To Kill a Mockingbird

Setting of TKM

Understanding Jim Crow

Origins of Lynching Culture in the US

A note on the N-word

Depicting racism through dialogue

The novel is set in the 1930s but was written in the late 1950s (published in 1960). The dialogue is marked by frequent use of the word "nigger". This is a convenient way to indicate to the reader the racist attitudes of various characters. When she wishes to refer to African-Americans, Harper Lee uses the term "coloured". It is not only racist whites who say this, however - at First Purchase church, Calpurnia addresses Lula as “nigger”.

Since the novel was published, attitudes have changed in the USA and the UK about what is acceptable to speak and write. In the trial of O.J. Simpson, the word "nigger" was considered too offensive to repeat in court, and was described as the "N-word".

In your writing about To Kill a Mockingbird, you may need at some points to quote others, for example those who call Atticus a "nigger-lover". Use quotation marks to show that it is someone else's words that you are writing.

“Black nigger” and “white nigger”

Curiously the novel contains both of these phrases. Most speakers (racist or not) would assume that "nigger", as well as expressing racial hatred or prejudice, identified someone as black. Yet Bob Ewell manages to show the extremity of his hate as well (arguably) as his own lack of intelligence when he says, of Tom Robinson, "I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella" (Chapter 17). This causes uproar in the court for five minutes, after which Judge Taylor instructs Bob Ewell to keep his testimony "within the confines of Christian English usage, if that is possible". The qualification ("if that is possible") is an implied criticism of Bob Ewell's impoverished vocabulary. It is not always true that people who swear or use racist language do so because they are not able to express themselves in other ways, but in Bob Ewell's case it may be true. For the reader, this phrase "black nigger" may be shocking, but necessary to show that in a town of racists, Bob Ewell goes even further than the worst of all the others.

The "white nigger" is Jem. Mr. Nathan Radley (Chapter 6) is not, like Bob Ewell, giving vent to his hatred, but rather showing his prejudice in stereotyping all intruders as black people. He clearly knows that Jem has been in his garden, and he has fired over his head to scare him off. He relies on Miss Stephanie, the Maycomb gossip, to pass on his message that he "scared him pale" and if anyone "sees a white nigger around, that's the one".

Harper Lee leaves the question open as to which is worse - the cool institutional racism of Maycomb, which Nathan Radley typifies, or the extreme emotional racism of individuals like Bob Ewell. The novel challenges both of these attitudes, but it is really the ordinary people of Maycomb who seal Tom Robinson's fate. Bob Ewell does their dirty work for them, but is mistaken in thinking that he will gain any personal standing from it: "He thought he'd be a hero but all he got for his pain was...okay, we''ll convict this Negro but get back to your dump" says Atticus.

Concept of Code-Switching

When Scout and Jem accompany Calpurnia to church, one part of the experience that especially surprises them is the discovery that the language, vocabulary, and tone Calpurnia uses to speak to other African Americans are different from what she uses when she speaks to white people. This phenomenon is called code-switching, and everyone does it in his/her life.

Think about when, how, and why you use code-switching.

Reflect on the following prompt in your journals:

• How do you use code-switching? Describe an example of how your language is different when you address different people or groups of people.

•Why does your language change? Are you conscious or unconscious of the change?

•Journalist Gene Demby concludes, “When you’re attuned to the phenomenon of code-switching, you start to see it everywhere, and you begin to see the way race, ethnicity, and culture plays out all over the place.”

•Look for other, perhaps more subtle, examples of code-switching in To Kill a Mockingbird. What do these examples tell us about the divisions in Maycomb bound by race, gender, class, and even age?

Adapted from:

https://www.facinghistory.org/sites/default/files/publications/Teaching_Mockingbird.pdf

Judge Learned Hand’s Quotation on the Nature of Liberty

The following quotation is from a 1944 speech by Judge Learned Hand, a federal judge and one of the most significant American legal thinkers of the twentieth century:

I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

What is the meaning of Hand’s statement. To what extent does the Tom Robinson trial and its verdict illustrate Hand’s belief? What do you think is a more powerful force in society: the law or the hearts and mind of citizens?

The Bible at 2 Corinthians 3:6 reminders of what we as imperfect humans need to be thinking when we look at other human error/mistakes.

An outline of the novel

Use the table below to learn the structure of the novel - this shows you the main events in each chapter.