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"To Kill Mockingbird by Harper LeeNAL-TFC Team's Presentation"

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Four key questions about Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird

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Four key questions about Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird

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a video about the author's influences...

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Four key questions about Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

To Kill a Mockingbird

What is To Kill a Mockingbird about?

Set in fictional Maycomb, Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird centres on the awakening of a young girl, Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch, to racism and prejudice in her town. When one of the town's black residents is falsely accused of a crime against a white woman, Scout's father, Atticus Finch, agrees to defend the young man.

Meanwhile, Scout and her brother take part in their own smaller drama surrounding the town's recluse, Arthur ("Boo") Radley.

What inspired Harper Lee to write To Kill a Mockingbird?

It's believed that Harper Lee was inspired by her own life growing up in Monroeville, Alabama. The plot of To Kill a Mockingbird is reportedly based on a trial where Lee's father-a lawyer like Atticus Finch-served as a defense counsel for two African American men accused of murdering a white storekeeper.

How did people respond to To Kill a Mockingbird?

When it was published in 1960, initial critical responses to To Kill a Mockingbird were mixed, but its popularity grew. The book sold over 500,000 copies in its first year of publication.

Lee received the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, and the book was adapted into a film, which won three Academy Awards. Today the book remains popular and is part of many high-school English curricula.

Why is To Kill a Mockingbird a significant text?

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best-known and most widely read books in the United States. It's been translated into 40 languages, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, and is a staple on U.S. high-school reading lists.

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Significance of Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird examined

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To Kill a Mockingbird What is To Kill a Mockingbird about? Set in fictional Maycomb, Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird centres on the awakening of a young girl, Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch, to racism and prejudice in her town.

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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

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Play Audio File Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Millions of high school students have read "To Kill a Mockingbird." The novel by Harper Lee offers moral lessons about racial justice and respect. It tells the story of a young girl named Scout and her father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer. He defends a black man wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. In the end, an all-white jury sentences Tom Robinson to death.

The book is set in the American South in the nineteen thirties. But it was published fifty years ago, on July eleventh, nineteen sixty. It came out as the civil rights movement in the United States was gaining strength. Laws and customs in the South, however, still kept blacks and whites mostly separated.

A mockingbird is a kind of gray songbird. The book gets its title from something Atticus Finch was told in his childhood when his father gave him a gun. Gregory Peck won an Academy Award for the nineteen sixty-two film version.

ATTICUS FINCH: "I remember when my daddy first gave me that gun, he told me that I should never point at anything in the house, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit them. But remember, it was a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Killing them is a sin, he explains, because they don't hurt anyone, they just make music. And that is the moral of the story, says Melinda Byrd-Murphy, head of the Alabama Center for Literary Arts.

She has read the book four times.

MELINDA BYRD-MURPHY: "I think if anything, this story talks about humanity and the universality of humans and how there's goodness in people and you just have to get to know one another."

Ms. Byrd-Murphy is a native of Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville. The author, who published only the one novel, is still alive but rarely speaks publicly.

Some people say "To Kill a Mockingbird" treats racism in a way that is simplistic, even offensive to blacks, and out of date in today's America. Still, it has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold over forty million copies. It won a Pulitzer Prize and is often required reading in high school.

The story takes place in a town that Harper Lee called Maycomb. But she based the characters on real people she knew growing up.

Since then, Monroeville has changed a lot. A number of African-Americans serve in the local government. The courthouse, made famous by the book, is now a museum. A small shop and a fast-food restaurant called Mel's Dairy Dream have replaced Harper Lee's childhood home.

But in Monroeville and around the country, fans of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Events include readings, discussions and movie showings.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, with reporting by Anna Boiko-Weyrauch. I'm Steve Ember.

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Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

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Play Audio File Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link) This is the VOA Special English Education Report. Millions of high school students have read "To Kill a Mockingbird." The novel by Harper Lee offers moral lessons about racial justice and respect.

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StoryJumper: Make and read illustrated story books

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https://youtu.be/6hoRyRAcmUI

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Skip's ESL BITS - English Language Learning - ESL Listening Stories, Songs, Audiobooks

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to kill a mockingbird free online study guide

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To Kill a Mockingbird: Study Guide | SparkNotes

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From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.

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Presentation video of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee...

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Presentation video of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee...