Transcript Document

To Kill a Mockingbird
Understanding
the Historical
Context of the
Novel
The Roaring 20’s
• The new concept of
“credit”
• People were buying:
– Automobiles
– Appliances
– Clothes
• Fun times reigned
– Dancing
– Flappers
– Drinking
Why was this bad?
• Credit system
– People didn’t really have
the money they were
spending
• WWI
– The U.S. was a major
credit loaner to other
nations in need
– Many of these nations
could not pay us back
1929-1939
• Stock market
crash
• Didn’t realize
the effect it
would have
• No money to
replenish what
was borrowed
Many found being broke
humiliating.
• Herbert Hoover was
president at the start
• Philosophy: We’ll
make it!
• What He Did: Nothing
• The poor were looking
for help and no ideas
on how to correct or
help were coming
• Farmers were already feeling the effects
– Prices of crops went down
– Many farms foreclosed
• People could not afford luxuries
– Factories shut down
– Businesses went out
• Banks could not pay out money
• People could not pay their taxes
– Schools shut down due to lack of funds
• Many families became homeless and had
to live in shanties
Many waited in unemployment
lines hoping for a job.
People in cities would wait in line for
bread to bring to their family.
Some families were forced to relocate
because they had no money.
A drought in the South lead to
dust storms that destroyed crops.
“The Dust Bowl”
The South Was Buried
• Crops turned to dust=No food to
be sent out
• Homes buried
• Fields blown away
• South in state of emergency
• Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis
of the 20th century
Two Families During
the Depression
A Farm Foreclosure
Some families tried to make money by
selling useful crafts like baskets.
*FDR*
• When he was
inaugurated
unemployment had
increased by 7
million
• Poor sections (like
Harlem) had 50% of
the population
unemployed
• Instated the “New
Deal”-began to bring
the economy back
Major Historical Happenings...
• Jim Crow Laws
• Scottsboro
Trials
• Recovering
from the Great
Depression
• Racial Injustice
• Poor South
Jim Crow Laws
• After the American Civil War most
states in the South passed anti-African
American legislation. These became
known as Jim Crow laws.
• These laws included segregation in…
– Schools
-- Hospitals
– Theaters
-- Water fountains
– Restaurants
– Hotels
– Public transportation
– Some states forbid inter-racial marriages
• These laws were instituted in 1896 and
were not abolished until the late
1950’s (even then still not completely).
• 9 young AfricanAmerican men (1320) accused of
raping 2 white girls
in 1931
• Immediately
sentenced to death
• Trials went on for
nearly 15 years
before all the men
were dismissed
• Started on a train bound for
Memphis
• Several white men boarded and
picked a fight with the black men
• Whites were forced off train by the
12 black men. The white men
reported the the black men had
raped two white girls on the train to
authorities
• They were immediately arrested and
tried in front of an all-white jury.
The trials caused a huge uproar
amongst the black community.
• Wrote To Kill a
Mockingbird in 1960
• Based the story on her
life growing up in
Monroeville, Alabama—
the events of the 50s had
a major impact on Lee’s
life and was the
influence for the novel
• TKAM was the only
novel she ever wrote
• The character of
“Dill,” Scout and Jem’s
playmate in the novel
was based upon Lee’s
actual neighbor,
Truman Capote
• Capote is famous for
amongst other things,
In Cold Blood and
Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
• In 1962 the novel
was turned into a
film starring
Gregory Peck.
• It received a
humanitarian
award and several
Academy Award
nominations