To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Questions

Year 10 English

Extended Novel Study: To Kill a Mockingbird

Topic Question:

“To Kill a Mockingbird is a book about courage.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?”

Introduction:

In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, courage is shown Atticus which accepts Judge Taylor's demand (request) to take in Tom Robinson's defence. Atticus knows that this case could put his family in danger, but he takes it anyway. Harper Lee shows the setting of Maycomb which is located in Southern Alabama in the early 1930’s. The narrative voice/narrator of the novel is Scout Finch (Jean Louis) who is aged 6-9 at the time, but then she starts telling the story as an adult. The symbolism/imagery of the novel used was the Mockingbird itself, which symbolises innocents and betrayal as well as beauty and goodness likewise it is considered a ‘sin’ to kill a Mockingbird.

Narrative Element #1- (Setting for Maycomb)

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the 1930’s in Maycomb, in the years of the Great Depression when unemployment and poverty were

Scout is five when the story begins and eight when it ends. Scout is an adult when she tells the story but it’s from the point of view of a child. The older Scout got the more her language became more sophisticated e.g. “When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. (Chapter 1). Dialogue allows the audience hear the younger Scout’s language. Using the first person narrative allows her to create a sense of realism as the reader watched the children grow up. It also enables the adult perspective of Scout’s actions, as a child. One way in which Scout demonstrates courage is through her nonconformity. Scout never capitulates to what others do and withstands the tendency for "groupthink" that is so much a part of Maycomb