To Kill a Mockingbird – Response Questions
Record your answers on these sheets, using the back of the page if necessary.
Chapters 28-31
- Provide some evidence that suggests Jem and Scout are growing older and becoming more mature. Is their relationship changing?
- Why does Atticus repeatedly ask Heck Tate not to cover up what has happened?
- When Mr. Tate tells Atticus he got the switch-blade off a drunk man downtown, is he lying or telling the truth?
- Who is Mr. Tate referring to when he says, “To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight – to me, that’s a sin” (p. 276).
- What is the final message left in the mind of the reader after the last page of the novel?
- Which characters could be compared to mockingbirds in this novel?
To Kill a Mockingbird – Theme and Author’s Point
Record your answers on these sheets, using the back of the page if necessary.
THE AUTHOR’S POINT
In a literary work the THEME is the author’s main point, the central idea. Theme goes beyond events of the plot to draw major conclusions – or at least raise important questions – about life.
Like most novels, To Kill a Mockingbird has several related themes. Think about these themes as you consider events from the whole novel.
Directions
Cite an incident from the book that illustrates each of the themes for questions 1-7. Then state a theme for each of the examples given in questions 8-14.
- Theme: Courage usually means fighting for what is right, no matter what the cost.
Example: ______
______
- Theme: Most people are likeable once you get to know them.
Example: ______
______
- Theme: Sometimes courage is shown by not giving in to the temptation to fight.
Example: ______
______
- Theme: It is a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Example: ______
______
- Theme: Hypocrisy and prejudice are often hard to detect in your own behavior.
Example: ______
______
- Theme: The best way to understand a person is “to stand in his or her shoes.”
Example: ______
______
- Theme: All people deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.
Example: ______
______
8. Theme: ______
______
Example: Despite great suffering, Mrs. Dubose breaks her morphine habit before she dies.
9. Theme: ______
______
Example: Scout realizes how lucky she is after she hears Dill say that his mother and stepfather pay no attention to him.
10.Theme:______
______
Example: Dill dries during Mr. Gilmer’s cross-examination of Tom.
11. Theme: ______
______
Example: Jem and Scout are stunned to learn that their father is an expert shot.
12. Theme: ______
______
Example: Dolphus Raymond pretends to be a drunk to avoid criticism of his lifestyle.
13. Theme: ______
______
Example: Scout’s conversation with Walter Cunningham stops the lynch mob.
14. Theme: ______
______
Example: Atticus respects Mrs. Dubose though she violently criticizes him.