To%20Kill%20a%20Mockingbird%20Themes

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To Kill a MockingbirdThemes

• By Harper Lee

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Preview of the Novel

• The setting
• The Great Depression
• The characters
• Conflicts
• Prejudice
• Social Hierarchy

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The Great Depression
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1930s - 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, were forced to
  live off the land.

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Bank Failures
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Prejudice in Maycomb County, Alabama, 1930s
Now gentlemen, in this country our courts are
the great levelers, and in our courts all men are
created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly
in the integrity of our courts and of our jury
system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living,
working reality. -Atticus to the jury
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You never really know a man until you crawl into
his skin and walk around for awhile.--Atticus
Finch

• Atticus Finch
• Jeremy (Jem) Finch
• Jean Louise (Scout)
• Charles Baker Harris (Dill)
• Aunt Alexandra

• Boo Radley
• Tom Robinson
• Robert E. Lee Ewell
• Mayella Ewell
• Calpurnia

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The Narrator

• Jean Louise Finch
• (Scout)
• Tomboy
• Narrator switches perspectives from a six
  year-old girl to one with the wisdom of an adult
  looking back.

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Scout, yer starting to act like a girl!

• Gender bias
• Racial prejudice
• Economic prejudice
• Social Hierarchy
• Religious Prejudice

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Social Hierarchy in Maycomb 1933

• Aristocrats - White upper class
• White middle class
• White lower class
• White trash
• Negroes

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Aristocrats -White upper class

• Educated
• Legitimate claim to Old South plantation
  families.
• Wealth
• Aunt Alexandra

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• White middle Class
• White
• Some education
• Property owners
• Miss Maudie

• White Lower Class
• White
• Little or no education
• Sharecroppers/ Farmers
• Walter Cunningham

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• Poor White Trash
• Refuse education
• Often alcoholic
• Few or no work skills
• No work ethic
• Same opportunities as other white classes

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Negroes

• Lowest on the social hierarchy
• Education prohibited
• Placed here only because of race

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Prejudice in the novel

• Race
• Gender
• Handicaps
• Rich/Poor
• Age
• Religion

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Courage
-Its not a man with a gun in his hand. Its
when you know youre licked before you begin, but
you begin anyway and you see it through, no
matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you
do. -Atticus Finch
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Mrs. Henry Lafayette DuboseShe was the meanest
lady I ever met. Jem

• Supposedly holds a Confederate pistol under her
  shawl.
• Yells insults and false accusations at the
  children walking by her house.
• Ignites Jems slow-burning fuse by insulting his
  dead mother.

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Mrs. Henry Lafayette DuboseShe was the bravest
person I ever knew. Atticus

• She was sick for a long timeprobably cancer.
• Pain-ridden -Took morphine for years prescribed
  by a doctor, acceptable use.
• Morphine affected her disposition, made her more
  contrary(mean) than normal.
• Wanted to rid herself of her addiction before
  dying. The reading time prolonged her fits.
• Died with pain, but overcame morphine addiction

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If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, youll
get along a lot better with all kinds of
folks.You never really understand a person until
you consider things from his point of viewuntil
you crawl into his skin and walk around in it.