To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1960

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapters 21-24

Chapters 25-28

Chapters 29-31

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Background

Socio-historical context

The events of To Kill a Mockingbird span from 1933 to 1935, encompassing two notable eras of American history: the Great Depression, and the post-Civil War era in which Jim Crow laws marginalized African Americans. Although the novel’s setting of Maycomb, Alabama, is fictional, it’s typical of a small town in the 1930s American South. Lee’s depiction of the town hints at economic struggles and the effects of The Great Depression. She emphasizes the poverty of country folk, like the Cunninghams and Ewells, in contrast with the relative comfort of the townsfolk. Lee also acknowledges the effects of The Great Depression in her characters’ dialogue; for example, after receiving gifts of food from the Black community, Atticus comments that “Times are too hard” (213).

The historical backdrop of the Jim Crow era also features prominently in the novel’s themes. Although Lee set the novel in the 1930s, she published it in 1960. Despite the 30-year gap, Jim Crow laws still segregated the South while Lee was writing the novel. Scout’s criticism of the town’s attitude towards the black community expresses Lee’s own criticism of the segregation laws and prejudice that typified the South. Lee uses the justice system as a backdrop to showcase the unequal and unfair treatment of African-Americans, and she depicts segregation in the courthouse and in churches.

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Through the eyes of a child, Lee showcases the hypocrisy present in the worldview of many Southerners during this era. Scout struggles to understand how her third-grade teacher, Miss Gates, can condemn Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, yet “be ugly about folks right at home” (247). Lee’s criticism of the prejudicial South extends beyond a critique of racism to highlight the view that all people should be valued and treated fairly simply because they are human; human kindness should extend across race, class, religion, and any other societal construct that creates separation or prejudice. Lee’s portrayal of American history provides a critique of society that was relevant during the era she depicts, during the time she was writing, and that still remains relevant today.

Authorial context

Nelle Harper Lee was a private person, and she declined most invitations for public appearances throughout her life. Readers perhaps learn the most about Lee through To Kill a Mockingbird, which showcases the Southern culture she grew up in and the principles she valued most. Much of Lee’s childhood seems to have inspired the setting, characters, and plot events of To Kill a Mockingbird. She grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, a small southern town that likely contributed to her depiction of the fictional Maycomb County (and where courtroom scenes from the movie were later filmed). Born in 1926, Lee was nine years old in 1935, the same age as Scout during Tom Robinson’s trial. Similar to Atticus, Lee’s father was on the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938 and practiced law. He once defended two black men accused of killing a white storekeeper, mirroring the Robinson trial from the novel.

In 1931, when Lee was six years old, a widely publicized court case involved nine African American teenagers who were accused of raping two white women. The Scottsboro Boys case, as it was called, typified the inequality present in the American justice system at the time and may have contributed to Lee’s understanding of racism in southern culture.

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Dill’s character is widely accepted as modeled after Lee’s childhood friend, Truman Capote, who visited Monroeville each summer as a boy. Capote became a novelist well known for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, the latter to which Lee contributed.

While To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) was Lee’s only published work for most of her life, she published Go Set a Watchman in 2015, a year before her death. Some controversy and confusion surrounded the release of this second novel, as it was originally marketed as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, but it was later determined to be a first draft of Lee’s award-winning novel. Furthermore, people questioned whether Lee genuinely agreed to publish Go Set a Watchman, or if people took advantage of her age (89 years at the time) to convince her to release the manuscript. In this early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, a grown-up Scout returns home to Maycomb after living in New York, and she sees Atticus as a principled and just “watchman” in her prejudiced hometown.