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To Kill a Mockingbird - Coggle Diagram

- - - - They don't think much about racism
  - - - She experienced it in every day life between white people and black people
      - Slavery had been abolished but it was still a deeply racist society
  - - - TKAMB is inspired by a crime published in the Monroe journal whilst A.C. Lee was editor and publisher
        
        Walter Lett was convicted in 1934 for raping a white woman in which he plead not guilty
        
        Jury spend a long time discussing the verdict
        
        He eventually went mad listening to the screams of people being electrocuted in the room next to his jail cell
        
        His sentence got shortened but it was "too little too late"
        
        Story shocked many people including a young Harper Lee
        
        Slightly autobiographical
        
        Tomboyish behaviour
        
        Creativity
        
        We don’t want to see that suppressed
      - A.C. Lee had experience defending convicted black people
        
        Unusual at the time
        
        Courageous for going against social norms (parallels with Atticus)
  - - - Does it go far enough in challenging racism?
      - There is a nostalgic tone in the book
    - - The book therefore has signs of hope in that Jem and Scout's generation will grow learning not to discriminate
        
        Atticus quote about "generation"
      - Adults reading at the time would have been kids in the time the novel was set
        
        Novel would've resonated with them
      - Readership at 1960s - same generation
  - - - The lynch mob outside the jail perhaps alludes to the KKK
        
        Atticus explains, ‘no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.’ It is a much more difficult battle when you know the enemy, no less like them.
        
        Is Atticus being too forgiving here, or even hypocritical? Elsewhere he says the worst person is the white man who abuses the black man
        
        "There's nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who'll take advantage of a Negro's ignorance."
      - The Ku Klux Klan is mentioned in Chapter 15 when Atticus tries to convince Jem that such nonsense does not exist in Maycomb
        
        ‘The Ku Klux’s gone,” said Atticus. “It’ll never come back.’
        
        This is one of the very few times when Atticus is wrong. He has underestimated the passionate hatred of black people felt by some of the white inhabitants of Maycomb and how this will drive them to attempt an act of pure hatred such as lynching. This can happen when fighting "friends".
  - - - Sparked the Civil Rights Movement through an act of non-violent protest; Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger when required to by the laws at the time
    - - Was an African American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968
    - - Had not been passed yet when Lee wrote the novel. The act banned practices in many Southern states to eliminate the black community from voting
    - - The Little Rock Nine was a group of nine African American students enrolled in Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The white community protested to the point that the ARMY had to get involved for the students to gain entry
        
        This was after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its historic Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483, on May 17, 1954
  - - - Women weren’t allowed to serve on juries
        
        Lee highlights that even though individual women can choose not to conform to gender stereotypes, as a whole society needs to shift (such as 1957 Civil Rights Act was when women could finally serve on Federal juries—but much later for some individual states)
    - - Southern Belle
        
        Redefine notion of southern womanhood
        
        Subversion + insurrectionary
  - - - A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a white woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
      - Blacks and whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
      - Under no circumstance was a black male to offer to light the cigarette of a white female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
      - Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended whites.
      - Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the white person), this is Charlie (the black person), that I spoke to you about."
      - Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
      - If a black person rode in a car driven by a white person, the black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
      - White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
  - - - In Chapter 3 Scout gets Calpurnia’s wrath for judging Walter’s dining etiquette
      - But by Chapter 23 when Aunt Alexandra says of Walter, ‘Because—he—is—trash’ (she won’t let Scout play with him). Scout is infuriated but doesn’t realise she is just as bad with her prejudice based upon familial reputation: ‘…that boy’s not trash, Jem. He ain’t like the Ewells’
    - - In Chapter 3 Atticus tells Scout she is of the ‘common folk’ (note this is different from Aunt Alexandra’s ‘fine folk’
        
        He is commenting about Scout’s and the town’s lack of awareness about how things are easy for the white middle class, as Atticus explains that Scout has to go to school but Burris Ewell doesn’t
        
        He makes notes about the difference between the law and what is right to do for others, when Scout notes that Bob Ewell is breaking the law hunting out of season. He also notes the ignorance of judging others by their family
        
        ‘Are you going to take your disapproval out on his children?’
  - - - "nothing to fear except fear itself"
        
        Vague optimism
  - - - However, so are some of the white characters
      - Calpurnia helps humanize the black race and the chapter where Jem and Scout go to the black church is quite nuanced
        
        Although even Calpurnia is quite two dimensional
        
        Don't know much about her kids
      - Church gives a more multi-faceted sense to the black community
    - - Limited in perspective since Scout is both white and a child
        
        She never really stands inside Tom Robinson’s shoes the way she stands in Boo’s shoes
        
        She lacks not only the experience but also the vocabulary making it hard for her to understand things from Tom’s perspective
        
        The society she grew up in also aids in her inability to understand the Black race’s perspective
      - The novel doesn’t represent the whole of America but it is very much written from a white perspective
    - - However, it wouldn’t really be possible to have a black saviour due to the powerlessness of the black race
- - - - Poor Dill. He picks up on the ugly injustice of Mr. Gilmer's questioning, and he's too much of a kid to accept it. Does he notice because he's an outsider? Or is he, like Atticus, naturally sensitive to injustice?
    - - If the real trial takes place in the 'secret courts of men's hearts,' is the public trial pointless? What purpose did it serve? Is anything different now?
    - - Heck Tate may be sheriff, but he's not 100% committed to the letter of the law. Is his approach actually more just, here? Could Atticus actually be wrong for once?
    - - It's an enormous injustice to have Tom on trial and pre-convicted for something he didn't do. But Mayella is also a victim of injustice: dirt poor, kept ignorant, raped by her father, and forbidden to seek companionship from the one person who was ever nice to her. No surprise that Atticus is the one to see it.
  - - - Scout says this to Jem when they are discussing why different groups in their town do not get along. Jem disagrees and believes that people’s differences are the source of their disagreements. While Jem accurately identifies a major source of conflict in Maycomb, Scout expresses a deeper yet more naïve understanding of people’s shared humanity. Her innocence is also a lesson to the reader, because it communicates an idealized world in which people are able to respect one another despite racial and socioeconomic differences.
    - - This conversation between Atticus and Scout comes early in the book, after Scout’s first day of school. Atticus is trying to get Scout to understand why her new teacher behaved differently than Scout expected and discourages her from making judgments about others, especially on the basis of race or class, until she has considered their individual perspective. This conversation sets up an ongoing theme of empathy and guides Scout’s efforts to imagine other characters’ interpretations of important events, such as the Tom Robinson trial.
    - - Although this line sounds like a command, the speaker, Dolphus Raymond, is actually predicting what Dill won’t do when he gets older. He says that once Scout and Dill become accustomed to the current world, they will no longer be shocked or even upset by the injustices they witness every day. This comment implies that children are morally superior to adults because they have not yet been jaded by the unfair world around them.
    - - Racial discrimination
        
        Lula’s confrontation with white children at the black church
        
        Taunting of Atticus for defending an African-American
        
        The taunting of Jem and Scout for having a father who defends African-Americans and their use of language (Mrs Dubose, Cecil Jacobs)
        
        The jury’s verdict at Tom Robinson’s trial, despite all the evidence
        
        The lynch mob outside the courthouse
      - Sexism
        
        How Aunt Alexandra berates Scout for being a tom-boy
      - Discrimination against class
      - Age discrimination
      - Discrimination against Boo Radley
        
        Discrimination against disability
  - - - Cal's moral lesson here is to respect people's differences, even if you think you're better than them. And acting like you're better than other people is the surest way to show that you're not. This interaction is an early blow against the stereotype that white people have morals but African-Americans don't
    - - For Atticus, you have to judge yourself before you can judge anyone else. Or something like that. His own self-respect is bound up with his good morals: if he did something he knew was wrong, even if it was justified, he would lose all moral authority over others.
    - - Here's a new way of looking at parenting: instead of telling your kids not to embarrass you, how about trying not to embarrass your kids? Only, we're not talking about retiring your mom jeans or putting your cellphone in your pocket instead of clipping it to your belt. We're talking about living an upright, honest, and moral life—and that's a lot harder.
    - - Racism logic fail: Tom is black, black is bad, therefore Tom is bad. Atticus tries to transform it into, "Tom is a man, some men are bad, some men are good, and now listen to the evidence and decide which group Tom belongs to." Convicting Tom because he is black, Atticus argues, would be as silly as convicting him because he is a human being.
  - - - Being a gentleman seems to signify honor in a way being a lady doesn't, at least for Jem. How do ladies show their honor? Is it something they do—or something they don't do?
    - - Coming down firmly on the "nurture" side of the gender debate, Scout believes from an early age that girl things are bad. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does.
    - - By calling Southern womanhood a "polite fiction," Atticus asserts that it's not real—it's just an idea that people at least pretend to believe in to make life run smoother. And what makes for a particularly Southern womanhood? How is being a woman in the south different from being a woman in the north? Are there any 'fictions' about being a woman that we still believe?
    - - The "polite fiction" of the South is that women are delicate and need to be protected. Maybe the men are really just afraid that women would use power in a way that men wouldn't like.
  - - - An ongoing theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is the complicated relationship between the abstract justice system and the individuals who participate in it. Although institutions may appear fair on paper, each trial is in some way biased by the judge, jury, lawyers, and other individuals in the courtroom. Here, Atticus tells Jem and Scout that an unbiased trial is realistically impossible. Overall, the book suggests that despite this inherent bias, each individual must strive to make their participation in the trial as free of prejudice as possible.
    - - Miss Maudie, the Finches’ neighbor, says this to Jem and Scout, who are disappointed that their father lost the trial. This quote reaffirms Atticus’s exceptional character, a theme throughout the book, and emphasizes that structural injustice made the case unwinnable from the start. It also suggests that social change does not occur quickly but is accumulated over time; from this perspective, prolonging the jury deliberation indicates potential future change and represents a step in the right direction. This statement maintains a thread of optimism despite the tragic outcome of the case.
    - - This line comes from Atticus’s closing argument to the jury at Tom Robinson’s trial. He appeals to the jury’s patriotism by suggesting that American courts ensure equality, which is one of the country’s foundational principles. However, after this closing argument, Tom Robinson is wrongly convicted, which shows the deep bias in the court system and disproves Atticus’s point. This line reveals the instance between the ideal of American courts and the reality.
  - - - Atticus says this to his brother Jack, who has tried to discipline Scout for using inappropriate language. Although the quote occurs in a humorous context, the idea that children cannot understand lies or evasions has broader resonances for the novel as a whole. First, it explains Atticus’s parenting philosophy of being straightforward with his children. Second, it reassures us that Scout’s narration is reliable, not only because Atticus tells her the truth about the events happening but also because as a child she is less likely to lie than an adult.
    - - This is Scout’s answer when Atticus asks her if she would like her aunt to come live with them. The statement is characteristic of Scout, who often repeats aphorisms that she has heard elsewhere, but with a slight twist. Here, she expresses a much more advanced understanding of lying than Atticus believes she has and also demonstrates her interpretation of the limits placed on her.
  - - - Atticus says this to Jem after the death of Mrs. Dubose, the woman to whom Jem has been reading aloud for the past month. Atticus reveals that Mrs. Dubose was addicted to painkillers but was determined to overcome her addiction before dying; he made Jem read to her as a distraction from her pain. This vision of courage contradicts Jem’s understanding of courage as hypermasculine and violent and instead reframes courage as persistence through times of difficulty.
    - - This is a refrain that Atticus frequently shares with Scout to calm her down. This quote, which recurs throughout the book, reminds us of Atticus’s paternal position and how he tries to protect Scout and Jem from outside reality. It also echoes President Roosevelt’s famous line, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” which is referenced in the first chapter of the book. The quote aligns Atticus with the president as a reassuring moral force, and underscores the importance of knowing what is an actual threat.
    - - The Finches’ neighbor Miss Maudie shares this wisdom when Scout asks why Atticus instructed Jem not to shoot his new air rifle at any mockingbirds. The novel takes its title from this quote, which explains that the innocent must be protected and treated with respect. There are several possible “mockingbirds” in the novel overall; Lee explicitly names Tom Robinson as one such innocent person and implies that Scout and the other children are also innocent.
  - - - This quote refers to the mob that almost attacks Atticus in order to enter the jail to lynch Tom Robinson. The quote sums up a truth that Scout learns over the course of the book: that individuals you may know and even respect can band together to do terrible things. Although mobs may seem anonymous, they are made up of individual people who live otherwise normal lives.
    - - This secret, told to Scout, is said by Dolphus Raymond, a white man who has been shunned by the white community for living with a black woman. He pretends to be drunk to help the community feel more comfortable with his unorthodox choices. This moment illustrates the deception that pervades Maycomb, especially around matters of racism. It also reveals to Scout that living a life that makes you happy may require going against community norms and ostracizing yourself from society.
  - - - Scout's definition of 'Fine Folks' is based on what their actions are (something they have control over), while Aunt Alexandra's is based on their family history (uh, can't help the crazy cousins). No rags-to-riches stories for her. She wants good solid staying-in-one-place-ness. While Scout's version allows people to get better through individual choice, in Aunt Alexandra's eyes, quality is a function of time more than anything.
    - - Aunt Alexandra's idea of family is exclusive (kick out those who aren't worthy of being counted in), while Atticus's is inclusive. She arranges family by blood, while Atticus considers affection and loyalty. Basically, it boils down to: do you judge a man (or woman) by his birth—or by his life?
    - - Talk about upsetting the social order: Atticus seems much less concerned with judging his children (as opposed to, say, Bob Ewell) than with how they might judge him. How dependent is Atticus's good behavior on his children? Would he behave differently if they didn't exist? If not, why does he so often refer to them when he's trying to explain to others why he acts like he does?
  - - - Growing up is great. You get your driver's license, a later curfew, and then you get to go off to college and eat pizza whenever you want. And then you start your first job, and you realize that you can't afford to eat out all the time and you can't skip your job if you're up late watching a Real Housewives marathon. Turn out, growing up means that you have to face unpleasant things instead of avoiding them—and you can't actually do what you want all the time.
    - - Is it "children" who are weeping, or only Jem, Scout, and Dill? Is it simply being children that causes them to be sad about Tom's fate, or are there other factors? We doubt Cousin Francis is losing any sleep about it.
    - - Growing up means going from weeping uncontrollably at displays of injustice, to feeling a vague sense that things aren't quite right. The good: it's hard to get through the day if you're weeping uncontrollably. The bad: vague feelings aren't usually enough to make anything change. Is there a way to keep the sharp sense of injustice without needing to carrying a hankie everywhere?
    - - Novel about growing up
        
        Scout is therefore largely innocent
        
        Naïve perspective on events
        
        Unreliable or limited narrator
        
        To what extent? It is the older Scout who is recounting the memories
        
        Older Scout looking back on past
        
        Handles adult themes with childish simplicity
        
        “what’s rape, Cal?”
        
        Lynch mob
        
        Reader has to think about things which are quite uncomfortable
        
        Justice
        
        Hypocritical
        
        How she is shaped and influenced by community and family is therefore explored
        
        Throughout the novel Scout develops an understanding of the complexity of human nature
        
        "I had never seen the neighbourhood from this angle", she has learned to look from a different perspective, she's talking about herself as if she was another person almost like an outer body experience. Seasons are repeated, showing time being compressed. At this point she embodies Atticus' lesson. This chapter gives a sense of her growing up and maturing - "I felt very old" - Bildungsroman. Scout is still a very small girl who falls asleep while he Dad is reading to her but she has matured.
  - - - Play-acting Boo's life might be a way for the kids to deal with their fear; maybe making it a game makes it easier for them to forget about its basis in reality.
    - - Tom's experience suggests that African-Americans in Maycomb have a whole additional set of fears to those of the white residents. While Mr. Gilmer is trying to suggest that Tom didn't have any reason to be scared if he wasn't doing anything wrong, the fact that Tom is in court on trial for his shows that his fears were very well-founded.
    - - Atticus suggests that it's not just the actual fallout they would have to face from the community that keeps Maycomb's residents with background, as Miss Maudie would say, from serving on juries, but also fear of publicly taking a stand. Maybe this fear also influenced Tom's jury—declaring an opinion that goes against the common view can be pretty scary.
  - - - Atticus's advice "to climb into someone's skin and walk around in it" is a little more Silence of the Lambs than the typical advice to walk a mile in someone's shoes, but the idea is the same: compassion is based on sympathy, on being able to put yourself in the other person's place and understand why they act the way they do even if you don't agree with it.
    - - Uh-oh. Why is Tom's compassion for Mayella such a problem? Well, feeling sorry for someone usually implies that you think they're worse off than you are—and in racially-divided Maycomb, for any African-American person to think he's superior to any white person is seriously messing with the order of things.
    - - Mayella can't recognize Atticus's politeness or compassion. That shows just how different her world is from his—neither is something she's had any experience with, and so they're strange to her. Poor Mayella. Even our cold hearts almost feel sorry for her.
    - - While Atticus talks about seeing things through other people's eyes, Mrs. Merriweather is more concerned with people seeing it through her eyes. (Or trying on her skin. Ew.) Her insistence that the African-Americans need to be forgiven (for what?) shows that Mrs. Merriweather's compassion is so one-sided as to be hardly compassionate at all.
- - - - 'Our battles were epic and one-sided.'
        
        Everyone in the novel is filtered through Scout's perception. She's the narrator, after all. But we get the sense that Calpurnia in particular is colored by Scout's perspective—and her perspective sounds a little like Cinderella thinking about her wicked stepmother.
        
        Unusual power dynamic in a domestic setting between Scout and Calpurnia as a black woman ordering around a white girl
      - 'Calpurnia bent down and kissed me. I ran along, wondering what had come over her.'
        
        Scout at first sees Calpurnia less as a human being than as a force of nature that she runs up against all too often, someone who wins their battles not because she has right on her side, but because she has the might. That's why she totally misinterprets those moments when Calpurnia softens up. Caught up in the tunnel vision of her own perspective, Scout can't see that Calpurnia is hard on her because she cares about her—just as much as Atticus, in her own way.
    - - 'That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me.'
        
        Seeing Calpurnia in relation to the African-American community makes Scout realize for the first time that Cal actually continues to exist when she's not at the Finch house. So now Scout is curious, and she peppers Calpurnia with basic questions like when her birthday is (she doesn't actually know, not even the year) and where she grew up (near Finch's Landing).
  - - - The conflict is between white people, with Tom as the unseen, powerless object they're fighting over. Tom is unseen until the day of the trial for two reasons. One is that Scout hasn't seen him, allowing for the big reveal at the trial of Tom's disability, therefore we wonder why Atticus is making such a big deal about Ewell's left handedness. The other reason is because - how real a person does Tom seem before we see him? And how sympathetic does he seem? Getting an idea of Tom only through what people say about him puts us as readers in a similar position to the people of Maycomb in terms of how much knowledge we have about him. It's up to us to make up our own minds about Tom—and about the people who judge him.
    - - Ewell's testimony
        
        “I seen that black n* yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!"
        
        Mayella and her father tell the story that everyone expects to hear, about the Tom that is the town's nightmare. The Ewells' Tom is a wicked beast who acts out of animalistic lust. There's no motivation for his sudden attack on Mayella—it's just assumed that any African-American man would rape any white woman, given the chance.
      - Tom's testimony
        
        "Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em-"
        
        Tom tells the story that no one wants to hear, about the Tom that is himself. Tom presents himself as a good guy who was just trying to help out a fellow human being in need. The only feelings he has for Mayella are compassion and pity, but it seems even those aren't acceptable either. Tom feels sorry for Mayella as one human being for another, but Mr. Gilmer and others can only see a black man feeling sorry for a white woman, suggesting the uncomfortable-for-them idea that white skin doesn't make a person automatically better off than anyone whose skin is black.
  - - - Atticus realizes that it must have been Boo Radley who gave the blanket to her, a protective act of kindness that foreshadows the final action of the novel. Boo has already endeared himself to the children by putting gifts in the knothole and sewing Jem’s pants. Figuratively, he turns from a symbol of superstition and fear to one of goodness and purity, becoming something like a guardian angel. This moment with Scout is part of this symbol’s evolution.
    - - Miss Maudie is speaking to Scout and Jem and trying to make them see things from Boo Radley’s perspective. At this early point in the novel, it is very difficult for the Finch children to deal with the unknown. Because they are young and imaginative, they have come up with all sorts of outlandish reasons why Boo might not want to ever leave his home, but Miss Maudie suggests that the reason is much more simple and easy to understand.
    - - These words, spoken at the end of the book, are the only words that Boo Radley speaks in the entire novel. The words capture his character in its entirety. Boo is someone who wants to spend his life within the protective walls of his home. He has ventured out because of a desire to protect the Finch children, but he is not interested in becoming part of society. This request provides Scout her first opportunity to fully interact with Boo as a human being.
  - - - The Finch kids may have active imaginations, but they're firmly entrenched in the reality of Maycomb. Thanks to Dill's outsider status, he can see the Maycomb community from a different perspective.
    - - "Let him get a little older and he won't get sick and cry […] about the simple hell people give other people.""
        
        While Scout accepts Mr. Gilmer's rude treatment of Tom on the witness stand as normal, Dill starts crying uncontrollably when he sees Tom being treated so differently from the white witnesses. He can't quite explain his feelings, but Mr. Raymond can. Dill's sensitivity to Maycomb's intolerance gives Scout (and us) a different model of how to respond to what's happening. The contrast between Dill's angry tears and Scout's justification of Mr. Gilmer's attitude with the surprisingly callous "he's just a N**" suggests that Scout's already been hit with Maycomb's ugly racism stick. Not even being Atticus's daughter has been enough to shield her entirely from her community's prejudices.
    - - While Scout and Jem struggle after the trial to make sense of the Maycomb community that they thought they knew so well, and to figure out their own place in it, Dill takes a more detached approach. Mr. Raymond predicts that Dill will grow out of crying into not caring, however Dill himself comes up with a different path, hiding the tears in laughter. Both responses, however, are difficult for Scout to understand. Dill's character suggests what the limitations of Scout's perspective might be, giving the reader a broader picture of what's the matter with Maycomb through the different limitations of Dill's viewpoint.
  - - - In this moment Jem recognizes a lesson that Atticus hoped to teach him. Jem realizes that there is value and meaning in fighting for something good even if losing the fight is inevitable. Atticus hopes his children see a similar lesson in his decision to defend Tom Robinson even when the cost is high and there is no chance that the jury will not find Tom guilty.
    - - This line is one of many points in the novel where Jem indicates that he was sure that the jury would find Tom Robinson innocent. Jem is the only character convinced Tom would receive justice. Scout didn’t know what the jury would decide, while all of the adults, including Atticus, knew that the jury would find Tom guilty. The realization that he was so profoundly wrong about the community in which he lives drives the bitterness that haunts Jem for the last chapters of the novel.
    - - Grudging acceptance is funny. Foreshadows Jem's development over the course of the novel as he will ultimately understand that his view of the legal system was naïve, and his view of the future will become shaped by the bitterness he feels after the Tom Robinson trial.
    - - This act is a betrayal and marks the turning point of Jem as no longer one of the children. He has begun to see the world at least partially as an adult would, and this leads to him having a much more painful experience of the racism and injustice that he encounters. Scout, who continues to see the world as a child would, experiences these difficulties differently.
  - - - Scout is looking at Bob Ewell during the trial. This scene is one of many places in the novel where the narrator makes it clear that Bob does not have any social standing or value in the Maycomb community, yet the inherent racism of the town privileges Bob over his black neighbors, even though many of them are better people than Bob. Bob’s lack of personal integrity makes him easy to hate as a character, but is also crucial to one of the novel’s arguments about racism. Even though Tom Robinson is objectively a better person than Bob Ewell, Bob can destroy Tom because of the inequities of race.
    - - Here, Sheriff Heck Tate argues that the stabbing death of Bob Ewell is no loss to the community. Heck Tate downplays Bob’s death in part to justify his own desire to cover up Boo Radley’s role in the incident. Additionally, this line has obvious parallels to the story from Chapter 11 of Heck Tate forcing Atticus to kill a mad dog in the street, suggesting that in both situations, a dangerous element has been removed from the community. The line serves as a final underscore to the novel’s premise that Bob Ewell is irredeemably evil.
    - - Bob Ewell speaks these words at the trial, condemning Tom Robinson to prison, and, by extension, to death. The reader may suspect Bob’s words are not true, but the immediate and violent reaction that the statement draws in the courtroom makes it clear that though things did not happen the way that Bob Ewell describes them, his description resonates with the jury and the community to such a great extent that it will cost an innocent man’s life.
  - - - Here, Atticus articulates the central lesson he wants to convey to Scout, which is that empathy is the key to understanding others. Atticus presents lessons in empathy several times in relation to Scout’s schoolmates, her teacher, the mob outside the courthouse, and the jury. By the end of the novel, Scout has begun using empathy to understand others. Though Scout still has a lot to learn about the difficulties of society, her final interactions with Boo Radley demonstrate that she has understood Atticus’s “simple trick” and learned to apply it.
    - - Here, Jem asks Atticus how the jury could find Tom Robinson guilty. Atticus’s reply suggests that the racism inherent in the guilty verdict is part of the past, present, and future of the community. Atticus also suggests that only people that the members of the jury won’t feel any remorse about their actions, as children like Jem, who weeps for Tom’s fate, are the only people innocent and unprejudiced enough to recognize the injustice of the verdict. Though this line comes in a quiet scene between father and son, it is one of the most scathing indictments of Maycomb’s culture that Atticus offers.
    - - Atticus knows that by agreeing to defend Tom Robinson he has put himself and his family in line for some unpleasant experiences. Atticus is particularly interested in protecting his children from the ugliness around the trial, and here, he tries to convince Scout to ignore whatever abuse comes her way. Scout tries mightily to obey her father’s advice throughout the novel. Scout’s struggle to behave the way she knows her father wants her to versus her urge to protect her family form one of the conflicts of the novel.
  - - - Miss Maudie uses her sharp tongue to counter meanness rather than to perpetrate it. When Miss Stephanie tries to spread tales of Boo's fearsomeness, Miss Maudie doesn't just refuse to listen, or even just smile and nod and forget. Miss Maudie's joke embarrasses Miss Stephanie into holding her tongue, but perhaps it's effective because it plays off the truth: Miss Stephanie wants to know everyone's intimate secrets, just as if she were sleeping with them.
    - - She's thanking God for not being born black—but it's a start. Like Atticus's constant advice to Scout to put herself in the other person's shoes, Miss Maudie's respect for others is based on sympathy. Unlike Atticus, she can't be a lawyer or face down a lynch mob (or maybe she could), but her influence is still potent despite being exercised in tea parties rather than courtrooms. And she gives Scout an example of how being a lady doesn't necessarily mean having your selfhood squished—or starched—out of you.
  - - - Dual purpose. Provides a sense of the town - old and tired. Signals to the reader that the narrator is looking back on her memories of an earlier time and a place that may have changed since the events she's describing
    - - Simplistic and even childish view but it boldly rejects the stratification and segregation which pervades Maycomb
    - - Early chapters show a childish excitement and fear about the mysterious Boo Radley. The children's manufactured fear of Boo is a stand-in for their general fear of the unknown. By the end of the novel the tensions and threats that surround Scout and Jem are very real and knowable. These more real fears make the fear of Boo from earlier summers seem trivial by comparison.
  - - - Despite being confined to a wheelchair most of the time, Mrs. Dubose inspires rage and fear just through the power of her words.
    - - For Scout, Mrs. Dubose is a distressing, barely human force that takes over their afternoons after Jem goes crazy on her camellias. It's not until after she dies that Scout and Jem get a sense of what's going on behind the drool and venom: Mrs. Dubose is a morphine addict who had vowed to go clean before she died, and enlisted Jem and Scout (without their knowledge) to keep her off the stuff for longer and longer periods of time. Atticus tells the kids the lesson he hopes they've learned from her.
    - - Even though no one would have blamed Mrs. Dubose if she had wanted to leave this world in narcotic bliss, she decided to try to do what she felt was right, no matter how impossible it seemed or how painful it was.
  - - - "fine folk"
    - - This displays her changing attitudes and also how she is turning into a more accepting individual. THEME: Individual in society
    - - Shows her increasing empathy as an individual. THEME: Individual in society
        
        As a reader we develop a sense of sympathy for her as she develops into more of a 3D character by the end of the novel
    - - She represents Southern Belle - traditional gender values - imposes these expectations on Scout e.g. clothes
    - - In this way, she acts as a foil to Atticus
        
        Shows how ahead of his time and exceptional Atticus was as even his sister is still formed by the regional values
    - - "[They] are the product of several generations of gentle breeding"
    - - This shows her change in attitude and is a moment where we start liking her more
        
        Scout is modelling her Aunt on herself
        
        Being a lady is more than just wearing good clothes here
        
        Smiling and putting on a brave front
        
        Attitude which may be a bit outdated these days
        
        'if Auntie could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.'
    - - Challenges Atticus' views by prohibiting Scout from going to black areas
        
        Intitially she wants to kick out Calpurnia from the house
        
        This is also because she believes Calpurnia has too much weight on the decisions of the family
    - - "Didn't they give him any warning?"
        
        Concern for brother and pain for what he is going through
        
        Atticus is being used as the person to do what everyone else in Maycomb is afraid to do
        
        Taking the risk to defend a negro
        
        There are a handful of people in Maycomb who understand the injustice in Maycomb and Atticus is representing them
- - - - Past papers
      - What quote says/means/symbolises about a character or theme
      - Author's viewpoint
      - Alternative interpretation of character, theme or viewpoint
  - - - Context (how does it link)
        
        Clear understanding of plot
  - - - What is Harper Lee trying to achieve?
      - What is the central importance of this to the novel?
      - Consider also the structural importance, or how this overlaps with a related theme, or how it encourages the reader to re-evaluate their views, or how it draws on social, historical or biographical events
  - - - Repeat the plan without using notes
- - - - "it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
        
        This is the first time mockingbirds are mentioned in the novel. Although the mockingbird is only mentioned a few times in the story, its symbolic meaning—something innocent and harmless that doesn’t deserve to be punished or hurt in any way—pervades the novel. Both Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are associated with the symbol, and the children embrace its figurative power.
      - "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy."
        
        Miss Maudie's words further set up this central symbol of the novel, which represents innocence and compassion, purity and simplicity. Mockingbirds don’t do anything to hurt humans, and it is up to humans, in turn, to protect them. According to Atticus, killing a mockingbird is a sin, and Scout observes that this is the first time she’s ever heard him call something a “sin.”
      - 'a solitary mocker poured out his repertoire in blissful unawareness [...] to the irascible qua-ack [...] to the sad lament of Poor Will.'
        
        By describing the mockingbird’s song, she figuratively describes Boo Radley in three moods: blissful unawareness, irritability, and a sad lament. Like Boo, the mockingbird gives back what he hears. The bird responds rather than initiates. It’s a lovely, evocative, poetic sentence, featuring a trio of sounds that culminate in an eerie foreboding.
      - “Yes sir, I understand [...] Mr. Tate was right.”"
        
        Scout understands the reason for the lie that Bob Ewell fell on his knife because of the association she makes with the mockingbird, a lesson Atticus taught her earlier in the novel: It’s a sin to wound or kill something that is innocent and harmless, and despite Bob Ewell’s death, Boo Radley is both. The symbol comes full circle during this dialogue at the end of the novel’s penultimate chapter.
    - - "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall [...] he dined on raw squirrels and [...] cats [... his] teeth [...] were yellow and rotten"
        
        As Jem and Scout educate Dill about their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley, Jem’s imagination builds on his notion that Boo is a “malevolent phantom.” The children play games that include acting out scenes involving the Radley family, and this is how they imagine the reclusive Boo. These images set the stage for the accumulation of figurative meaning around Boo, who becomes as much a symbol in the novel as he is a character. He changes from devil to angel, from sinner to saint, from foe to friend, and from threat to savior in the eyes of Scout and her cohorts.
      - "“Someday [...] Scout can thank him for covering her up.”"
        
        After the fire at Miss Maudie’s house, Jem, Scout, and Atticus are in their kitchen having hot chocolate when Atticus notices that Scout is wrapped in a blanket that is not theirs. After some discussion, he realizes that it must have been Boo Radley who gave it to her, a protective act of kindness that foreshadows the final action of the novel. Boo has already endeared himself to the children by putting gifts in the knothole and sewing Jem’s pants. Figuratively, he turns from a symbol of superstition and fear to one of goodness and purity, becoming something like a guardian angel. This moment with Scout is part of this symbol’s evolution.
      - 'His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears.'
        
        This moment when Scout finally meets and speaks to Boo Radley is one of the pivotal moments of the narrative. At this point, Boo Radley changes from a symbol or idea into a real character for both Scout and the reader. Boo, who has existed like a ghost in the shadows throughout the story, becomes a real person made of flesh and blood. Scout observes his pale skin, his simple clothing, his colorless eyes, and his thin hair. His palms have left sweat streaks on the wall, an image so human and mundane that it carries the whole narrative with it into a gentle denouement.
      - 'People have a habit of doing everyday things even under the oddest conditions.'
        
        Earlier in the novel, Scout fantasizes about seeing Boo Radley sitting on his porch and saying “Good evening” to each other. In this moment, her fantasy becomes real as she leads him to a seat on her own porch. Soon, she will lead him into Jem’s room so that he can say goodnight to the boy he has saved, and after that, she will walk home with him, her hand in the crook of his arm. Boo Radley, now Mr. Arthur, has become fully human to Scout after all that has happened, and he is a symbol not only of goodness but of the human ability to empathize with and love even the people we may least expect to.
      - 'He gave us [...] our lives. But neighbors give in return. We [...] had given him nothing, and it made me sad.'
        
        Here, the adult narrator Scout looks back on her childhood experience with Boo Radley with sadness and compassion. No longer a child, she views these memories with an understanding and depth that can only be gained over time. Despite having a flawed childhood and past, Boo is goodness personified and in many ways represents the symbolic heart of the novel. Readers may interpret Scout’s regret as a message: Take the time to give back what you receive.