Mode of Communication in the Novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

Abstract

The present study entitled 'Mode of Communication in the Novel 'To kill a mockingbird' aimed to find out the mode of communication and the forms of spoken discourse in the written text by female White American and Black American characters in the novel in the 1960s. The extracted text data is that of both adult and child female characters. With the help of a check list the text extracts were analyzed to identify the sociolinguistic aspects of the written discourse and the form and styles of speaking. The research study was based on library research and the study followed the norms of Qualitative method of data in the form of 'quotes' extracted purposively after reading the novel thoroughly two times. After analyzing the text extracts it was found that the communication style of the female characters differed. Black Americans' style of communicating and the white Americans' style of communication differed. The mode of communication was influenced by the context and also by the child female character and the adult female character discourse. This study consists of four chapters. Chapter one deals with general background,review of related literature, objectives and significance of the study, Chapter two includes methodology of the study. Sources of data, sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the study were the components of this chapter. Chapter three consists of analysis and interpretation of the collected data. Chapter four discusses the findings and recommendations based on the analysis and interpretation of the data followed by references and appendices.