To Kill A Mockingbird -- SPOILER thread

[Sarah]

Here's a place to discuss To Kill A Mockingbird. I'll be back in a couple of days to post some questions, but feel free to add your own thoughts as well, and at any time :)

I first read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was in secondary school, just before I started my a-levels. This is the book that really confirmed my desicion to study english at university, so I guess you could say it helped to shape my future. I think it's an amazing book, and it'll always have a special place in my heart. I'm really looking forward to seeing what other people think of it, so don't be shy!

[Sam (VanillaFountain)]

I just finished! Will come back when my brain is less muddled. :) x

[Becky]

I've finished it as well! I loved the storyline but I got bored in places.

[Sam (VanillaFountain)]

I loved it, yes it was hard going getting into it, but once I did I didn't want to come back out. I was sad when it ended but not because the story was sad, I was upset because there was no more for me to read. I wanted to follow the Finch family and explore more Atticus's cases. I was quite upset at the use of the N word but kept reminding myself that, that was how it was back then and that people were not actually upset by it :s.

[Sarah]

Okay -- sorry for being so late with these. It feels like I've been bounced between one thing and another this month. Firstly, I got notification of my GTP interview, and had to arrange some work experience as quickly as I could. After all that, I decided I couldn't do it anyway. Seeing the way some of the kids behaved, I just knew that I wouldn't be able to turn their insults into energy day after day after day. Now, just to make me feel better, I have possibly the worst cold of my life. Four days in, I'm still not feeling any better, but at least it's given me some uninterrupted time to think of some questions!

Enough about me, anyway. Here are some discussion questions on To Kill A Mockingbird:

1. What did you make of Jem and Scout's changing views of Boo Radley during the book?

2.Atticus tells the children several times that they need to walk in someone else's shoes before judging the person. Do you think this advice helps them to be more compassionate and sympathetic?

3. What do you think of Aunt Alexandra? Did your opinion of her change during the book?

4. Do you think Atticus succeeded as a single parent?

5. In the last few lines of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout says, "he was real nice..." and Attiucus replies, "most people are, Scout, when you finally see them." Do you agree that most people in the novel are nice once you see them? Were you convinced by Atticus' ability to see the good in people despite all he has experienced?

6. What did you make of Atticus' treatment of Calpurnia and Tom Robinson versus his treatment of his white neighbors and colleagues?

7. The title alludes to when Atticus gives his children air rifles and tells them that they can shoot all the bluejays they want, but "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." At the end of the novel, Scout likens the "sin" of naming Boo as Bob Ewell's killer to "shootin' a mockingbird." Do you think that Boo is the only innocent, or mockingbird, in this novel?

8. Scout ages two years during the course of the novel, which is narrated from her perspective as an adult. Did you find her account convincing?, or did you find her unusually "knowing" for such a young girl?

9. Do you think that the two central storylines -- Scout, Jem, and Dill's fascination with Boo Radley and the trial between Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson -- are sufficiently connected in the novel?

10. By the end of the book, its first sentence: "When he was thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow," has been explained and resolved. What did you think of the events that followed the Halloween pageant? Did you think that Bob Ewell was capable of injuring Scout or Jem? How did you feel about Boo Radley's last-minute intervention?

Feel free to bring up anything else you'd like to discuss, we're a democracy after all! Don't feel like you have to answer all of the questions, either. They're not set in stone, they're just there to get things started!

I didn't find To Kill A Mockingbird any less powerful or complex this time than I did when I first read it, so maybe discussing it will help to shape and firm our thoughts and opinions. The more the merrier, so don't be shy :)