To Kill a Mockingbird

Essay Test: To Kill a Mockingbird

You will write TWO short essays answers to your choice of TWO of the following questions.
Each answer should be 1-2 paragraphs long only- these are not full essays.

Before you begin, locate the two questions for which you have prepared. Delete all other options. You now have your own personalized version of this test.

Criteria: * Be sure to reference the book (with a quotation or giving a detailed description of a specific scene) 1-2 times for each short answer. Be sure to explain how this reference/evidence proves the topic sentence of your paragraph/s.

* Remember, you have a time limit for this. If you spend all of your time writing one short essay answer and you don’t get to the second, you’ll only have finished ½ of the test.

* You may use your copy of the novel, double entry journals, quizzes, book notes, any other TKM or background work.

* Paragraphs should have topic sentences, details, and clincher/concluding sentences, but can also be as descriptive and creative as you like.

* You should plan out your ideas with a bit of prewriting. You will write only ONE draft of these short essays.

Choice 1: What is the significance of the metaphorical title To Kill a Mockingbird? Which characters do you see as Mockingbirds? What does it mean as a metaphor and central theme in the book?

It is a common belief in Alabama, where the novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place, that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. When Atticus tells his children this, the curious Scout asks Miss Maudie why and she answers, “…they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (119). The mockingbird, or songbird signifies innocence; it harms nothing and no one. It only creates music for people to enjoy. Although a mockingbird is not literally killed in the book, somebody just as innocent as one is. The victim is Tom Robinson, a blameless “colored” man accused of raping a white girl, taken down by injustice and narrow-mindedness. The mockingbird metaphor is used once again in the book after Tom’s death when a local newspaper owner, Mr. Underwood writes about Tom. “He likened Tom’s death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.” says Scout. (323) Scout then goes on to explain that Mr. Underwood “simply figured it was a sin to kill cripples...” (323) Mr. Underwood evokes the idea that the slaughter of an innocent songbird like Tom was malicious and pointless. Wrongfully killed, Tom’s story serves as a message to readers, a message to examine ourselves and our judgments, to see if they contain the innocence of the mockingbird.

Choice 5: Harper Lee has long maintained that To Kill a Mockingbird was a “simple love story”. How is this book a “simple love story”? What are the messages that this book shows the audience about love? How? In To Kill a Mockingbird, key character Atticus Finch illustrates Harper Lee’s idea that the book is a “simple love story”. He demonstrates his love for equality and justice by willingly taking on the case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl, despite the odds. He also shows love by educating his children, Jem and Scout about moral values. You aren’t really an N-lover, then, are you? / “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody…It’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name.” (144) Atticus loves his children very much and wants to point them in the right path. Mr. Finch also displays love by showing kindness to everyone regardless of whom they are. When Mayella Ewell thinks she is being disrespected by Atticus, Judge Taylor reassures her that he is not. “Mr. Finch is always courteous to everybody... that’s just his way.” (243). Atticus teaches his children Jem and Scout, as well as audiences that everyone deserves love and respect regardless of race, by not catching “Maycomb’s usual disease”; racism and ignorance that has been institutionalized in the small town for many years.

Your answers will be assessed on: * Organization, accuracy, showing understanding of the book, well-chosen and explained evidence.

A Song

Langston Hughes | Miss Maudie and Atticus | You to me are a song Like a song Soaring high Which sin to bear? I’m a sinner in yo’ sight Have mercy Justice is a blind goddess Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever | …they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. I hope and pray that you get through without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried. You rarely win but sometimes you do.We’re making a step—it’s just a baby step, but it’s a step. |

1. Write a brief 1-2 paragraph explanation of your poem. a. Your explanation should clearly discuss the ways in which your poem compares/contrasts the messages of Hughes’s poetry and Lee’s novel; how the lines are connected.

b. It should also explain some of the choices that you made in writing the poem and how those choices (figurative language choices, line break choices, choices of language from the texts, message choices, word choices) help to show how these works come together to form a new message about race, hope, equality, and/or humanity.

For most of my poem, Hughes’ ideas and the ideas of Miss Maudie and Atticus are in agreement. They are focused on injustice and prejudice. Democracy comes into play close to the end of the poem, and this is where their ideas are contrasting. Hughes’ lines do not see a brighter tomorrow while the lines from To Kill A Mockingbird think otherwise. I paid careful attention to where their lines are being spoken at the same time, attempting to make it more dramatic. I connected lines from Hughes poems and from To Kill A Mockingbird, by selecting and paying close attention to key words they had in common.