To Kill a Mockingbird Notes

TKAM Background

-Nelle Harper Lee born April 28, 1926

-Much like Scout's childhood

-father was a lawyer

-friends with Truman Capote who inspired Dill

-witnessed racial prejudice-Scottsboro Case

-Older sister not older brother

-Studied law of University of Alabama and Oxford

-decided she wanted to write and moved to New York City

-Finished initial draft of TKAM in 1957 and was turned down

-spent 2.5 years revising

-published in 1960

-Critics and readers loved it

-Movie true to book 

-1961 Pulitzer Prize

-Never published another book (To Set a Watchmen)

-When you have a hit like that you can't go anywhere but down

-Lived a private life in Monroeville, AL

-Narrator: Scout Finch (intelligent, tomboy, 6 years old)

-Setting 1933-1935 fictional town of Maycomb, AL

-Great Depression

-Prejudice and racism

-Jim Crow law

-Treatment of girls and women

-Title-TKAM

-The call or song imitates other sounds

-portrayed as innocent and generous in book

-sin to kill a mockingbird

-popular lullaby