CHARACTER ANALYSIS
This character serves as the novel's moral center and teaches Scout to consider things from another person's perspective.
Who is Attius Finch?
This animal represents innocence and harmless goodness.
What is the mockingbird?
Lee tells the story through this narrative perspective.
What is first-person point of view?
The economic crisis during which the novel takes place.
What is the Great Depression?
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read."
Who is Scout Finch?
Though initially feared by the children, this character ultimately demonstrates quiet heroism.
Who is Arthur 'Boo' Radley?
Tim Johnson, the rabid dog, symbolizes this social evil threatening Maycomb.
What is racism?
This is the genre of the novel, much like "Great Expectations."
What is a bildungsroman?
Laws enforcing racial segregation in the South were known by this name.
What are the Jim Crow Laws?
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy."
Who is Miss Maudie Atkinson?
This character teaches Scout and Jem that courage is continuing a fight even when defeat is certain.
Who is Mrs. Dubose?
The destruction of this object represents the loss of a potential connection between Boo and the Finch children.
What is the Radley tree's knothole?
The courthouse seating arrangement serves as this literary device, reflecting Maycomb's social structure.
What is symbolism?
This pivotal event involved the murder of a young boy from the North and helped spark the Civil Rights movement in America.
What is the murder of Emmett Till?
Americans "don't believe in persecuting anybody."
Who is Miss Gates?
This character loses faith in the fairness of the legal system following the trial.
Who is Jem Finch?
By standing on the Radley porch at the novel's conclusion, Scout symbolically achieves this lesson Atticus taught her early in the novel.
What is seeing the world from another person's perspective (empathy)?
This literary element in demonstrated in the final chapters occurrence on Halloween.
What is setting?
This constitutional amendment promises equal protection under the law.
What is the Fourteenth Amendment?
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."
Who is Reverend Skyes?
This missionary society member demonstrates the hypocrisy of condemning injustice abroad while ignoring it at home.
Who is Mrs. Merriweather?
The fire at Miss Maudie's house symbolizes this positive quality in the Maycomb community, as neighbors come together despite their differences.
What is communal support or human compassion?
Burris Ewell and Walter Cunningham are examples of this characterization technique.
What are character foils?
The mob that gathers outside the jail to confront Tom Robinson reflects this extrajudicial practice that terrorized Black Americans throughout the South.
What is lynching?
"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."
Who is Atticus Finch?