Courtroom furniture

 
         

Rehearsal Questions 9/21/15

1930's Chifforobe 

Early 1900's Chifforobe

• The chifforobe became popular to the 1900's, also known as a mule chest
• In 1710 rocking chairs we invented off of the use of an old chair with ice skates added to it, but it was not a patented product into 1787. The use of the rocking chair is used to symbolize the old south in many literary works such as Tennessee Williams and Harper Lee. 

Questions of Rehearsal 9/15

Maycomb pronunciation- Looking this up I found many different versions of what the "Correct" pronunciation Mae-come is what the movie decided. May-C-oh-m is how many people have pronounced it as well in both book readings and pronunciation guides. At the end of the day it is a fictional town, so it does not have a real pronunciation. Harper Lee never specified how it should be pronounced, SO as long as it is a group choice of one way to pronounce it I will be happy.

Hoover Carts- In the 1930's many people could no longer afford gasoline for their cars, so they would hitch horses to pull it instead. Others would take scraps of cars and old wood and build a cart. These were nicknamed Hoover Carts after president Herbert Hoover who the people mainly blamed for the Depression.






Flowers (This will get its own full post): Flowers are actually in the book

Miss Maude- Mimosa’s and Azaleas

Miss Dubose- Camelia

Mayella- Geraniums

Calla Lilys (Not Associated with anyone)

Radley’s- Rabbit Tobacco and Johnson Grass

Props in period

Vintage Props not completed but the start of what the things you are dealing with!

Indian head penny

Liver-Colored Bird Dog

Turnip Bag

1930's Football

So, What was going on in 1933?

UNDER CONSTRUCTION PLEASE DO NOT USE TO SOURCE

The Great Depression

• What was 'The Great Depression'?"

"The Great Depression" was a period in the United States which created a lot of hardships and tragedy that swept the country. Many people became unemployed and remained out of work throughout "The Great Depression". "The Great Depression" started in 1929 and finished in the early 1940's; it went for an extremely long time. The start of this downfall was the crash of the Stock Market. This is deemed as the start of "The Great Depression". With the stock market crashing, a lot of people went into panic mode and tried selling all their stocks but no one was buying. The cycle had begun and the Stock Market led to bankruptcy.

• What had happened previously?

Many things had happened before “The Great Depression” on many levels. The biggest and most major influence to the depression was World War 1. Over the conflict that went for 4 years a lot of money and time would have been put into the war and many countries had close to no money left because of this. This was the exact lead-up to "The Great Depression". People felt like the end of the war would be the end of their problems therefore they felt a sense of being unbeatable and people were being very lenient in their business and were lending money on a regular basis and a fair bit was being given out as a result to this. In the end, these procedures crumbled and this was the lead-up to "The Great Depression".

• Why was the South affected greatly by it?

When "The Great Depression" came along, the South was deeply affected as the civil war had just concluded and they were the poorest region in the whole of America during the 'depression'. The 'depression wasn't the factor that made people in the South go poor, people in the South were already poor; even before the stock market crash. Therefore, adding "The Great Depression" of 1929 to the equation meant the South would be in such a bad position, that some families couldn't even feed their families on a day-to-day basis.

As the 'depression' was occurring, things were going downhill for the South; and quick. An amazing statistic was recorded in one year of the 'depression'. Out of 5,280 farms that were open in a county in North Carolina, 3,500 had to foreclose because of the devastating effects the 'depression' had. Policies were introduced and even the president of American recognized that the South was in definite need of 'repair'.

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The South

• Where were the people from?
  The people in the South (Southern United States) were made up of people from the following regions: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Southern United States was deemed the South for it's different circumstances. Some of these circumstances included the crop patterns as well as having a growing system that was longer then usual.People in the South were and still are so religious and why this has come about is difficult to question. Statistics were collected and the southern part of the United States was the most religious from the whole of the U.S.
  
• The History of Slavery in the USA:
  As you would have realised by now, everything has got some significance to do with the South, well so does the history of slavery in the USA. Most slaves lived in the South! Some significant statistics that have been collected showed that in 1680 there was less then a tenth of slaves in the South but as time went on this grew to a third of the population being slaves in 1790. So even before "The Great Depression" even started, the South was significantly poor with time. What an impact "The Great Depression" must have had on the poor people of the South!
  The statistics continue with some staggering proof of how bad slavery really was in the U.S.A. but most especially the South! 
  
  The following table was collected from the Historical Statistics of the U.S. in 1970 by EH.net showing to us the population of the South as well as how many of those people were slaves.

Year	White	Free Non-White	Slave
1790	1,240,454	32,523	654,121
1800	1,691,892	61,575	851,532
1810	2,118,144	97,284	1,103,700
1820	2,867,454	130,487	1,509,904
1830	3,614,600	175,074	1,983,860
1840	4,601,873	207,214	2,481,390
1850	6,184,477	235,821	3,200,364
1860	6,184,477	253,082	3,950,511

This table shows us the growing number of slaves just in the South alone. Did you know that 42% of all slaves in the U.S. lived in Virginia?

• What impact did it have on the attitudes of people in Alabama in the 1930’s?
  People from Alabama around this time did not have much of a sympathetic bone in their body. If you were a slave and you were African-American, you were probably treated the worst and had to deal with several racial taunts and prejudice's (one of the themes of "To Kill A Mockingbird"). Many whites had untrue perceptions of African-Americans and this had an effect to how they treated them. The "Jim Crow" laws definitely did not help for a better society and they only worsened people's treatment of African-American.
• What would it have been like to be African-American in 1930’s Alabama?
  Referring to the table above, you can see how many of those people were slaves. You can be sure that a lot of those slaves were indeed African-Americans as they weren't treated rightly and there wasn't this sense of multiculturalism that we have in a lot of countries today. 
  
• What is Jim Crow?
  Jim Crow is the name given to describe a few laws that are associated with segregation during the period of 1877 to mid-1960's. These laws were against blacks and pretty much took away all the rights they were granted previously. This was a terrible period for them. The term "Jim Crow" derived from a song and soon evolved into being a word to describe blacks with. The word wasn't as harsh as the term nigger though. Here are a few banners which portray the "Jim Crow" experience:
  

  No Dogs, Negros, Mexicans

  Seated in Rear

  
  

  restroom sign

  ticket

  drinking fountains

  
  
  There were set rules and etiquette procedures blacks had to follow, just to name a few:
  - At an intersection, white motorists were allowed first at all times.
  - Public displays of affection were against the law for blacks as it offended white people.
  
• The Role Of Women:
  If they were from a family with a higher status they were expected to throw parties and take care of entertainment. They did not have to take care of their children or tend to the house as that is what the servant was there for.
  
  The women in the middle class were a bit like women today, they had more jobs to do but also had some freedom in organizing things. These women usually were very educated as well. The role of the lower class females was not much different the the lower class men. They all did the same jobs regardless of their gender and also worked as hard as each other. They were not allowed to 

• Entertainment:
  Entertainment was a large part of the South as explained previously. Women especially loved organizing dances, parties and lunches. Any form of entertainment is where people met and conversed. Although entertainment was a big part of the culture of the South at those times, slaves weren't really allowed there therefore continuing this cycle for slaves for many and many generations with an increasing number of slaves as shown in the tables above.

• Ku Klux Klan (KKK):
  The Ku Klux Klan in the 1930's was a big deal for Alabama. After the civil war is when they made their first appearance in Alabama. They wanted control over African-Americans of that time and bonded together to make sure that happened. All of these people believed in white supremacy which we all know is completely wrong in a society like ours where we respect everyone and promote multiculturalism. The KKK went further then "Jim Crow" and promoted those policies but went about their day by believing they have overall control and superiority to African-Americans. A disturbing fact to note is that during the 1920's there was a recorded amount of 150,000+ members of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama alone.
  
  Although referenced in "To Kill A Mockingbird", the Ku Klux Klan is never a main part of the plot but the text can be analysed to show some policies and theories that "Jim Crow" and the Ku Klux Klan had. You could say they worked hand in hand.

Themes

NOTE: THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION. PLEASE DO NOT USE AS A SOURCED SITE OF INFORMATION UNTIL COMPLETED.

Good & Evil

Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird only two characters are seen as being completely good as juxtaposed to the amount of evil in Maycomb. Atticus and Boo Radley are these characters and throughout the book these people are used as a platform to attempt to better the other characters. Atticus is seen as a father figure, enforcing his views on his children and this teaches them from a young age the distinction between good & evil and right & wrong.

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Childhood & Growing Up

The fact that it's a sin to kill a mockingbird is used throughout the novel, especially throughout this theme. Mrs Dubose suffers from an addiction around chapter 11. This character allows Atticus to explain to his children what real courage is, not a man with a gun but someone on the door-step of death.
This addiction allows the book to compare how Jem has grown up, in a sense as compared to how he was previously.
Jem leads the phase of transition towards maturity in the novel. Towards the beginning Jem and the majority of underage characters seemed immature. Such examples of this immaturity include the game they played, mocking the Radleys. However as the novel continues Jem becomes quite more mature, to a point where he asserts dominance over the other children.

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The Existence of Social and Racial Inequality

Throughout the novel, the reader is made aware of the social status that is determining where society places different individuals. There is an overcomplicated social hierarchy in Maycomb, and this determines how the case, in particular is conducted and the decision that is made about the accused. We are brought two main examples of two very different families in different statuses.
We become aware that the Finches are a well-off family who are respected and known by the people of Maycomb. However Tom Robinson's family, being "black" is considered to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy. They are not respected and trusted by many people in Maycomb.

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Small-town Life

In the novel, small town life is a very dominant theme as the setting takes place in a small country town of Maycomb. An important part of the novel is when Miss Maudie's house sets on fire. All the people of Maycomb rush to help, and try to get Miss Maudie's possessions out before they were ruined. This automatically portrays to the reader that the town consists of one big family where people are willing to help each other in times of need and desperation.
Small town life is also portrayed through the novel through the quote that states; "There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County."PG 6. This quote states that the people had always lived in Maycomb and that they were content to continue living a small-town life.

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The Importance of Moral Education

In the beginning of the book, until the ending, we learn about the importance of moral education to the Finches family. The major example of this is Scout's determination to keep reading with Atticus. This is expressed when Miss Caroline rigidly comments on the educational techniques that Atticus was using to teach Scout how to read. Scout returns home, with low spirits and after recounting the day's events to Atticus, to her delight Atticus had proposed that they make a compromise. This was extremely important to Scout as she enjoyed reading with her father and wanted him to continue teaching her his ways.

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Map of Maycomb (For Reference)

Source: Enotes.com