tkam-journals

							                                           To Kill A Mockingbird
                                          Journal Entries- Pre-AP
        Journals responses are to be one (1) page minimum. Of the 15 entries, only 10 are required.

1. Reflect on your reactions to the main characters in To Kill A Mockingbird - Scout, Atticus, Jem, Bill, Calpurnia, Tom
Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell, and Boo Radley. Which of these did you find most likeable? Least likeable? Did
any of the characters have some qualities you sympathized with and other qualities you didn't like? Jot down the likeable
and unlikable aspects of each of the characters, and compare your impressions and reasons for them with the responses of
your classmates.

2. Literary characters are considered to be "flat" when they are presented by the author as one-sided and unchanging,
behaving in ways that are predictable. Characters are considered "round" when they are depicted as having greater
complexity and depth, some weaknesses and some strengths, and a wide range of human emotions. Which characters in
the Harper Lee novel struck you as being more "flat" or more "round"? Why might an author create flat characters in a
given work? Are the minor characters in To Kill A Mockingbird - e.g. Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, Aunt Alexandra, Miss
Fisher (the schoolteacher), Nathan Radley, Mrs. Dubose, Mr. Cunningham, Sheriff Tate, and others - one dimensional, or
do some have "round" qualities?

3. An important part of the novel is Harper Lee's characterization of the three children - Scout, Jem, and Dill, who gain
life experiences and mature as they face different problems and interact with the adults in the novel. Think about your
childhood and the way you viewed the other children and the adults in your environment. Discuss how your impressions
of people changed or did not change as you gained experience and came to know people better over the years.

4. Many of the characters in the novel classify each other according to rigid categories. They hold stereotypes about how
individuals will behave as a result of their age, gender, race, social status, and other fixed categories. Which characters are
the victims of stereotyping? Do any of them break through the behavior expected of them, showing individuality and
exposing the falseness of narrowly labeling people?

5. The novel begins as the voice of a mature adult recalling events from childhood and sometimes shifts to the point of
view of a six-year old. Did you notice the shifts occurring? If so, did you find them distracting? How are these
perspectives - the knowing adult's and the innocent child's - developed in the narration? What advantages did the author
have as a result of being able to move from one perspective to the other?

6. W. E. B. DuBois speaks of "double-consciousness" - the sense of having to look at oneself through the eyes of others.
Which characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are basically forced to look at themselves through the lens of others, being
expected to behave as other people want them to behave?

7. Do you believe that the sense of "double consciousness" is still strong in our present society? That is, to what extent are
people of different ethnicities, social classes, genders, and age levels essentially defined by others today? To what extent
do you feel that you are forced to behave according to other's views of you? How are yo affected when others define you?
Consider how the person doing the defining is affected.

8. Is some measure of "double consciousness" inevitable in human relations and in society? Why, or why not?

9. Compare the city of Maycomb to the place where you grew up. Note similarities and differences.

10. The story is set in a small town in southern Alabama during the Depression of the 1930s. What aspects of the story
seem to be particular to that place and time? What aspects of the story are universal, cutting across time and place? In
what ways are the people you know today similar to and different from those in Maycomb?

11. Did To Kill A Mockingbird hold your interest? What parts of the story held your interest most strongly? Why? What
parts seemed less interesting? Why?

12. What are the chief conflicts in the story? Do they have clear starting points and resolutions? Were any conflicts left
unresolved? Were any conflicts resolved in ways that you found disturbing?
13. Many readers see To Kill A Mockingbird as having two parts, one centering on Boo Radley and the other on the trial
of Tom Robinson. How were the two stories brought together at the end of the novel? When you were reading the novel,
how did the shift of emphasis from Boo Radley to the trial affect your engagement with the story?

14. Certain objects take on symbolic value in the TKAM, pointing to or representing something outside itself. Of course, a
central symbol is the mockingbird, described by Miss Maudie as a creature that should never be killed because it is
harmless and even provides song for the enjoyment of others. Both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are basically
blameless individuals who are at the mercy of society, yet society is cruel to Boo, and ultimately Tom is murdered. The
symbol of the mockingbird also points to Scout, both as an innocent child and as the grown-up narrator, who "sings a
song" in telling the story. Can you think of ways in which the following function as symbols in TKAM ?

        the mad dog                              the tree house
        Camellias                                the gun
        the cemented hole in the tree            columns on buildings
        Atticus' pocket watch

15. Can you assign symbolic meaning to any of these objects in terms of the present day? How do these present day
symbolic meanings differ from the meanings that those symbols held in the novel?