By Harper Lee

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 474.

From: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

TEXT

Unit Two

Harper Lee was bom in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is her first novel. It received almost unanimous critical acclaim and several awards, the Pulitzer Prize among them (1961). A screen play adaptation of the novel was filmed in 1962.

This book is a magnificent, powerful novel in which the author paints a true and lively picture of a quiet Southern town in Alabama rocked by a young girl's accusation of criminal assault.

Tom Robinson, a Negro, who was charged with raping a white girl, old Bob Swell's daughter, could have a court-appointed defence. When Judge Taylor appointed Atticus Finch, an experienced smart lawyer and a very clev­er man, he was sure that Atticus would do his best. At least Atticus was the only man in those parti who could keep a jury¹ out so long in a case bite that. Atticus was eager to take up this case in spite of the threats of the Ku-Klux-Klan.²

He, too, was sure he would not win, because as he explained it to his son afterwards: "In our courts, when it is a white man's word against a black triad's, the white man always wins. The one place, where a man ought to get a "square deal is in a court-room, be he any color* of the rainbow, but people a way of carrying their resentments right into the jury box. As you grow

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* Please note that the American spelling is used throughout the text. However, in the questions and exercises the British spelling is retained and it is recommended that you continue to use this.

older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it — whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash...

There is nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll take advantage of a Negro's ignorance. Don't fool yourselves — it's all adding up and one of these days we're going to pay the bill for it".

Atticus's son Jem aged thirteen and his daughter Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, aged seven were present at the trial and it is Jean Louise, who describes it...

Atticus was half-way through his speech to fee jury. He had evidently pulled some papers from his briefcase feat rested be­side his chair, because they were on his table. Tom Robinson was toying wife them. "