EDUCATIONAL PACKAGE FOR
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE PLAY
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story of Scout Finch and her brother, Jem, in 1930's
Alabama. Through their neighborhood meanderings and the example of their father,
they grow to understand that the world isn't always fair and that prejudice is a very
real aspect of their world despite how subtle it seems.
THEMES
1. The Coexistence of Good and Evil
2. The Importance of Moral Education
3. The Existence of Social Inequality
ESSAY QUESTIONS ON TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
1. Discuss Atticus’s parenting style. What is his relationship to his children like?
How does he seek to instill conscience in them?
2. Analyze the trial scene and its relationship to the rest of the novel.
3. Discuss the author’s portrayal of the black community and the characters of
Calpurnia and Tom Robinson. Are they realistic or idealized?
4. Discuss the author’s portrayal of the black community and the characters of
Calpurnia and Tom Robinson. Are they realistic or idealized?
5. How do Jem and Scout change during the course of the novel? How do they
remain the same?
6. What is Atticus’s relationship to the rest of Maycomb? What is his role in the
community?
7. How does the author bring out different aspects of Atticus?
Quotations from To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee, 1960
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of
view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. ~ Chapter 3
Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes
up, is something I don't pretend to understand. ~ Chapter 9
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for
us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a
mockingbird.” ~ Chapter 10
It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been
to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived. ~ Chapter 11
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience. ~ Chapter
11
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. ~ Chapter 11
"I think I'll be a clown when I get grown," said Dill. "Yes, sir, a clown.... There ain't
one thing in this world I can do about folks except laugh, so I'm gonna join the circus
and laugh my head off." "You got it backwards, Dill," said Jem. "Clowns are sad, it's
folks that laugh at them." "Well, I'm gonna be a new kind of clown. I'm gonna stand
in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks." ~ Chapter 22
I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. ~ Chapter 23
Reference:
SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on To Kill a Mockingbird. Retrieved
December 28, 2009,
from http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/