1. To Kill a Mockingbird Background Notes

2. Author
(Nelle) Harper Lee, born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926, has only this one novel to her credit, but it has been enough to earn her a Pulitzer Prize and a wide audience.
The character Atticus is apparently based on Lee’s father, who practiced law in Monroeville.
No doubt Lee chose the Charles Lamb epigraph to her novel, “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once,” as a nod to her upbringing.

3. Structure To Kill a Mockingbird is divided into two parts.
Part I deals with the children’s efforts to lure Boo Radley, the neighborhood recluse, into the light of day.
The events of Part II center on the trial of Tom Robinson for the rape of a white woman.

4. Setting and Atmosphere
In the early 1930’s, the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, shows the effects of the Great Depression: the general hard times require that the community draw on its values of compassion, generosity, and endurance.
The Southern caste structures ensure that these values will come into conflict with deep-seated prejudices.

5. Point of View
Scout tells the story of herself as she ages from six to eight in order to understand it for the first time.
A six-year-old narrator does not tell the story. Rather, the narrator is trying to record her world as it appeared to her when she was six years old.

6. It is a novel of personal development; it focuses on the growth and education of the young narrator, Scout Finch.
As Scout extends first her physical boundaries and later her emotional and moral boundaries, she learns the place of fear and courage in the adult world, the value of family and tradition, and the power of prejudice and social hypocrisy.
Characters

7. Jem also develops-but in a quieter, more reflective manner than Scout
Jem also develops-but in a quieter, more reflective manner than Scout. We see and admire his development through Scout’s eyes, as he learns about adult secrecy, about being a gentleman, and about the varieties of courage that surround him.
Characters

8. Atticus presides over all events in his rational version of wisdom, allowing the children their lessons as he fights his own losing battles in the public eye and serves both as Maycomb’s scapegoat and as its symbol of justice.
Characters

9. Theme Three major themes are represented in these materials:
Growing up- the children in To Kill A Mockingbird pass from innocence and isolation to the beginnings of their participation in a flawed society. In following this theme, we watch the process by which Scout and Jem develop an intellectual integrity and emotional maturity.
Theme

10. Prejudice- Class, racial, and sexual prejudices as deeply ingrained aspects of society are identified and discussed extensively.
Courage- To Kill A Mockingbird follows a gradual extension of the meaning of courage from physical courage to moral courage.
Theme

11. Motifs (reoccurring images or ideas)
Major motifs in To Kill A Mockingbird include:
the mockingbird, boundaries, education, point of view, battles and weapons, secrets and hypocrisies, superstitions and scare-stories and “when to worry.”

12. Style
The most apparent techniques Lee employs are an episodic plot structure, a dry humor, and a pattern of repetition that allows themes to emerge and to be reinforced.

13. The Critics’ View
The critical comments in the front pages of To Kill A Mockingbird reveal that reception of the novel in 1960 was enthusiastic.
Although accused by a few critics of inconsistency of narrator-voice, melodrama in the climax, or writing for Hollywood, most critics praised Lee’s simple, strong storytelling, authentic characters and dialogue, attack on important social issues, and humor.

14. Let The Adventure Begin!
To Kill A Mockingbird
Let The Adventure Begin!