To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Topics

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Topics

1. Analyze the relationship between Boo Radley and the children. How does this relationship change throughout the book? What are the causes of the developments in this relationship?

2. Discuss the concept of fear as presented in the novel. Compare the children's early fear of Boo Radley to their fear or lack thereof when Bob Ewell attacks them. Is Scout correct in stating that real fear can only be found in books?

3. Discuss the concept of family and Lee's presentation of the American family. What does it consist of?

4. Although critized openly, Atticus is respected throughout the town of Maycomb. Why is this true?

5. Discuss the concept of education. Does Lee argue for a dominance of education in the home or institutionalized education? What evidence does she provide?

6. Discuss the concept of education. Does Lee argue for a dominance of education in the home or institutionalized education? What evidence does she provide?

7. Trace the theme of the mockingbird throughout the novel and analyze what the bird symbolizes or represents.

8. Trace Boo Radley's development from monster to savior. How does Scout's understanding of Boo develop? What lessons does Boo teach Scout?

9. Discuss Atticus's approach to parenting. What is his relationship with his children? Can his parenting style be criticized? If so, how?

10. Scout and Jem mature considerably through the course of the novel. What developmental changes do they go through, and what causes these changes?

11. Discuss the town of Maycomb as you might discuss a main character in the book. What is the identity or "character" of the town, and how (if at all) does it change and grow over the years? How does its diversity give it a pluralistic character?

12. Discuss law as it is represented in To Kill A Mockingbird. What power and limitations exist within the legal system according to Atticus, Jem, and Scout?

13. Why does Boo stay in the house?

14. Describe the changes that Scout and(or) Jem go through and how they are significant to understanding the central themes found in the novel.

15. Despite the unwavering dedication of Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird", the absence of evidence, and a moving courtroom speech, Tom Robinson is convicted of a crime that he did not commit. This jury ruling causes both those who advocated Robinson’s conviction and those who were convinced of his innocence to question their notions of justice and fairness. As if a false conviction was not enough, Tom is eventually killed, and the sense of justice and fairness seem to be completely violated. Write an argumentative essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" in which you establish what Lee is trying to convey regarding these two concepts that are so important to civil society. Questions that you might want to consider include: If justice and fairness are so elusive, how can Atticus and Scout continue to believe in them?, and Are justice and fairness conflicting concepts in "To Kill a Mockingbird"?

16. The most obvious form of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism; however, there are other types of prejudice and discrimination that typify relationships among the novel’s characters. Scout, for example, is ridiculed in "To Kill a Mockingbird" because she is a tomboy. Boo Radley is ostracized despite the fact that hardly anyone knows him. Reverse racism is also present in the novel, as evidenced by the threats against Atticus Finch and his family as he defends Tom Robinson. Take one or more of the forms of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird and write an analytic essay in which you explain the forms and, if applicable, compare and contrast the types of discrimination. You should argue whether the lessons about discrimination that Scout learns are applicable to all types of prejudice, or whether they apply to racism alone.

17. Scout and her brother Jem are both children of the morally passionate lawyer, Atticus Finch, and both are exposed to the same experiences that shape their sense of right and wrong. Yet Scout and Jem come to dramatically different conclusions about good and evil and the essential nature of humankind. Write an expository essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" in which you develop an understanding of how Scout and Jem arrive at such disparate concepts of the world. Be sure to consider not only the final worldview at which each arrives, but to look at the novel as a whole and identify how their belief systems develop. Include relevant quotations that demonstrate how, despite their shared experiences, Scout and Jem begin to part ways, philosophically speaking, early in the novel.

18. The town of Maycomb is described in great detail in "To Kill a Mockingbird", so much so that the reader gets the sense that Maycomb is more than a setting; it takes on the weight and importance of a character. Write an expository or persuasive essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" in which you describe Maycomb and explain its significance with respect to the events and meaning of the novel. Be sure to dig beneath the surface: it’s easy to say that Maycomb is a Southern town and that certain social dynamics—such as racism—shape the characters and their circumstances, but there are also more subtle characteristics about the town that exert influence over the novel’s outcome. Finally, consider whether Maycomb is changed by the conclusion. It shapes people and events, but it is also shaped by its inhabitants and their actions.

19. One of the most inspiring characters in 20^th century American literature is Atticus Finch. A morally upright lawyer, a committed and loving father, and an overall good citizen, Finch is regarded highly by most citizens with a sense of justice. Write an essay in which you analyze Atticus Finch's character. You may wish to focus the content of your essay by selecting a single quote or passage (consider a portion of the courtroom speech, for instance) and explaining how it reflects Finch’s character strengths. Address whether Finch has any flaws, and explain how he conveys his beliefs to his children and his community.

Helpful Quotations

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men's stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.” (11)

“It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company. Sometimes I did not understand him, but my periods of bewilderment were short-lived.” (61)

“Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.” (100)

“They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” (114)

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” (116)

“So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animalscan be stopped, simply because they're still human.” (163)

“The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” (220)

“I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.” (227)

“The witnesses for the state…have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber. Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men cannot be trusted around women, black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men….” (217)

“I don't know [how they could convict Tom Robinson], but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep…." (225)