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To Kill a Mockingbird. Setting. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during 1933–1935. These years place the events of the novel squarely within two important periods of American history: the Great Depression and the Jim Crow era. The Great Depression is reflected in the poverty that affects all of the residents of Maycomb.
- The Great Depression
The Great Depression - To Kill a Mockingbird: Setting -...
- The Civil Rights Era
The Civil Rights Era - To Kill a Mockingbird: Setting -...
- Symbols
The title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little literal...
- Full Book Summary
A short summary of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. This...
- Part One, Chapter 1
A summary of Part One, Chapter 1 in Harper Lee's To Kill...
- Related Links
The famous case was one of the inspirations for To Kill a...
- Allusions
Allusions - To Kill a Mockingbird: Setting - SparkNotes
- Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas...
- The Great Depression
281. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in July 1960 and became instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. To Kill a Mockingbird has become a classic of modern American literature; a year after its release, it won the Pulitzer Prize.
- Harper Lee
- 1960
- Overview
- Plot summary
To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression (1929–39). The story centres on Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, an unusually intelligent girl who ages from six to nine years old during the novel. She and her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”), are raised by their widowed father, Atticus Finch. Atticus is a well-known and respected lawyer. He teaches his children to be empathetic and just, always leading by example.
When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s Black residents, is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community. Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation of the evidence—that Mayella was attacked by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is convicted. He is later killed while trying to escape custody. The children, meanwhile, play out their own miniaturized drama. Scout and Jem become especially interested in the town recluse, Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, who interacts with them by leaving them small gifts in a tree. On Halloween, when Bob Ewell tries to attack Scout and Jem, Boo intervenes and saves them. Boo ultimately kills Ewell. The sheriff, however, decides to tell the community that Ewell’s death was an accident.
What inspired Harper Lee to write To Kill a Mockingbird?
It is widely believed that Harper Lee based the character of Atticus Finch on her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a compassionate and dedicated lawyer. The plot of To Kill a Mockingbird was reportedly inspired in part by his unsuccessful defense of two African American men—a father and a son—accused of murdering a white storekeeper. The fictional character of Charles Baker (“Dill”) Harris also has a real-life counterpart. Dill is based on the author Truman Capote, Lee’s childhood friend and next-door neighbour in Monroeville, Alabama. (After the spectacular success of To Kill a Mockingbird, some speculated that Capote was the actual author of Lee’s work. This rumour was not put to rest until 2006.) There is some anecdotal evidence that the town recluse, Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, was based on Lee and Capote’s childhood neighbour, Son Boulware. According to Capote, Boo “was a real man, and he lived just down the road from us.…Everything [Lee] wrote about it is absolutely true.”
How did people respond to To Kill a Mockingbird?
Harper Lee began writing To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s. It was published in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement. Initial critical responses to the novel were mixed. Many critics praised Lee for her sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice. Others, however, criticized the novel’s tendency to sermonize. Some reviewers argued that the narrative voice was unconvincing. The novel was nonetheless enormously popular with contemporary audiences. To Kill a Mockingbird flourished in the racially charged environment of the United States in the early 1960s. In its first year it sold about 500,000 copies. A year after the publication of the novel, Lee was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. The protagonist is Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, an intelligent though unconventional girl who ages from six to nine years old during the course of the novel. She is raised with her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”), by their widowed father, Atticus Finch. He is a prominent lawyer who encourages his children to be empathetic and just. He notably tells them that it is “a sin to kill a mockingbird,” alluding to the fact that the birds are innocent and harmless.
When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s Black residents, is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community. At one point he faces a mob intent on lynching his client but refuses to abandon him. Scout unwittingly diffuses the situation. Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation of the evidence—that Mayella was attacked by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is convicted, and he is later killed while trying to escape custody. A character compares his death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds,” paralleling Atticus’s saying about the mockingbird.
The children, meanwhile, play out their own miniaturized drama of prejudice and superstition as they become interested in Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, a reclusive neighbour who is a local legend. They have their own ideas about him and cannot resist the allure of trespassing on the Radley property. Their speculations thrive on the dehumanization perpetuated by their elders. Atticus, however, reprimands them and tries to encourage a more sensitive attitude. Boo makes his presence felt indirectly through a series of benevolent acts, finally intervening when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout. Boo kills Ewell, but Heck Tate, the sheriff, believes it is better to say that Ewell’s death occurred when he fell on his own knife, sparing the shy Boo from unwanted attention. Scout agrees, noting that to do otherwise would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”
Britannica Quiz
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb in the 1930s (Tom's trial takes place in 1935). Slavery and the Civil War of the 1860s still loom large in the rearview mirror, but the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s is just a wee little speck on the horizon. And Maycomb is going nowhere fast:
Nov 21, 2023 · Where Does "To Kill a Mockingbird" Take Place? "To Kill a Mockingbird" takes place in Maycomb, Alabama . Scout Finch, the main character, describes Maycomb as "an old town, but it was a tired old ...
- To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama. However, Maycomb is not a real town. Even though it is a fictitious town, the interactions betwee...
- The narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird describes Maycomb as being a quiet, sleepy town with very little interest on what is going on outside the cit...
- To Kill a Mockingbird takes places from 1933 to 1935. It takes places in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama.
- To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression and Jim Crow Era. The economic effects of the Great Depression are felt throughout th...
- The setting, or time and place, of To Kill a Mockingbird is important because it gives the actions of the characters better context.
Explanation and Analysis: To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Southern Alabama during the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression. Maycomb, Alabama, which is where the majority of the novel takes place, is a small, rural farming town fraught with period-typical racism. Multiple physical locations within the novel have important symbolic meaning.
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Setting refers to time and place. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Several quotes characterize this town as completely affected by the ...
