Background

Question 1

What was a main reason for the USA civil war?

Answer 1

The North wanted to abolish slavery but the south wanted to keep it

Question 2

How was slavery abolished in 1865?

Answer 2

The North overwhelmed the south

Question 3

When did the ku klux klan form?

Answer 3

In the 1860’s

Question 4

What trial is tkamb allegedly based on?

Answer 4

The scottsboro trials

Question 5

When were the scottsboro trials?

Answer 5

1931

Question 6

Where were the scottsboro trials?

Answer 6

Alabama

Question 7

What were the scottsboro boys accused of?

Answer 7

The 9 black scottsboro boys were accused of raping 2 whites women

Question 8

What happened at the scottsboro trials?

Answer 8

The 9 black men were found guilty despite the medical evidence that the 2 women were not raped

Question 9

What was the final outcome for the scottsboro boys?

Answer 9

All of the men, except the youngest, were sentenced to death. Some of them served prison time but almost all of them were freed

Question 10

When did harper lee write tkamb? What was happening at the time?

Answer 10

She wrote tkamb in the late 1950’s during the civil rights movement

Question 11

Why did lee write tkamb?

Answer 11

To show that racism is unfair

Question 12

Why did profits suffer after the abolition of slavery?

Answer 12

People had to employ paid staff instead of having their unpaid slaves for free labour

Question 13

When did the American stock market collapse?

Answer 13

1929

Question 14

What were the consequences of the Wall Street crash?

Answer 14

Thousands of people lost their jobs and couldn’t make enough money to earn a living

Question 15

Why were the southern states hit the hardest by the Wall Street crash?

Answer 15

Crop prices fell and the southern economy was still recovering from the civil war that they lost and the abolition of slavery

Question 16

When was the Great Depression?

Answer 16

1929-late 1930’s

Question 17

Why were African Americans easy targets to blame for the poverty of the Great Depression?

Answer 17

A lot of farm land owners blamed the end of slavery for loss of profits and their poverty

Question 18

Why were black people still treated badly after the abolition of slavery?

Answer 18

The idea that black people were inferior had spread and was the norm

Question 19

What does it mean when scouts cousin, Ike Finch, is described as the county’s only surviving confederate veteran?

Answer 19

The war between the northern and southern states is still remembered by some

Question 20

What does the actions of the mob outside the county jail suggest?

Answer 20

That the motives of the KKK of violence to black people was still a very real threat

Question 21

When did the number of members in the kkk decline?

Answer 21

In the 1930’s

Question 22

How is the finch family history linked to the history of the South?

Answer 22

Their ancestor, Simon Finch, had three slaves and they started their family business of cotton farming

Question 23

What was the major crop in the South?

Answer 23

Cotton

Question 24

Why is it significant that there are a lot of references to the history of the southern USA in tkamb?

Answer 24

It means that people’s views will be difficult to change because the past is still really important to them

Question 25

When does scout tell us the finch family are southerners?

Answer 25

On the first page

Question 26

Why is it significant that the town is described in detail and the characters are familiar townspeople?

Answer 26

Lee wants maycomb to be recognisable to show that racism can happen in any southern American town

Question 27

Why is it significant that the prejudiced characters have good qualities too?

Answer 27

To show how even the likeable people in towns often have prejudices and that, for many people, racism was a part of life

Question 28

Why is it significant that nothing ever changes in maycomb?

Answer 28

To show that the town is stuck in its ways and it will take ages to change people’s attitudes

Question 29

Why should you mention the importance of the novels historical context in the exam?

Answer 29

Because the events of the 19th century have a big influence on the issue of race that the novel is based upon

Question 30

When was Franklin Roosevelt elected president?

Answer 30

1932

Question 31

What did Roosevelt introduce in order to help America recover from the Wall Street crash?

Answer 31

His new deal

Question 32

What were the aims of the new deal?

Answer 32

• relief: giving people financial help
• recovery: rebuilding USA industry and trade
• reform: changing conditions to ensure progress

Question 33

What is atticus referring to when he says times are hard for people?

Answer 33

Poverty caused by the depression

Question 34

Why did many black people agree with atticus?

Answer 34

Because he sympathises with black people and roots for them as he disagrees with the racism

Question 35

Why is the use of atticus’ dramatic irony when he says that white people are “going to pay the bill” for their treatment of black people, significant?

Answer 35

When people were reading the book, the civil rights movement was in full swing so the reader knows that atticus is correct

Question 36

What is dramatic irony?

Answer 36

When the reader realises the significance of what a character says or does before the other characters

Question 37

Who were Thomas shipp and abram smith?

Answer 37

2 young black men who were lynched in 1930 for being accused of rape and murder, even though they were never tried. They were killed by a lynch mob

Question 38

When was the abolition of slavery in USA?

Answer 38

1865