When
he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the
elbow. ...
When
enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes
discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells
started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started
long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when
Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.
What should you
know reading the book:
The
Author. Harper
Lee's life seems to have provided the basis for much of the novel.
The description of Scout's neighborhood matches closely the neighborhood
of the Lee family. A recent book edited by the Monroe County Heritage
Museum, Monroeville:
The Search for Harper Lee's Maycomb, provides a wealth of
information, including maps of both the neighborhood of the story
and the real Monroeville, Alabama, and pictures of such places as
the real-life Radley
house and the street where she lived. Other sites show maps.
Dill.
Famous writer Truman
Capote was the basis for Dill. Capote
was author of two stories you might recognize: "Miriam"
and "Christmas Memory." Capote spent time living with his
aunts
in Monroeville. Later, as adults, Lee joined Capote in Kansas when
he did research for In Cold Blood.
The
Trial. An infamous trial of the period was the Scottboro
trial.
The
Time Period. Scout says that "Maycomb County had recently
been told that it had nothing
to fear, but fear itself." That locks the time period of
the beginning of the action of the story 1933. Scout is 6 when Dill
arrives and Jem is nearly 10. Therefore, the climax of the book occurs
in 1936.
