Week 11: To Kill a Mockingbird
1. Introduction of To Kill a Mockingbird
(1) To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."
As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.
(2) It's a book about racialism, justice and friendship. Every adult should read it before they die.
* What is the reason for the author's choice of a young narrator(Scout)?
a. To remove moral bias from the story
b. To allow the story to be presented by someone who cannot take an active role
c. To allow the narrator to mature as the story progresses ( Bildungsroman )
*Bildungsroman: novel of formation, novel of education, or coming-of-age story (though it may also be known as a subset of the coming-of-age story) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is extremely important. (小說主角有成長，change and build up, moral or psycgological)
*Mockingbird is just a metaphor which means innocent or disadvantaged people and anyone should not to kill someone who is innocent.(Mockingbird 反舌鳥)
*Boo is an onomatopoeia which is used to describe the situation that ghosts scare people.
2. Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American novelist. She is best known for her 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that she observed as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Despite being Lee's only published book, it led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature. Lee has received numerous honorary degrees but has always declined to make a speech.
*You do not understand the people if you don't live under the skin.
Person of the Week－Harper Lee (July.2010)
3. Four Lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird
(1) Put yourself in other people's shoes.
(2) Don't kill mockingbirds.(“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”)
*Mockingbird means someone weaker and defenseless than you.
(3) Keep fighting even if you know you'll lose.(bravery)
(4) The world is very unfair.
4. Good Quotations
(1) "How justice should be worked out on the courthouse, however, it didn't."
(2) "What kind of man are you?"
(3) "Stand up, your father is passing."
(4) "All man are created equal."
(5) "It had nothing to fear but fear yourself." (the most famous line from Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech, made after the 1932 presidential election.)
(6) "People in their right minds never take pride in their talents."
(7) "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
(8) "Nothing's real scary except in books."
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (film)
To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote was based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee. It stars Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch and Mary Badham in the role of Scout.
The film, widely considered to be one of the greatest ever made, earned an overwhelmingly positive response from critics. A box office success, it earned more than 10 times its budget. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck, and was nominated for eight, including Best Picture.
Gregory Peck in the role of Atticus Finch
6. Simile and Metaphor
(1)A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two things through the explicit use of connecting words (such as like, as, so, than, or various verbs such as resemble).
(2) A metaphor is a figure of speech that identifies something as being the same as some unrelated thing for rhetorical effect, thus highlighting the similarities between the two.
(3) What’s the Difference between a Simile and a Metaphor?
Metaphors simply state a comparison. Similes use the words “like” or “as” to compare things. Because they both make comparisons, all similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes.
Here are some examples of similes and metaphors:
- Life is like a box of chocolates. (Simile)
- My life is an open book. (Metaphor)
- That baby is as cute as a button! (Simile)
- Baby, you’re a firework. (Metaphor)
"Simile and Metaphor"
7. Vocabularies and Phrases
(1) Tom boy 男孩氣的小女孩
(2) peculiar adj. 奇怪的
peculiarity n.
(3) knot-hole 樹洞
(4) stab n. 短刀刺
(5) include 包括
exclude 排除
(6) bene- : good
mal- : bad
beneficial
benefit
benevolent 善意的
malevolent 惡意的
malignant tumor 惡性腫瘤
malicious gossip 惡意的流言蜚語
malign v. 誹謗
(7) nigger 對黑人的輕蔑的稱呼
(8) conscious adj. 有意識的
consciousness n. 意識；知覺
conscience n. 良心
(9) para- : 平行
paradox n. 似是而非的論點
paragraph n. 段落
parachute n. 降落傘
parasol n. 陽傘
parasite n. 寄生蟲
(10) fore- : before
forecast v./n. 預報
foretell v. 預言
foresee v. 預見
forehead n. 額頭
(11) verdict n 結論；裁定
(12) ver-/vir- : true
virtual reality 虛擬現實
verify v.核實
verification n.確認
(13)dict : to say, to tell, words
dictator n. 獨裁者
dictation n. 聽寫
predict v. 預測
(14) attorney/client 律師/ 委託人
(15) spooky 狂犬病的狗
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