Sunday, March 17, 2013

To Kill a Mockingbird: Building Background


Complete the following tasks/answer the following questions. Use your critical thinking skills to determine the best routes and resources.The traditional forms of web perusal may not work here.

1. Truman Capote said "Everything she wrote about it is absolutely true". What is the "it"?

2. What does Lee think of the film adaptation of Mockingbird? Use a quote in your answer.

3. Finish Lee's statement: "Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still..."

4. Identify Lee's 3 favorite authors and name a title from each.

5. Lee is a recluse but for several years she has quietly attended the awards ceremony for a particular contest. Describe this contest.

6. How are the Scottsboro Trials relevant to the novel?

7. Though Lee always declines interviews, she does write each refusal individually. When asked why she did not simply send out a stock response to the media's pleas, she responded that such a letter would simply say...

8. Click here. Listen to the audio. Who was the statewide essay winner? Who potrayed Scout in a school play and developed a repoire with Lee?

9. List and quote 5 parallels between Harper Lee's real life and her novel.

10. Lee's character Dill is based upon Truman Capote. Capote returned the favor by basing what character (from what story) on Lee?

11. Click here and explore the page. a) What were the results of the "doll tests" and what do they tell us about race in the mid 20th century? b) Using your knowledge of history, discuss why Truman's Executive Order is egregiously late in the context of America's history.

12. Click here and enter the image gallery. Choose 2 images and discuss their subject matter and context. Do not copy and paste.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

1.The “it” in Truman Capote’s quote, "Everything she wrote about it is absolutely true", is Boo Radley
2. “ I think it’s one of the best translations of a book to film ever made”
plod along with books,"
4. Truman Capote
5.a high school essay contest and university of Alabama
6.they both have black men raping white women
7.“hell no”
8.Andrianne Ferris was state wide winner and Ragon Stevens portrayed scout in the school play.
9.both live in Alabama, Harper Lee’s mom’s middle name was Finch ( that is Scout’s last name), harper had friends named Truman and Dill, Harper Lee and Scout are both Tomboys, Harper and Scouts dad both worked for Alabama legislature.
10.Idabel Thompkins from other vices, other rooms
11. a.)Black people chose white dolls because there were better characteristics.
b.) it was written in 1980
12.the 6th picture shows that black people were not allowed to go a lot of places since they are all crowded in that one diner. there are also no whites people, so they were separated. Picture 15 shows that black people were treated very poorly. they are being beaten just because they are black which is wrong.

BRAD DRISCOLL

Anonymous said...

1. The “it” is the tree in the Radley’s place.
2. "I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made." She thought it as an excellent reinterpretation into a movie.
3. plod along with books."
4. Truman Capote (In Cold Blood)
5. A high school essay contest is given to high schools in Alabama and if you win you can meet Harper Lee.
6. Both involved black men who were accused of raping white women.
7. “hell no”
8. Adrianne Farris and Reagon Stevens
9. Harper Lee and Scout were both tomboy
Harper Lee’s dad was also an attorney
Dill is based on Truman Capote
The Scottsboro case was most likely used to help make the Tom Robinson case in the book.
The tree with a hole in it is real as Truman Capote almost put it in one of his books too.
10. Idabel Thompkins Was based on Harper Lee in Other Voices, Other Rooms
11. Black people chose dolls and the document was written way after the civil war and slavery had already been abolished
12. Picture 11 shows Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech which changed the way segregation was looked upon at the time it was given.
Picture 15 shows a black man innocently beaten because he was speaking out against segregation.
Lucas Lavallee

Anya DiLorenzo said...

Anya DiLorenzo
Class F
March 23, 2013
To Kill a Mockingbird: Building Background
1.) The “it” in Truman Capote’s statement, “"Everything she wrote about it is absolutely true" is simply Boo Radley. In Capote’s original version of Other Voices, Other Rooms he talks of a boy who lives down the street. Along the boy’s property are trees in which items are hidden.
2.) “If the integrity of a film adaption is measured by the degree to which the novelist’s intent is preserved, Mr. Foote’s screenplay should be studied as a classic.”
3.) “I still plod along with books.”
4.) Harper Lee is fond of reading. She particularly enjoys 19th century British authors. In a letter to Oprah Winfrey Lee wrote how as a child she read books on, “American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The Mobile Press”. Lee truly believes that “some things should happen on soft pages, not cold metal”.-Harper Lee/ “cold metal”-advances in technology
5.) Although Harper Lee is considered a recluse she is still known to attend the awards ceremony for the “To Kill a Mockingbird High School Essay Contest”. This contest involves about fifty high school students that are selected for their essays on Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The University of Alabama Honors College sponsors this event to recognize the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. The students often relate their lives and experiences to the novel within their essays.
6.) The Scottsboro Trials was a court case that took place when Harper Lee was just a child. The case involved nine African-American men who supposedly raped a couple of white women on a train. The trials are relevant to the novel because Tom Robinson, an African-American, was also accused of raping a white woman. The two events also both took place in Alabama during the 1930’s.
7.) “Hell, no.”
8.) The statewide essay winner was Adrianne Farris from Thorsby High School. Ragan Stevens from Mountain Brook High School portrayed Scout in a play and developed a repoire with Lee.
9.) -When Harper Lee was a kid she was considered a tomboy, and she was often found defying elder figures such as her teachers (just as Scout defying Miss.Caroline and other adult figures).
-Harper Lee had an older brother just as Scout had Jem. Lee also had a father who practiced law and was known to defend all his clients including African-Americans (Atticus defends Tom Robinson, an African-American).
-Lee’s mother’s maiden name was Finch which is what she named the main family in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. This family includes Scout Finch (based on Harper Lee), Jem Finch (based on Lee’s older brother), Atticus Finch (based on Lee’s father) and so on. -In the novel the Finch’s live in a small desolate town known as Maycomb. The town has mixed emotions towards the the civil rights movements and people are clearly labeled by their backgrounds and families. Lee also lived in a similar town known as Monroeville which is located in the general vicinity of Maycomb (both between towns known as Mobile and Montgomery).
-Harper Lee supposedly went to public grammar school just as Scout and was fond of using her imagination whether it be playing games or writing (Scout often used her imagination especially when talking of Boo Radley).

Anya DiLorenzo said...

10.) Truman Capote based the character Idabel Thompkins (from his novel Other Voices, Other Rooms) on Harper Lee.
11.) a) The “doll test” was a test in which children were given the choice as to which of two dolls they favored over the other (black doll or white doll). The majority of black kids favored the white doll due to whites and their positive connotation (what the black children have learned/they have been influenced). The following test/experiment tells you that whites were the preferred race in the mid 20th century. The test portrays that this time period was extremely segregated and racist in various instances.
b) Truman’s Executive Order was egregiously late in the context of America’s history because technically segregation in the U.S. began around the 1870’s. Truman officially issued his executive orders on July 26, 1948 (about a seventy-eight year difference). In this large gap blacks were harassed and punished against their will all due to their skin color.
12.) The second image relating to the U.S. civil rights movement involves the arrest of Rosa Parks. Parks was an African American who defied the law by not moving to the back of a bus to only benefit a white man. Parks was taken to a police station in Montgomery Alabama for simply defending what she believed in as an African-American. The sixteenth image relating to the U.S civil rights movement involves African-Americans assisting with the voting process. For quite some time blacks were not given the right to vote for specific political reasons. People (especially in the South) were quite racist and used various forms of violence to help diminish laws given to African-Americans.




Anonymous said...

1. The “it” that Truman Capote is referring to is that Boo Radley really lived up the street from him and Harper Lee when they were little kids.

2. 'I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made,' Lee said.

3. "plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it."

4.
Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
Thomas Harris - Hannibal Lecter,
Joseph Conrad - the heart of darkness
J. D. Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye

5.The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, which each year holds a high-school essay-writing contest for a piece based on Lee's masterwork. For five years, it has been revealed, Lee has quietly attended the awards ceremony for the contest, mingling with students and staff and talking with their families.

6. At the time of her childhood America was rocked by the 'Scottsboro Boys' trials, when nine black men were accused of raping two white women. Just like in the story how Tom Robinson is being accused of raping a white woman.

7. she quipped such a letter would simply say: 'Hell, no.'

8. Adrian Ferris from rural Thorsby High School is this year's state-wide winner of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" essay contest.

Ragan Stevens portrayed Scout Finch in a recent production of "To Kill A Mockingbird."

9. -Harper Lee was a tomboy and loved reading so did Scout.
-In real life Lee's best friend was Truman Capote and in the book Scout's best friend was Dill.
-In the book Scout's father was a lawyer and in real life Harper's father was a lawyer as well.
-Like her main character in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee had an older brother and a father who was a lawyer.
-Both Harper's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, and Scout's father, Atticus Finch, defended black men who were found guilty.
-Even the name of Scout's family was taken from Harper Lee's life; her mother's maiden name was Finch.
-Maycomb, the town that Scout lived in, was modeled after Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Both towns were small towns located between Mobile and Montgomery.
-Like Scout, Harper Lee attended the public grammar school and developed an interest in the world of make-believe and writing.

10. -In Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948), Capote's acclaimed first novel, tomboy Idabel Thompkins was based on Lee.
- Lee is also recognizable as Ann “Jumbo” Finchburg, “a sawed-off but solid tomboy with an all-hell-let-loose wrestling technique,” in Capote’s 1967 story “The Thanksgiving Visitor.”

11. a) The results of the “doll tests” show that when children in that era were given a black doll and a white girl, almost everyone including black girls preferred the white dolls because white people had positive characteristics.

b) Truman’s Executive Order is late in the context of America’s history because it was written in 1981 and racial segregation has been taking place since the early 1900’s.

12. Picture 4 : It shows a white girl yelling at a black student, and the black student walking away with her head down. It shows the segregation taking place, and how emotional the white people can be over black people being there.

Picture 12: The black man holding up a newspaper signifies the fact that the end of segregation can’t wait any longer. It shows that all the blacks have the same view on it, and even some whites.

Hannah Nordstrom

Unknown said...

1. The “it” that Truman Capote is referring to is that Boo Radley really lived up the street from him and Harper Lee when they were little kids.

2. 'I think it is one of the best translations of a book to film ever made,' she said.

3. "plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it."

4.
Leo Tolstoy- Anna Karenina
Thomas Harris - Hannibal Lecter,
Joseph Conrad - the heart of darkness
J. D. Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye

5.The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, which each year holds a high-school essay-writing contest for a piece based on Lee's masterwork. For five years, it has been revealed, Lee has quietly attended the awards ceremony for the contest, mingling with students and staff and talking with their families.

6. At the time of her childhood America was rocked by the 'Scottsboro Boys' trials, when nine black men were accused of raping two white women. Just like in the story how Tom Robinson is being accused of raping a white woman.

7. she quipped such a letter would simply say: 'Hell, no.'

8. Adrian Ferris from rural Thorsby High School is this year's state-wide winner of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" essay contest.

Ragan Stevens portrayed Scout Finch in a recent production of "To Kill A Mockingbird."

9. -Harper Lee was a tomboy and loved reading so did Scout.
-In real life Lee's best friend was Truman Capote and in the book Scout's best friend was Dill.
-In the book Scout's father was a lawyer and in real life Harper's father was a lawyer as well.
-Like her main character in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee had an older brother and a father who was a lawyer.
-Both Harper's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, and Scout's father, Atticus Finch, defended black men who were found guilty.
-Even the name of Scout's family was taken from Harper Lee's life; her mother's maiden name was Finch.
-Maycomb, the town that Scout lived in, was modeled after Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Both towns were small towns located between Mobile and Montgomery.
-Like Scout, Harper Lee attended the public grammar school and developed an interest in the world of make-believe and writing.

10. -In Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948), his acclaimed first novel, tomboy Idabel Thompkins was based on Lee.
- Lee is also recognizable as Ann “Jumbo” Finchburg, “a sawed-off but solid tomboy with an all-hell-let-loose wrestling technique,” in Capote’s 1967 story “The Thanksgiving Visitor.”

11. a) The results of the “doll tests” show that when children in that era were given a black doll and a white girl, almost everyone including black girls preferred the white dolls because white people have positive characteristics.

b) Truman’s Executive Order is late in the context of America’s history because it was written in 1981 and racial segregation has been taking place since the early 1900’s.

12. Picture 4 : It shows a white girl yelling at a black student, and the black student walking away with her head down. It shows the segregation taking place, and how emotional the white people can be over black people being there.

Picture 12: The black man holding up a newspaper signifies the fact that the end of segregation can’t wait any longer. It shows that all the blacks have the same view on it, and even some whites.

Unknown said...

Matthew Morel
March 18, 2013
English Block F
TKAM (Todd Kefor and Matt) Building Backgrounds
1.) The “it” in Truman Capote’s quote is Boo Radley was like the childhood man that left things in trees for them to find. (http://uscbookclubweds.blogspot.com/2011/10/scout-dill-harper-lee-truman-capote.html)
2.) “I think it is one of the best translations from a book to film ever made.”
3.) “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books," she writes.
4.) Truman Capote
5.) She attended a high school essay contest and the award given at the University of Alabama.
6.) Each had a black man violating white women.
7.) “Hell no.”
8.) Andrianne Ferris was the statewide winner and Ragon Stevens played Scout in the shool play.
9.) Both Lee and Scout lived in Alabama. Lee’s mother’s middle name was Finch like her last name in the book. Lee made Dill like Truman Capote. Lee and Scout were both tomboys. Both Scout and Lee’s father worked in the Alabama Legislature.
10.) Idabel Thompkins from Other Voices, Other Rooms.
11.) Black people chose the white dolls, because they had better characteristics. He wrote it in 1980.
12.) In picture 4, it appears that the white woman behind the black woman is angry or hates her. It looks like she has a rolled up newspaper. After that she was probably attacked by the woman. In picture 5, it shows that not all white people believed the blacks were dogs. Some even protested with them to gain their rights.

Unknown said...

Matthew Morel
March 18, 2013
English Block F
TKAM (Todd Kefor and Matt) Building Backgrounds
1.) The “it” in Truman Capote’s quote is Boo Radley was like the childhood man that left things in trees for them to find. (http://uscbookclubweds.blogspot.com/2011/10/scout-dill-harper-lee-truman-capote.html)
2.) “I think it is one of the best translations from a book to film ever made.”
3.) “Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books," she writes.
4.) Truman Capote
5.) She attended a high school essay contest and the award given at the University of Alabama.
6.) Each had a black man violating white women.
7.) “Hell no.”
8.) Andrianne Ferris was the statewide winner and Ragon Stevens played Scout in the shool play.
9.) Both Lee and Scout lived in Alabama. Lee’s mother’s middle name was Finch like her last name in the book. Lee made Dill like Truman Capote. Lee and Scout were both tomboys. Both Scout and Lee’s father worked in the Alabama Legislature.
10.) Idabel Thompkins from Other Voices, Other Rooms.
11.) Black people chose the white dolls, because they had better characteristics. He wrote it in 1980.
12.) In picture 4, it appears that the white woman behind the black woman is angry or hates her. It looks like she has a rolled up newspaper. After that she was probably attacked by the woman. In picture 5, it shows that not all white people believed the blacks were dogs. Some even protested with them to gain their rights.

Anonymous said...

1.When truman capote says this the it is directly related to boo radley or the concept of the house and its story.
2.Lee said this " i think its one of the best translations of a book to film ever made."
3."plod along with books." ends her statement
4.Truman capote is the only name which actually appears often he wrote other voices,other rooms
5.She has over the years attened a essay contest at the university of alabam which is were she lives and is here home state i guess.
6.The scottsboro trial is the same basic concept as what in the book is her father supporting a black man. This black man supposedly raped a white girl and in the scottsboro trial black men raped two white girls.
7. she put it simply as "hell no"
8.Adrian ferris was the winner of the state wide contest. Ragon stevns was scout in the school play
9.They both Do live in Alabama, harper lee had friends named dill and truman. both of them were tomboys also both of their fathers worked as lawyers.
10.she is based off of idabel from other voices,other room
11. ?????????
12. on picture 8 it talks about a black air force veteran trying to enter the university of mississippi and how riots broke out and on his irst day 10000 soldiers were sent to ensure his saftey. Picture 4 gives off the sense of hatered in the south as 9 black studnets attempt to enter a highschool even the national guard with direct orders to allow permitence stopped them so the army went in and made sure they were safe but not at the expense of a year lon torture from white students.

Christopher Casello

Tristan Hynes said...

1.) The Radley tree
2.) "In that film the man and the part met... I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused. That film was a work of art."
3.) Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it.
4.)
5.) Among Harper Lee’s few public appearances is regular attendance at the Honors College at the University of Alabama's annual luncheon.
6.) The injustice and false accusations against nine black men who were accused of raping two white females and was a source of inspiration for “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
7.) HELL NO!
8.) Adrian Faris, Ragan Stevens
9.)
10.) Isabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms
11.) A) Most black children preferred the white doll and believed that the white doll was prettier showing segregation and racism lead children to believing that Caucasians were a superior race.
B) He was late because we have co-existed for a several millennium, the black community helped fight our wars build, our country and much more and we were just starting to see them as equals now?
12.) Picture 4 is of Elizabeth Eckford trying to go to school but was then turned away by the National Guard. Shortly after that the president had the U.S. army make sure there was safe passage for the black students (I believe this was depicted in Forrest Gump). Picture 11 I believe is Martin Luther King jr. giving his I have a dream speech.