TKAM Period 7

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Reader Responses: Part II

    80.  Analyze the mob scene in chapter fifteen.  What is the author’s purpose in including this scene in the novel?  What is significant about the role Scout plays in the scene?

    81. Write a character analysis of Bob Ewell, based on his testimony in chapter sixteen.

    82. Analyze Lee’s portrayal of Mayella Ewell in chapter seventeen.  Is she a sympathetic character?  Why or why not?

    83. How does Atticus quietly protest the Jim Crow laws even before the trial begins?

    84. Over the past fifty years, this book has been challenged repeatedly by the political left and right, and has been banned from public libraries and schools in many states, due to its portrayal of conflict between children and adults, ungrammatical speech, references to the supernatural, and unfavorable presentation of blacks.  In your view, should this book be taught in public schools, in this country, today? (Remember: third person!!).

    85. Discuss race issues in this book.  Why does Calpurnia speak differently around other Black people?  Why does Mr. Raymond pretend he is drunk all of the time?  What social commentary is Lee making in these characterizations?

    86. How does the trial and everything surrounding it change the town?  How does it change Jem and Scout?

    87.  Jem describes to Scout the four “folks” or classes of people in Maycomb County: “our kind don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks.”  Analyze the ways in which Lee explores race and class in 1930s Alabama.  What significance, if any, do these characterizations have for people living in other parts of the world?

    88. How does Harper Lee use the literary device, irony, in chapter twenty-four?  Analyze the interaction between Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra.

    89. Respond to Tom Robinson’s actions at the end of chapter twenty-five.  Was this inevitable?  Why might Lee have chosen this ending?

    90. How does Harper Lee once again use the literary device, irony, in Miss Gates’ history lesson?  What parallels can be drawn between Hitler’s ideology and Maycomb’s society? 

    91. Analyze Lee’s portrayal of the attack in chapter 28.  What literary devices does she use to create suspense?

    92. Compare the way Jem, Scout, and Dill characterize Boo Radley at the beginning of this novel with the way he is portrayed in the conclusion.  In what way does Boo’s past history of violence foreshadow his method of protecting Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell?  Does this repetition of aggression make him more or less of a sympathetic character?

    93. Why does Atticus argue with Heck Tate regarding Jem’s role in the assault?  What is Tate’s underlying message?

    94. The title of Lee’s book is alluded to when Atticus gives his children air rifles and tells them that they can shoot all the bluejays they want, but “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”.  At the end of the novel, Scout likens the “sin” of naming Book as Bob Ewell’s killer to “shootin a mockingbird”.  Is Boo the only innocent, or mockingbird, in this novel?

    95.  Write a reaction to Atticus’ last words in this novel.  Do you agree or disagree with him? (Note: remain in 3rd person!!)