Transcript Southern Dialect

Southern Dialect
To Kill A Mockingbird
Harper Lee
Born April 28, 1926
About the author
• Grew up in Monroeville, Alabama
• Her father, a lawyer and state legislator, was a descendant of General Robert
E Lee
• Lee was an avid reader and from a young age wanted to become a writer
More About the Author
• Attended University of Alabama and later moved to
NYC to pursue a writing career
• After two years of writing and revising, To Kill a
Mockingbird was published in 1960
About the novel
• To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success
• Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961
• Voted best novel of the century by Library Journal in 1999
More About the Novel
• 1991 survey by the Library of Congress asked readers to
rank books that had made a significant difference in their
lives. TKAM ranked second after the Bible.
• TKAM is the only novel Lee ever published
• For more than 40 years, Lee has declined to comment on
her novel, letting it speak for itself
Style
• Coming of Age
• Lee chose a form of fiction that explicitly deals with
the main characters growing up and maturing.
• Language
• Lee employs colloquial language – esp. in the speech
of the characters (dialogue) and in the descriptions
of setting
Style Cont.
Narration
• Double-layered narration is used.
• Beginning & End:
• The older Scout explicitly tells the story at the outset of the
novel and at its end.
• Middle:
• In the middle, the story is told from the perspective of Scout as
a child.
However, there are points in the novel where the two narrators are
almost telling the story at the same time.
1920s Culture
What was hot in the 20s?
• Mahjong (title game)
• The Charleston (sweet dances moves!)
• Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Rudolph
Valentino (actors)
• Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and F. Scott
Fitzgerald (writers)
• George Gershwin (music)
1930s Culture
What was hot in the 30s?
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Bingo (games)
Shirley Temple (actors)
The Lindy (dance crazy)
“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (music)
Gone With the Wind (movies)
“The Lone Ranger,” “Little Orphan Annie,” and “The
Shadow” (tv shows)
Diction
Diction is a writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence
structures, and figurative language, which combine to
help create meaning. Diction can be elevated, formal,
informal, complex, lofty, idiomatic, etc.
Slang
• A very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more
metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language.
Examples:
Chillun - Southern pronunciation of the word children
Jem's use of the words "yonder," "reckon," "breeches (britches)," "moseyin'," "naw: ("no"),
All Things Southern
Southern Dialect that you may not know...
All-fired: extremely, very

Britches: pants or trousers

Knowed: variation of knew

Po': pronunciation of poor

Sho': pronunciation of sure

Tol'able: pronunciation of tolerable, meaning fair, or pretty good

Totin': pronunciation of toting, meaning carrying

All Things Southern
Chillun -
Southern pronunciation of the word children
Collards -
A variety of greens grown principally in the
South
CrockersackOriginally a crocus sack: a burlap
sack, named because the bulbs of
crocus flowers were shipped in
similar sacks.
Colloquial Expressions
• A phrase that appears more often
in spoken than in written language.
• Colloquial expressions are similar to
slang, but tend to be more
universal, whereas slang can often
be limited to a particular social
group.
• It is also characterized as more
familiar conversation rather than
formal speech or writing.
Examples:
• Bootleggers: people who make and/or sell illegal
liquor
• Holy-rollers: a member of a small religious sect
that expresses devotion by shouting and moving
around during worship services.
• I aien't coming down… Suit yourself.
• Note that "aien't" is very incorrect for "is
not." Don't use it!
• "Suit yourself" is an interesting way to say
"Do what you want."
All Things Southern
Rabbit TobaccoA nickname for
balsamweed, a plant
used as a tobacco
substitute by children
All Things Southern
• A Chifforobe is a piece of
furniture that has drawer on
one half and a hanging
closet on the other half.
Quotes
Direct speech
• Direct or quoted speech is a sentence (or several sentences) that reports
speech or thought in its original form, as phrased by the first speaker.
• It is usually enclosed in quotation marks. (“ ”)
Example:
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point
of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” ― Harper Lee,
To Kill a Mockingbird (chapter 3)
Quotes
Videos
To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes by Shmoop (2:55mins):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXzlkwUr_9M
Motifs: http://www.60secondrecap.com/study-guide/harper-lee-to-kill-a-mockingbirdmotifs/