week11
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.
Brief introduction---
During the depths of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, in the rigidly- and violently-segregated South, widower Atticus Finch is raising his two young children in the mythical town of Maycomb, Alabama. As one of the few attorneys in his small, rural hometown, Finch is called upon by the county court to defend Tom Robinson, a Black laborer. Robinson is falsely accused of having raped a White man’s daughter, Mayella Ewell. In reality, Mayella Ewell had committed the unpardonable sin of crossing the color line in order to seduce Tom Robinson. The Ewells are quintessential “poor White trash,” living on the outskirts of town and far removed from its civilizing effects. A conventionally racist, all-White jury convicts the innocent Robinson, despite Finch’s heroic and impassioned defense. Bereft of hope, Tom Robinson tries to escape from prison, and is shot dead. Following his exposure and humiliation at the trial, town drunk Bob Ewell, the father of Mayella, attempts to take vengeance against Finch by attacking his two children. In turn, Ewell is fatally stabbed by Boo Radley, the Finch’s mysterious and reclusive neighbor. Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, is the younger daughter of Atticus Finch, and the play unfolds through her eyes. At the outset of the play in 1932, she is about to start the first grade; by its end, she is an adult looking backwards to her youth, having matured tremendously and learned perhaps too much about poverty, racism, injustice, class divisions, and intolerance.
Charaters---
1. Atticus Finch: Protagonist; approximately 50-year-old widower; father of Jem and Scout Finch; bookish; attorney appointed by Judge Taylor to defend Tom Robinson; in his youth, an expert marksman with a rifle. An iconic voice of reason.
2. Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch: elder son of Atticus; four years older than his sister, Scout; quite athletic; shares with his father the characteristics of honor and bravery; best friend of Dill’s.
3. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch: Protagonist; first person narrator, who as an adult is looking back on the events of the story.
4. Calpurnia, “Cal”: Black housekeeper/cook in the Finch household, who plays a large role in raising Jem and Scout.
5. Charles Baker “Dill” Harris: Seasonal playmate to Jem and Scout; he comes to Maycomb each summer to visit his Aunt Rachel Haverford.
6. Arthur “Boo” Radley: Subject of town gossip, based on his appearance as a defendant in a courtroom trial when he was a teenager; a lonely, reclusive, and unassuming figure who is simultaneously kind, generous, and chivalrous. He kills Bob Ewell when Ewell is attacking Jem and Scout.
7. Miss Maudie Atkinson: 40-ish, unmarried, kindly neighbor of the Finch family.
8. Thomas “Tom” Robinson: 25-year-old Black man falsely accused of raping Mayella; married to Helen, with three children.
9. Robert E. Lee “Bob” Ewell: Antagonist; father to Mayella and seven other children; a lazy town drunk who poaches game and lives off government relief.
10. Mayella Violet Ewell: 20-ish daughter of Bob Ewell; her major role in life is to care for her seven siblings; raised in squalor.
✴Put oneself in someone's shoes:
To try to look at a situation from a different point of view; as if one were the other person. To empathise if you could just put yourself in his shoes for a moment, perhaps you would understand why it is not as easy as you seem to think.
✴fore - (前的意思)
e.g. forehead前額、forecast預測
✴dic - (告訴的意思)
e.g. dictionary字典
✴bene - (好的意思)
e.g. benefit好處
✴A Red, Red Rose
A 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources.
O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry:
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.
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