To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee (Edexcel A-Level History): Revision Notes
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
Historical background and context
Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in 1959 and it was published in 1960, during the height of the civil rights movement. Although the novel is set during the Great Depression of the 1930s in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, its themes directly resonated with contemporary struggles for racial equality in America.
The civil rights context when the novel was written
When Harper Lee was writing the novel, several major events were transforming race relations in America:
- 1954: The US Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v Board of Education, calling for all American schools to be integrated
- 1957: The Little Rock Crisis in Arkansas saw President Eisenhower deploy paratroopers for a year to ensure nine black children could attend Central High School, demonstrating fierce white resistance in the Old South
- 1955-56: Martin Luther King Jr rose to national prominence by successfully leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama against segregation on public transport
- 1960: The Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee began protests against segregated lunch counters in stores
This backdrop meant that the novel's portrayal of race relations in 1930s Alabama struck a powerful chord with readers experiencing similar struggles for civil rights thirty years later. The book functioned as both historical fiction and contemporary social commentary, making it especially relevant to its 1960 audience.
Publication and impact
The novel became an instant bestseller, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Like Gone with the Wind, it was adapted into a Hollywood film in 1962, which became a box-office success. Actor Gregory Peck won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the main white character, lawyer Atticus Finch.
Synopsis of To Kill a Mockingbird
Setting and main characters
The novel is set in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town in the Old South where every family has a fixed social position. The story is narrated by Scout Finch, a young girl who lives with her brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus Finch, a lawyer. They are helped by Calpurnia, their black housekeeper. Scout is portrayed as a tomboy who prefers the company of boys, generally solves her differences with her fists, and dislikes school, gaining her most valuable education from her street and her father.
The central storyline: Tom Robinson's trial
The main story centres on a court trial where Atticus Finch agrees to represent Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping and beating a white woman. This decision causes Scout and Jem to face a barrage of racial slurs and insults because of their father's role in defending a black man.
During the trial, Atticus proves that Tom could not possibly have committed the crime. However, despite this clear evidence, the all-white jury convicts Tom Robinson. In presenting Tom's case, Atticus inadvertently insults and offends Bob Ewell, a nasty, lazy drunkard whose daughter is Tom's accuser. Despite Tom's conviction, Ewell vows revenge on Atticus and the judge for damaging his already tarnished reputation.
The two children are bewildered by the jury's decision to convict an innocent man. Atticus tries to explain why the jury's decision was, in many ways, a foregone conclusion in a racially segregated society. This illustrates the harsh reality that legal evidence and proof of innocence could not overcome the deeply ingrained racial prejudice of the time.
Bob Ewell's revenge
After the trial, Bob Ewell makes good on his threats of revenge. Scout participates in the Halloween pageant at school, playing the part of a ham. On their way home, the children hear odd noises but convince themselves these are coming from another friend who had scared them earlier that evening.
Suddenly, a violent scuffle occurs. During this attack, Jem breaks his arm badly. Scout glimpses a stranger carrying Jem back to their house. This stranger is revealed to be Arthur 'Boo' Radley, a quiet, reclusive figure who saves the children by killing Bob Ewell. The local police decide not to pursue charges against Boo.
Portrayal of race relations in the novel
Racial segregation in Maycomb
Maycomb represents a typical small town in Alabama where both white and black Americans live, but each community exists separately. Racial segregation is apparent throughout the novel, as are the racial taboos about integration or mixing of the races.
When Atticus Finch, a white lawyer, offers to defend Tom Robinson on the highly emotive charge of raping a white woman, the white community is outraged. As a result, Atticus Finch's children suffer ostracism (social exclusion) from their peers.
A sympathetic portrayal of black Americans
Unlike the portrayal of black Americans in earlier works such as Huckleberry Finn and Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird presents a much more sympathetic view of black American life.
This sympathetic portrayal was groundbreaking for its time. Earlier American literature often depicted black characters as stereotypes or comic relief. Lee's novel challenged these conventions by presenting black characters as fully realized individuals with dignity, moral strength, and complex inner lives.
Tom Robinson's character
Tom Robinson, the main black character who is falsely accused of rape, is portrayed as:
- Harmless and innocent
- Hardworking and reliable
- Married with three children
- Employed on Link Deas's farm
- Possessing good manners and courtesy
- Dignified in the face of racial provocation
During the trial scene, Tom's character shines through several actions:
- He refuses to repeat the foul language directed at him by his white accuser, Bob Ewell
- He will not openly accuse Mayella (Bob Ewell's daughter) of lying in court
- His dignity in the face of racial abuse and injustice stands out as his main strength
- He remains a sympathetic, pleasant and intelligent character, even when falsely convicted
As Scout observes, he would have been a fine specimen of a man if his left hand had not been injured in an accident (this physical detail becomes crucial evidence proving his innocence).
The black community of Maycomb
Harper Lee portrays the broader black American community of Maycomb as one of tolerance and dignity in the face of a racially divided society.
Church Scene: Scout and Jem Visit the Black Community (Chapter 12)
When Scout and Jem visit an all-black church, they encounter both racism and welcome. One character, Lula, objects to white children attending: You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here - they got their church, we got our'n.
However, the majority of the black community welcomes them. Zeebo, the garbage collector, tells them: We're mighty glad to have you all here. Don't pay no 'tention to Lula, she's contentious because Reverend Sykes threatened to church her. She's a troublemaker from way back, got fancy ideas an' haughty ways - we're mighty glad to have you all.
This scene demonstrates that whilst some black characters harbour resentment, the community as a whole shows greater tolerance and moral dignity than the white community.
Atticus Finch: Bridging the racial divide
The one character who breaches the racial divide is Atticus Finch. His actions demonstrate moral courage:
- His housekeeper is black (Calpurnia)
- He agrees to defend Tom Robinson despite knowing an all-white jury will convict him
- He treats the black community with respect and dignity
Atticus's Powerful Court Speech (Chapter 20)
In his powerful summing up during the court case, Atticus challenges racist stereotypes. He sarcastically acknowledges racist beliefs before demolishing them:
Some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women - black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.
This speech emphasizes the shared humanity of all people, regardless of race, directly challenging the racist assumption that moral failings are linked to race.
Contrast with white characters
Harper Lee contrasts the dignity of black characters with certain white characters, particularly the Ewells, who appear as 'white trash' - ignorant, lazy and full of racial prejudice. The black characters in the novel are portrayed as morally superior, more dignified and more respectable than the Ewells.
This reversal of expectations was significant for 1960 readers. By showing that moral character is not determined by race, Lee challenged prevailing racist hierarchies that automatically placed white people above black people regardless of individual behaviour or character.
At the end of the novel, the only white character who comes to the aid of Scout and Jem when Bob Ewell attacks them is Boo Radley, himself a quiet, lonely outcast from mainstream white society.
Key excerpts illustrating racial themes
The town's racist response to Tom's death
Maycomb's Reaction to Tom Robinson's Death (Chapter 25)
After Tom Robinson is convicted and later killed trying to escape prison, the narrator (Harper Lee through Scout) reveals the deeply ingrained racism of Maycomb's white community:
To Maycomb, Tom's death was typical. Typical of a nigger to cut and run. Typical of a nigger's mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw... Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneer's mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in 'em.
This passage reveals the racist stereotypes that persist regardless of an individual's actual character or behaviour. Even Tom's respectability - being married, clean-living and church-going - cannot overcome the town's racial prejudice.
Significance and reflection of changing race relations
Why the novel resonated in 1960
The events portrayed in 1930s Maycomb helped make To Kill a Mockingbird a bestseller almost overnight because:
- The themes of racial injustice and segregation directly paralleled contemporary struggles in the civil rights movement
- Black and many white Americans were campaigning nationwide for full civil rights and an end to legal segregation
- The novel's sympathetic portrayal of black Americans challenged prevailing racist stereotypes
- It showed the moral courage required to stand against racial injustice (embodied in Atticus Finch)
- The dignity of Tom Robinson and the black community offered a counter-narrative to racist depictions in earlier literature
The novel's power came from its timing. Published at the height of the civil rights movement, it provided readers with a historical lens through which to understand contemporary struggles. By setting the story thirty years earlier, Lee could explore racial injustice in a way that felt both familiar and safely distant, yet the parallels were impossible to ignore.
A departure from earlier literary portrayals
To Kill a Mockingbird represented a significant shift from earlier portrayals of black Americans in American literature:
- Unlike Huckleberry Finn, which portrayed Jim as a runaway slave in need of white assistance
- Unlike Gone with the Wind, which romanticised the Old South and portrayed slaves as content
- Lee's novel showed black Americans as dignified, moral and worthy of respect
- It portrayed racial injustice from a critical perspective rather than accepting it as natural
Reflecting both past and present
The novel works on two levels:
- Historical: It accurately depicts the racial segregation, injustice and prejudice of 1930s Alabama during the Depression
- Contemporary: It spoke directly to the civil rights struggles of the 1950s-60s, when similar battles against segregation and injustice were being fought
This dual perspective made the novel particularly powerful - readers could see how little had changed in thirty years and understand why the civil rights movement was necessary. The book essentially argued that the injustices of the 1930s were still present in 1960, making the case for immediate civil rights reform.
Harper Lee (1926-2016)
Whilst To Kill a Mockingbird was the first novel Harper Lee published, it was not the first she wrote. Her first effort, titled Go Set a Watchman, which followed the later lives of the same characters, was submitted to a publisher in 1957. However, the publisher rejected it and asked Lee to revise the story, making her main character Scout a child. Lee worked on this revision for two years, and it eventually became To Kill a Mockingbird.
In 2015, the original manuscript of Go Set a Watchman was published. The novel features Scout as a 26-year-old woman returning home to Maycomb from New York City. Controversially, in Watchman, Atticus Finch - the upstanding moral conscience of To Kill a Mockingbird - is portrayed as a racist with bigoted views and links to the Ku Klux Klan. This shocking portrayal of the beloved character has caused much controversy and debate about whether the later novel represents Lee's original vision or a less refined early draft.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
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To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1959 and published in 1960, during the height of the civil rights movement, though set in 1930s Alabama during the Depression
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The novel won the Pulitzer Prize and became an Oscar-winning film in 1962, demonstrating its massive cultural impact
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Unlike earlier works, Lee portrayed black Americans sympathetically - Tom Robinson and the black community are shown as dignified, moral and tolerant, contrasting with prejudiced white characters like the Ewells
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Atticus Finch bridges the racial divide by defending Tom Robinson despite knowing the all-white jury will convict, demonstrating moral courage in a segregated society
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The novel resonated powerfully in 1960 because its themes of racial injustice, segregation and the need for moral courage directly paralleled contemporary civil rights struggles
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Key events when written include Brown v Board of Education (1954), Little Rock Crisis (1957), Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56), and formation of SNCC (1960)