1. To Kill a Mockingbird
Final Notes

2. Where would you find information about Harper Lee’s early life?
Where could you find information about Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird?
What is the setting of the novel? (Time, place, customs)
What character traits describe Scout? Atticus? Jem?
What Point of View is used in the novel?
How do you determine tone and mood from the diction used in the story.

3. What is the difference between connotation and denotation of words?
Childlike, Youthful, Childish, Young.
Relaxed, Laid-back, Lackadaisical, Easy-going.
Slim, Skinny, Slender, Thin.
Cheap, Frugal, Miserly, Economical.
Young, Immature, Juvenile, Youthful.
Inquisitive, Interested, Curious, Convivial.

4. Words have both a denotative and a connotative meaning.
Denotation means the explicit or direct meaning of a word; the dictionary definition.
Monk
Connotation means the associated meaning of a word; the feelings or images that the word evokes.

5. What are sensory details?
What kind of conflicts are there in the story?
What does “discrepancy” mean?
What flashbacks are there in the book? What information of events of the past help us to understand what is going on?

6. Sections to reread carefully:
Chap. 11 Mrs. Dubose
Chap. 15 – the mob scene

7. Plot (two plots intertwined)
Tom Robinson: excellent account of hysteria caused by accusation of black man raping white woman in Deep South prior to Civil Rights movement
Boo Radley: explores attitudes toward mentally ill and how children learn important life lessons

8. Symbols
Mockingbird: innocent/ good people who need protection; injured/ destroyed through contact with evil. Maycomb treats fragile innocence of childhood harshly
Character Names
Jem: jewel
Scout: narrator; *explorer for understanding
Atticus: grandeur, classical virtues

9. Symbols (continued) Bird Imagery: Finch, Robinson
Calpurnia: fiercely loyal wife of Caesar; beyond reproach
Robert E. Lee Ewell: shows how best of South degenerated into a cruel, drunken, child-abusing criminal
Boo: spook who is painfully shy (unless protecting children)

10. Symbols (continued)
Guns: dangerous power of limited use; novel critical of owning a gun making a man
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. (Atticus)

11. Themes Goodness: Atticus, Calpurnia, Sheriff Heck Tate
Innocence: children, Tom, Boo
Evil: Mr. Ewell, Mr. Radley, Maycomb’s prejudice
Harm caused by racial prejudice
Tragedy of injustice and benefits of rule of law

12. Themes (continued) Importance of standing up to evil/ injustice
Poverty of physical violence as solution to conflict
Coming of Age*: recognizing existence of individual’s evil and good nature once irrational fear has been overcome

13. Themes (continued)
Attributes of masculinity (Atticus): nurturing, caring, tolerant, forgiving, respectful, considerate; non-violent while defending one’s beliefs, wise, respecting law, professionally competent
Exemplary parent: leads by example; children learn to be moral and to think for themselves

14. Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.)
Jem victimized by discovery of evil of racism during and after trial; Jem’s faith in humanity is badly damaged; thus, he becomes disillusioned
Scout maintains basic faith in human nature despite Tom’s conviction

15. Coexistence of Good and Evil
Exploration of moral nature of humans; are we essentially good or bad?
Scout and Jem transition from children who have never experienced evil and believe all people are good to confronting evil and incorporating it into their understanding of the world
Tom Robinson and Boo Radley not prepared for evil they encounter and are destroyed

16. Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.)
Atticus unique because he has experienced and understood evil without losing faith in human capacity for goodness
We must appreciate good qualities and understand bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and seeing life from their perspective
Possible to live w/ conscience w/out losing hope or becoming cynical
Atticus can admire Mrs. Dubose’s courage even while deploring her racism

17. Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.)
Scout’s progress as a character defined by her gradual understanding of Atticus’s lessons when she finally sees Boo as a human being
Her newfound ability to view world from Atticus’s perspective ensures she will not become jaded as she loses her innocence

18. Characterization Tom and Boo (parallels) Both try to help
Both imprisoned
Both persecuted (race/ infraction of law)
Both at risk in justice system of Maycomb
Both mockingbirds
Wise men try to protect them
Tom by Atticus
Boo by Sheriff Tate

19. Characterization (continued)
Bob Ewell
Still angry despite guilty verdict
In cross-examination, Atticus established truth that Mayella is aggressor toward Tom
Destroys Mayella’s reputation
Ewell is embarrassed that town realizes Mayella tried to seduce Tom
Sought to solve problems with violence

20. Irony Lynch mob takes justice into its own hands; portrayed as evil
Sheriff Tate takes justice into his own hands (obstructing justice) in lying about how Ewell died; portrayed as humane
Although Jem and Scout fear Boo, he rescues them

21. Irony (continued)
Ewell dies trying to attack vulnerable children, never expecting to face Boo
Sheriff Tate (not very intelligent) rather than brilliant Atticus devises a strategy to protect Boo
Atticus, known as best shot in town, does not own gun
Ewell calls Atticus a ___lover when only white person in town who has loved a black man is his daughter, Mayella

22. Characterization (continued)
Importance of Rule of Law
Tom Robinson: law is straightforward
Boo Radley: shows limits of properly applied justice and its imperfections acknowledged
Foils of Atticus (contrasting characters)
Bob Ewell
Lynch mob
Jury
Mr. Radley
Black people are gentle and forbearing/racism and violence of Maycomb community

23. Characterization (continued)
Tom Robinson
Sealed fate when he said he pitied a white woman
Racist society could not tolerate a black man pitying a white woman
Especially infuriating to Ewell because Tom’s testimony was reasonable given facts of case

24. Characterization (continued)
Dynamic Characterization (changed)
Jem and Scout are only dynamic characters
Realization of good and evil in world
Increased appreciation of Atticus’s qualities
Growing acceptance of Boo as a human being

25. Racism in the South and novel
Accusation of Tom Robinson’s raping Mayella violates community’s code of ethics by arousing basic fears about relationship between whites and blacks
Believing black men were chomping at the bit to get at a white woman, jury could not resist opportunity to let black men believe they could escape consequences even when it was transparent white woman was lying

26. Social Inequality
Complicated social hierarchy of Maycomb baffles children
Rigid social divisions of adult world revealed as destructive and irrational
Lee uses children’s perplexity at unpleasant layering of Maycomb society to critique role of class status and prejudice in human interaction