Use of Form, Structure & Language
To Kill a Mockingbird's structure reflects the fact that Scout and Jem mature as the novel progresses. It is narrated by Scout who looks back on events in a chronological order...continue reading...
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(Click image to enlarge)
Realistic language of a child of the time
How is it used?
Scout and Jem both use informal language. For example, Jem says to Dill after first meeting him, Shoot no wonder, then... Scout yonder’s been readin’ ever since she was born, and she ain’t even started to school yet.
Later Scout says to Jem in reference to school, Yeah Jem, but I won’t wanta study cows...
Why is it used?
Harper Lee is ensuring her novel is as realistic as possible. She is showing that the Finch children are typical children of the time. The words shoot
and yonder
are typical words of the 1930s that have long since gone out of fashion. Jem uses slang when he uses ain’t
instead of hasn’t
and he also drops the letter g
on the word reading
adding further to the informality of the sentence. Similarly, Scout uses Yeah
instead of the more formal Yes
and wanta
instead of want to.
What is its effect?
Not only does this make her novel realistic but it also reveals that Scout and Jem do not put on airs and graces when they speak. They may be considered middle class and have a father who is a lawyer but they are typical children and this is important to our understanding of their role in the novel.
Ref: BBC. (n.d.). Form, structure and language. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zgj4wxs/revision/4
To Kill a Mockingbird - Setting
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during 1933–1935. These years place the events of the novel squarely within two important periods of American history: the Great Depression and the Jim Crow era. The Great Depression is reflected in the poverty that affects all of the residents of Maycomb. Even the Finches, who are objectively better off than many of the other citizens in the area, are ultimately poor and living within the means available to them. The years depicted in the novel also fall within the much longer period of time that modern historians often refer to as the Jim Crow era. This term describes the time from the late 19th century until the mid-1960s when black people in the United States could no longer be held in slavery, but where laws limited the social, political, and economic possibilities available to black citizens. We should remember that when Harper Lee wrote the novel in the late 1950s, the Great Depression was over, but Jim Crow laws were still present in substantial portions of the American South...continue reading...