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** Howdy ! Welcome to Maycomb, Alabama, USA, home of Atticus, Jem and Scout Finch **




 * **// Historical Background of Harper Lee, "To Kill A Mockingbird" //**
 * **// Introduction to the novel //**

@http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/girl.html @http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/
 * == INTERVIEW: GROWING UP WHITE IN THE SOUTH IN THE 1930s ==
 * **Historical Context of the Publication of the Novel**
 * __ The Civil Rights Movement 1955-1965: Introduction __

@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow
 * ** Jim Crow Laws **

@http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/lynching/lynching.htm
 * = **Lynching** =

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 * **// The Scotsboro Trials //**
 * **// Scotsboro Trials Documentary //**
 * **// Snapshot of the 1930s //**


 * = **READING STRATEGIES** =




 * = **READING STRATEGIES HANDOUT** =




 * = **HELP WITH LITERATURE PART 1** =

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 * = **HELP WITH LITERATURE PART 2: SUMMARY VS. ANALYSIS** =

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 * = THE ELEMENTS OF A SHORT STORY =

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 * =** THE STORY MAP **=


 * = QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN DOING A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE[[file:reading_responses.pdf]] =



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CONTROVERSY @http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-27-spring-2005/books-under-fire
 * ** Article: Books Under Fire **


 * ** Letter Puts End to Persistent "Mockingbird" Rumour **

@http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=5244492&m=5244493

@http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,33108,00.html
 * ** Article: To Kill To Kill A Mockingbird **


 * **Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit**

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 * **Lyrics: Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit**

[From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/billie-holiday-lyrics/strange-fruit-lyrics.html ]
 * Southern trees bear strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
 * Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
 * Strange fruit hanging from the popular trees
 * Pastoral scene of the gallant south
 * The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
 * Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
 * Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
 * Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
 * For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
 * For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
 * Here is a strange and bitter cry


 * Strange Fruit**" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who released her first recording of it in 1939, the year she first sang it. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred chiefly in the Southern United States but also in all other regions of the United States. The writer, Abel, set it to music and with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan, performed it as a protest song in New York venues.

The song has been covered by numerous artists, as well as inspiring novels, other poems and other creative works. In 1978 Holiday's version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It was also included in the list of //Songs of the Century//, by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. (Wikipedia)


 * IMAGE: //The Problem We All Live With// by Norman Rockwell




 * INTERTEXTUALITY: is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. (wikipedia.prg)

Many readers might call into mind the story from Genesis 39: 7-20. You can find different translations at Bible Online Compare the following Genesis passage to the scene in //To Kill a Mockingbird// where Mayella Ewell tries to seduce Tom Robinson. "7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, "Lie with me." 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Lo, having me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand; 9 he is not greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" 10 And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie with her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, "Lie with me." But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and got out of the house. 13 And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, "See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice; 15 and when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment with me, and fled and got out of the house." 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, "The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to insult me; 18 but as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment with me, and fled out of the house." 19 When his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, "This is the way your servant treated me," his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison." ([])
 * For example: **

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 * ** A SYNOPSIS OF TRAYVON MARTIN'S CASE **
 * ** President Obama's Response to Martin's Case **
 * Wall Street Journal: **What Would Atticus Do? 'To Kill a Mockingbird' meets the Trayvon Martin shooting. By WILLIAM MCGURN

What Would Atticus Do? 'To Kill a Mockingbird' meets the Trayvon Martin shooting.By WILLIAM MCGURN