Southern Dialect To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee

Southern Dialect To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee Born April 28, 1926

About the author • Grew up in Monroeville, Alabama • Her father, a lawyer and state legislator, was a descendant of General Robert E Lee • Lee was an avid reader and from a young age wanted to become a writer

More About the Author • Attended University of Alabama and later moved to NYC to pursue a writing career • After two years of writing and revising, To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960

About the novel • To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success • Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 • Voted best novel of the century by Library Journal in 1999

More About the Novel • 1991 survey by the Library of Congress asked readers to rank books that had made a significant difference in their lives. TKAM ranked second after the Bible. • TKAM is the only novel Lee ever published • For more than 40 years, Lee has declined to comment on her novel, letting it speak for itself

Style • Coming of Age • Lee chose a form of fiction that explicitly deals with the main characters growing up and maturing. • Language • Lee employs colloquial language – esp. in the speech of the characters (dialogue) and in the descriptions of setting

Style Cont. Narration • Double-layered narration is used. • Beginning & End: • The older Scout explicitly tells the story at the outset of the novel and at its end. • Middle: • In the middle, the story is told from the perspective of Scout as a child. However, there are points in the novel where the two narrators are almost telling the story at the same time.

1920 s Culture What was hot in the 20 s? • Mahjong (title game) • The Charleston (sweet dances moves!) • Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Rudolph Valentino (actors) • Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (writers) • George Gershwin (music)

1930 s Culture What was hot in the 30 s? • • • Bingo (games) Shirley Temple (actors) The Lindy (dance crazy) “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? ” (music) Gone With the Wind (movies) “The Lone Ranger, ” “Little Orphan Annie, ” and “The Shadow” (tv shows)

Diction is a writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning. Diction can be elevated, formal, informal, complex, lofty, idiomatic, etc. Slang • A very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language. Examples: Chillun - Southern pronunciation of the word children Jem's use of the words "yonder, " "reckon, " "breeches (britches), " "moseyin', " "naw: ("no"),

All Things Southern Dialect that you may not know. . . All-fired: extremely, very Britches: pants or trousers Knowed: variation of knew Po': pronunciation of poor Sho': pronunciation of sure Tol'able: pronunciation of tolerable, meaning fair, or pretty good Totin': pronunciation of toting, meaning carrying

All Things Southern Chillun - Southern pronunciation of the word children Collards - A variety of greens grown principally in the South Crockersack. Originally a crocus sack: a burlap sack, named because the bulbs of crocus flowers were shipped in similar sacks.

Colloquial E xpressions • A phrase that appears more often in spoken than in written language. • Colloquial expressions are similar to slang, but tend to be more universal, whereas slang can often be limited to a particular social group. • It is also characterized as more familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing. Examples: • Bootleggers: people who make and/or sell illegal liquor • Holy-rollers: a member of a small religious sect that expresses devotion by shouting and moving around during worship services. • I aien't coming down… Suit yourself. • Note that "aien't" is very incorrect for "is not. " Don't use it! • "Suit yourself" is an interesting way to say "Do what you want. "

All Things Southern Rabbit Tobacco. A nickname for balsamweed, a plant used as a tobacco substitute by children

All Things Southern • A Chifforobe is a piece of furniture that has drawer on one half and a hanging closet on the other half.

Quotes Direct speech • Direct or quoted speech is a sentence (or several sentences) that reports speech or thought in its original form, as phrased by the first speaker. • It is usually enclosed in quotation marks. (“ ”) Example: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. . . Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. ” ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (chapter 3)

Quotes

Videos To Kill a Mockingbird Quotes by Shmoop (2: 55 mins): http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=h. Xzlkw. Ur_9 M Motifs: http: //www. 60 secondrecap. com/study-guide/harper-lee-to-kill-amockingbird-motifs/