shivering outside, someone puts a blanket over Scout. Jem is convinced that Boo
did it and tells Atticus about the presents and his mended trousers.
Atticus takes on
the defence of Tom Robinson, a Negro. Scout is taunted about this by various
children, including her cousin Francis at a family Christmas gathering - he
calls Atticus a 'nigger lover'. Jem and Scout's admiration for their father
rises enormously, though, when he shoots a dangerous mad dog with one shot.
When old Mrs Dubose
also insults the children because of Atticus' involvement in Tom Robinson's
case, Jem is so furious that he beheads every camellia in her yard. As a
punishment, Jem has to read to her every night for a month. When she dies,
Atticus explains to the children that she was a morphine addict who was trying
to break the habit and succeeded just before her death, and that rather than
hate her they should admire her courage.
While Atticus is
away on business, Calpurnia - the Finches' Negro cook - takes Jem and Scout to
the black church. The community there honour the children's presence out of
gratitude for all that Atticus is doing for Tom.
Aunt Alexandra -
Atticus' sister - arrives to stay with the family, believing that Jem and Scout
(particularly Scout!) need a mother figure (their own mother died when Scout
was two). There is a row when it is discovered that the children went to the
black church and Aunt Alexandra forbids Scout from visiting Calpurnia's house.
Dill arrives in the
middle of the night, having run away from his new stepfather.
A
deputation of local men tries to persuade Atticus not to take Tom's case, but
he refuses. The night before his trial, Tom is brought to Maycomb jail and
Atticus plans to sit outside during the night. Jem, Scout and Dill sneak out to
check he is all right. A gang arrives to lynch Tom, but when the children
burst into the ring of men and Scout, recognising one of the men as Mr
Cunningham, asks him politely about Walter, the tension is diffused and the mob
disperses.
Town gossip
continues after the trial. Mr Ewell spits at Atticus: although he 'won', he
knows that he has been badly shown up by Atticus and wants to get him back. Jem
and Scout are anxious that Mr Ewell will harm their father, but Atticus
reassures them.
Jem has been badly
shaken by the result of the trial and has difficulty in making sense of things.
Aunt Alexandra
presides over a Missionary Society tea. Scout has to be there, wearing a dress
and acting like a lady. Atticus comes with the news that Tom Robinson has been
shot dead by guards when trying to escape from prison and takes Calpurnia to
help him break the news to Tom's widow.
Back at school,
Scout learns about Hitler's treatment of the Jews and is amazed that no one in
Maycomb seems able to connect that to the racism in the town.
Mr Ewell tries to
break into Judge Taylor's house and menaces Tom Robinson's widow.
Jem and Scout
attend a Halloween pageant at school - its subject is the history of Maycomb
county and Scout is dressed as a shoulder of ham. She misses her entry on stage
and so decides to keep her costume on to walk home in, to hide her
embarrassment. It is a dark night and Jem soon realises they are being
followed. They are both attacked - Scout is squashed inside her costume and Jem
breaks his arm. Someone carries Jem home.
The attacker was Mr
Ewell: he is found dead, with a kitchen knife in his ribs.
While Jem is still
unconscious after the attack, Scout tells her story. It dawns on her slowly
that the person who rescued them - and who has stood shyly in the corner of the
room throughout her explanation - is Boo Radley.
Unusually for him,
Atticus takes a while to realise exactly what had happened during the attack:
he initially believed that Jem had stabbed Mr Ewell (and would therefore have
to face the consequences), but Heck Tate knows it was Boo who killed him. They
agree to put out the story that Mr Ewell died by falling on his own knife, to
protect Boo.
Scout leads Boo
back home. She never sees him again. Yet, standing finally outside the window
where Boo always sits, she puts herself in his shoes and understands what life
must be like for him.
Adjectives
Relevant
Emotive
Honest
Moral
Powerful
Courageous
Tender
Passionate
Resonant
Innocent
Atticus
would now be defending issues that Harper Lee did not
consider when writing the book, such as gay and lesbian rights, because what is
at the heart of his character is an acceptance of who people are. That is a
moral standpoint that you can hold whoever you are or wherever you are born
No comments:
Post a Comment