Study task 1: Book analysis

Setting: 1933–1935

Who is the author and what interesting information can you find out about them?

Harper Lee:
Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, a town similar to Maycomb in many ways. Lee's father was a lawyer, just like Scout's father Atticus. Dill is based off of Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote, who later became a novelist and essayist.

What is the main idea(s) explored in the book?

COEXISTENCE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The book approaches the exploration of whether people are essentially good or essentially evil, by dramatising Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence to adulthood perspective once they have experienced evil. This must be incorporated into their understanding of the world.

Atticus Finch proves to be the moral voice of the book as he understands that people have good and bad qualities.

IMPORTANCE OF MORAL EDUCATION

The novels 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. Atticus’ ability to put himself in his children’s shoes makes him an excellent teacher.

EXISTENCE OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Differences in social status are explored largely through the overcomplicated social hierarchy of Maycomb children’s perplexity at the unpleasant layering if Maycomb society to critique the role of class status and ultimately, prejudice in human interaction.

What are the recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes (motifs)?

GOTHIC DETAILS

Lee adds drama and atmosphere to her story by including a number of Gothic details in the setting and the plot. In literature, the term Gothic refers to the featuring of supernatural occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons, and so on.

- unnatural snowfall

- the fire that destroys Miss Maudie’s house

- the children’s superstitions about Boo Radley

- the mad dog that Atticus shoots

- when Bob Ewell attacks the children on the night of the Halloween party

SMALL-TOWN LIFE

To contrast all of the suspense and moral grandeur, the slow-paced, good-natured feel of life in Maycomb is emphasised. Small-town values are often juxtaposed with Gothic images in order to examine the forces of good and evil.

What is the main thrust of the narrative? What are the key events and scenes?
- Scout and Jem Finch live with their widowed father, Atticus, who is a lawyer. 

- It is set in a small town called Maycomb, in Alabama

- It is set in 1935, showing the effects of the Great Depression

- The children make friends with a little boy called Dill

- They play lots of games and begin to investigate the mystery of Boo Radley

- Scout starts school

- The children find objects in a tree placed there by Boo Radley
- The children try to sneak into the Radley property, but they get shot at by Nathan Radley

- Jem looses his trousers when trying to escape

- When he returns to find them, they are mended and on the fence. We can assume that it was Boo Radley who did this

- During a house fire, someone places a blanket on Scout, we can assume it was Boo

- Atticus is defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. 

- Aunt Alexandria moves in with the family and is much more strict than Atticus

- Dill runs away to live with the Finches

- Tom Robinson is moved to the local jail

- At the trial, the children sneak into the 'coloured balcony'
- Tom Robinson tries to escape over the fence, but is shot to death

- Bob Ewell vows revenge
- Bob attacks Jem and Scout, but the children get away with the help of Boo Radley

- It is unclear as to who stabbed Bob Ewell and killed him, but we can assume either Jem or Boo

- Scout walks Boo home and standing on his doorstep she is able to look across the street and get a true perspective of life from his point of view

What is the context (socio-historical, cultural, established school of thought/paradigm) that the book was written in?
Alabama is a Southern state of America, still using 'Jim Crow' laws. These laws added to the oppression of black people as they were stopped from using a lot of the same facilities as white people. Many white people feared that the integration of black people into society would improve their position and that they would start to have children with white people, so inter-racial marriage was outlawed to prevent this.  

Harper Lee may have drawn inspiration from the Scottsboro Trials (1931), to influence her book. The trails were of two white women who had accused nine black men of raping them on freight train, whilst travelling from Tennessee to Alabama. There was no evidence of the black men raping the white women, but it was the words of whites against black and the inequality between the two lead to the whites being seen as correct. 8/9  men were convicted to death, even when one of the women removed her testimony.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was at the time when this book would have first been read, meaning the black people were campaigning against the injustices the faced. The context f the book's release is important because by having the story through the innocent eyes of Scout, highlights these differences between the races and how stupid the white actions towards the blacks actually were. 

What is the genre?

-       Coming-of-age story

-       social drama

-       courtroom drama

-       Southern drama