Understanding Setting and Character Development:

Notes on Setting:
Aspects of setting include time (age in life and historical era), place (geographical features, living environment, and physical objects within one's environment), as well as current way of thinking at a given time. The era of To Kill a Mockingbird is the early 1930s. The Great Depression had just occurred and people didn't have much money. Many were very poor. The events of the plot unfold in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, where racism is rampant and segregation laws and customs mandate the separation of the black and white races. The size of the town is also significant; it becomes readily apparent that everyone knows everybody else's business, resulting in very constricting social expectations and constraints. As in all small towns, deviation from social norms creates social tension and conflict.

Notes on Character Development:
The narrator, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, her older brother Jem, and their father Atticus are major characters in the novel. But Scout's and Jem's  coming of age unfolds through their adventures and experiences with a young friend, Dill, and run-ins with an assortment of  relatives and local adults, including the reclusea loner who doesn't want to have contact with others  Boo Radley.  Pay attention to the following characteristics of the whole cast of characters.

1. Concreteness: Observe details about important characters' homes, possessions, personal tastes, habits, opinions, etc. Try to imagine the character in his/her own setting.

2. Speech: The content and manner of a person's speech suggest a particular demeanor. Pay attention not only to what a character says, but how he or she delivers the message. Is the person bold or reticent, polished or crude, sensitive or sarcastic, patient or petulant, courageous or cowardly, considerate or self-centered, respectful or hateful?  Be aware of the relationship between the content and manner of speech and the character's social and ethnic background.

3. Behavior: The way one behaves reveals a great deal about the ethical, psychological , and social development of a particular character. Is the behavior consistent or inconsistent? How does the character react under different forms of stress? What does this reveal about the character's personal strengths or weaknesses? What is the impact of one character's behavior on others?

4. Motivation: What ethical judgments, moral values, and beliefs, or what economic, social or racial conditions drive a character to make decisions, particularly difficult ones? Does the reason for a particular action seem self-centered or other-centered (altruistic)? Impulsive or pragmatic? Vengeful or forgiving? What does a character hope to achieve by his/her actions or decisions?

5. Change: Change is a marker of personal development or of regression. Track the personal changes that occur as important characters face internal and external conflicts brought on by their own human condition or by their environment or uncontrollable  events. Do they become wiser, more fully developed human beings or do they regress further into undesirable  ways of being?