To Kill a Mockingbird Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literature and Philosophy

  • Bram Stoker, Dracula (1.32)
  • Oliver Optic (1.39)
  • Victor Appleton (1.39)
  • Edgar Rice Burroughs (1.39)
  • Tarzan (1.39), (4.96)
  • The Rover Boys (1.39), (4.44)
  • Tom Swift (1.39), (1.68), (8.104)
  • Merlin (1.39)
  • Seckatary Hawkins, The Gray Ghost (1.68), (1.87), (31.40), (31.40-47)
  • Tarzan and the Ant Men (2.2)
  • My First Reader (2.11)
  • The Bible (2.27), (5.35), (12.126), (19.126)
  • Old Testament (5.8)
  • Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe (11.69), (11.80), (11.84), (11.110), (11.121)
  • Shadrach (12.23)
  • Garden of Gethsemane (12.54)
  • Blackstone's Commentaries (12.132)
  • Moses (12.142), (23.59)
  • Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes (17.158)
  • Mr. Jingle (18.62), a character in Charles Dickens's The Pickwick Papers
  • Three Fingered Fred (31.49)
  • Stoner's Boy (31.49-51)

Historical References

  • Andrew Jackson (1.3), (28.45)
  • John Wesley (1.4)
  • Lorenzo Dow (2.18)
  • Brigadier General Joe Wheeler (5.82)
  • Bellingraths (8.44)
  • General Hood (9.26)
  • Stonewall Jackson (9.26)
  • Lord Melbourne (9.174)
  • Dixie Howell (11.34)
  • Windy Seaton (11.130)
  • Governor William Wyatt Bibb (13.30)
  • Lydia E. Pinkham (13.32)
  • Herbert Hoover (14.1)
  • Henry W. Grady (15.22)
  • Braxton Bragg (16.6)
  • Robert E. Lee (17.58)
  • Thomas Jefferson (20.50)
  • John D. Rockefeller (20.51)
  • Albert Einstein (20.51)
  • Eleanor Roosevelt (24.55)
  • Adolf Hitler (26.14-56))
  • Elmer Davis (26.36)
  • Bob Taylor (27.3)
  • Cotton Tom Heflin (27.17)

Pop Culture

  • One Man's Family (4.102)
  • Hunt's The Light of the World (12.54)
  • "Jubilee" (12.75)
  • "On Jordan's Stormy Banks" (12.89)
  • "Nearer My God to Thee" (15.45)
  • "Amazing Grace" (24.25)
  • "Sweetly Sings the Donkey" (26.12)
  • Uncle Natchell (26.13)