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00:00Hey Moby, ahhh!
00:16A creepy monster lives here?
00:27You know better than to listen to neighborhood gossip.
00:31Dear Tim and Moby, We just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird
00:34in school, but I don't get the title.
00:38What does it have to do with the story?
00:40From Celia.
00:43Titles can be tricky sometimes.
00:45Their meaning is usually tied to a book's central theme, its main message.
00:50It's no different with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.
00:55The story is set in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
01:02It focuses on the Finch family, the young narrator, Scout, her older brother, Jem, and
01:07their father, Atticus.
01:09The book follows Scout on her adventures in the fictional town of Maycomb.
01:14It's very similar to the town where Harper Lee grew up.
01:18This was the Jim Crow South, where segregation was a way of life.
01:22African Americans were kept apart from whites, at school, at the movies, everywhere.
01:27The places set aside for them were usually inferior.
01:31On top of that, they faced violence and many other hardships.
01:37The story reflects Harper Lee's family life, too.
01:41Like Scout's dad, her father was also a lawyer.
01:44He was a heroic figure who had a lot in common with Atticus.
01:48He defended many innocent victims of the segregated South.
01:53Lee wrote her book in the late 1950s, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement.
01:58Life in the South was changing as people worked to end segregation.
02:02Readers around the world were hungry for a first-hand portrait of the troubled region.
02:07When To Kill a Mockingbird came out in 1960, it was a huge success.
02:12It won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an award-winning movie.
02:16It was an instant classic of Southern Gothic literature.
02:21That's a genre that deals with the identity of the American South.
02:25It's depicted as a ruined country with a tragic history.
02:28To communicate that, the settings are often creepy and decayed.
02:33Supernatural beings and sinister events create a haunted mood, and the characters are often
02:38outcasts from normal society.
02:41This is where Mockingbirds come in.
02:44In several passages, they're described as harmless and innocent.
02:47They go on about their business, happily singing their songs.
02:52Atticus says that hurting one would be a sin.
02:56Exactly.
02:57Certain characters in the book are just like Mockingbirds.
03:02Boo Radley, Scout's mysterious neighbor, keeps to himself, never bothering anyone.
03:07That makes him the target of cruel gossip.
03:11Scout and Jem are warned to keep away, simply because he's different.
03:16Rumors can be powerful weapons, especially in small towns.
03:21Many people rely on them to form their opinions and justify their beliefs.
03:25In Maycomb, petty gossip creates an atmosphere of fear and intolerance.
03:31Yep, Lee was definitely making a comparison to the segregated South.
03:37Scout and Jem are exposed to its evils through the book's other Mockingbird character, Tom
03:41Robinson.
03:42He's a kind man who doesn't think twice about helping others.
03:47But since he's African-American, that instinct lands him in jail, accused of a serious crime.
03:53In the novel's most thrilling scenes, Atticus defends Tom in court.
03:59The Finches are much more sympathetic to people like Tom and Boo.
04:04Scout comes to realize that initial impressions can be totally wrong, and how biases prevent
04:10us from appreciating the beauty in things.
04:13Atticus tells her that the only way to understand someone is to climb into his skin and walk
04:18around.
04:20Dude, not literally.
04:26Atticus meant seeing things from other people's point of view.
04:29Oh yeah, good catch.
04:32A Finch is a type of bird, too.
04:35And in a way, Jem and Scout are like Mockingbirds.
04:39They lose their innocence as they come face to face with evil in the real world.
04:43That's what makes this a coming-of-age novel.
04:46It follows characters as they grow from children into young adults.
04:51For Scout, it's about developing a more complex view of good and evil.
04:56Instead of seeing them as separate, she comes to understand that in most situations, they're
05:00all mixed together.
05:02That sense of moral ambiguity marks her advance toward maturity.
05:07I wish you'd advance toward maturity... sometimes.