To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Background Information Web Quest
The purpose of this webquest is to help you understand more about the author and setting of To Kill a Mockingbirdbeforereading the novel.
The information in this webquest will provide you with essential information about the social climate in the South during the 1930s, American history leading up to the social climate in the South, and Harper Lee's background and motivation for writing To Kill a Mockingbird.
In this classic novel, Scout narrates the story of her youth growing up in Maycomb, Alabama. The situations in this novel will make you laugh, gasp in disbelief, feel outraged, and even question your own society.
Before we begin reading this novel, it is important for you to understand the life and time of the South during the 1930's. This was a time when racism and prejudice were prevalent, poverty was rampant due to the Great Depression, and children were not meant to be heard.
Directions:
Use the websites and questions provided to create background information notes for To Kill a Mockingbird.
You may work with a partner to view websites and formulate answers to the questions.
However, each student will turn in a copy of his/her notes.
Harper Lee
1. When and where was Harper Lee born?
2. What was her family like?
3. What famous Civil War general is one of her ancestors?
4. Who was her childhood best friend?
5. What did she study in college?
6. Did she participate in any extra-curricular activities?
7. How did her decision to move to New York make To Kill a Mockingbird areality?
8. What year was To Kill A Mockingbird published?
What award did she win for this work?
9. When was it adapted to screen?
10. Harper Lee's real life influenced many of the characters and events inthis novel.
Given what have you learned about her life (including personality traits, friends,
family, experiences) make a prediction about what kinds of issues might surface in
To Kill a Mockingbird.
Mockingbirds
11. What are some basic facts about the mockingbird?
(include habitats, food, where they are located…)
12. What are some interesting facts about their behavior.
13. Do you have a guess why Harper Lee would name her book To Kill a
Mockingbird after reading the information on this bird?
Black Tuesday
14. What does the term "Black Tuesday" refer to?
15. What was the date of Black Tuesday?
16. Explain how Wall Street Crash led to The Great Depression.
Great Depression
17. Many people believe that WWII marked the end of the Great Depression.
How did the war affect the economy?
18. What president was inaugurated in 1933?
What were some of the changes made by this administration?
19. What was the New Deal?
How did the New Deal affect American citizens?
Dust Bowl
Note: You may already know much of this information from our study of Out of
the Dust in7th grade.
20. What was the Dust Bowl?
21. How did the Dust Bowl affect the Southern Plains?
22. What affect did the Dust Bowl have on agriculture?
23. How would this affect farmers and their employers?
24. Given what you learned about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl,
make a prediction about what you think the setting of To Kill A Mockingbirdwill look
like.
What will the houses look like?
What will the characters be wearing?
How will the characters act towards each other?
How will Scout's classmates act toward Scout knowing that her father is a lawyer?
Jim Crow Laws
25. What is the origin of the term, "Jim Crow”?
How is the origin of this term offensive? List 3 ways.
26. How did the term "Jim Crow" become synonymous with the segregationlaws in
the South?
27. What Supreme Court case upheld segregation, or "separate but equal?"
28. Who was Booker T. Washington?
What was his stance on the segregation debates?
29. Who was Rosa Parks?
What was her role in the challenge of Jim Crow laws?
30. How were these laws finally invalidated?
31. How did some Southern black people try to resist and escape the Jim Crow laws?
Harlem Renaissance
32. What was the impetus for the Harlem Renaissance?
33. What time period does the Harlem Renaissance encompass?
34. Which writer(s) have we studied this year who were a part of thismovement?
The Murder of Emmitt Till
35. Why was Emmett Till murdered?
36. Why did the prosecution have trouble finding witnesses?
37. Why was the casket left open?
38. Why did the jury claim that the accused were not guilty?
What was the real reason the men were found not guilty?
39. What was the effect of Till’s murder on black Americans?
Scottsboro Boys
40. What were the Scottsboro Boys known for?
Who were they?
What did they do? What were they accused of doing?
41. The Scottsboro Boys’ attorneys were extremely incompetent.
How did the defense attorneys show their lack of experience?
List at least 3 ways in which the defense lawyers were inadequate.
42. Describe the trials. Were they fair or unfair?
Please include at least 3 supporting facts to back up your description.
43. Were the Scottsboro Boys ever pardoned of their convictions?
44. The Scottsboro Boys' trial took place during Harper Lee’s childhood.
Make a prediction about how this trial might be an important impetus for thebook.