Background TKaM 2

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  • Created by: Qiao-Chu
  • Created on: 17-03-13 17:20
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  • Background to To Kill a Mockingbird
    • Links to History in the Novel
      • Finch family history linked to Southern history - Simon Finch had three slaves helping him build family home
      • Until Atticus went to law school, they farmed cotton
      • Cotton was major crop in the South and slaves were used to harvest it
      • People of Maycomb proud of family and town history - Scout introduces on first page
    • Maycomb
      • Is not real place - could be any Southern town
      • Similar to Alabama in the 1930s
      • Layout of town in detail, familiar townspeople - wants Maycomb to be recognisable, prejudice anywhere
      • Lots of prejudiced people, but with good qualities - how likeable people have prejudices, racism normal part of life
      • Nothing changes, snow is rare - town stuck in its ways, take time to change attitudes
    • 1930s America
      • 1929 stock market collapsed - Wall Street Crash - causing the Great Depression
      • Affected crop prices and demand for coal and wood
      • Unemployment, income dropped by 40% between 1929 and 1932, homeless
    • Roosevelt's New Deal
      • Franklin D Roosevelt electded President November 1932
      • New Deal - government programmes to help America recover
      • Economy began to recover but slow progress
      • Created optimism and improved lives, but lots of suffering especially farmers who were trying to recover after slavery abolishment

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