To Kill a mocking bird study guide

nathan radley

Boo radleys strict older brother; fills the knothole tree with cement

Heck tate

sheriff of maycomb county; ultimately protects boo from public exposure

uncle jack

atticus younger brother; a doctor who visits at christmas

Mr.Underwood

newspaper editor of the Maycomb tribune; hidden ally during jail confrontation

The Cunninghams

poor but proud farming family; pay debts in goods

The destruction of innocence

“its a sin to kill a mockingbird”

Empathy as the foundation of justice

“climb into his skin and walk around in it”

Racial injustice

”the law as a mirror of community prejudice”

Real courage

“when you know you’re lived before you begin but you begin anyway”

Moral education

”children learning to see the world as it is”

The mockingbird

the harmless, innocent figure destroyed by cruelty - stands especially for Tom Robinson and Boo Radley

The Radley house

childhood fear of the unknown; gives way to compassion

Gifts in the knothole

boos quiet attempts at connection

The mad dog ( Tim Johnson )

the disease of racism Atticus must face down

Mrs.Dubose’s camellias

the hard, beautiful work of overcoming

The colored balcony

segregation made visible inside the law itself

First person retrospective narration

adult scout looking back on child scout

Two-part structure

Childhood mystery (boo) into public trail (tom) into final convergence

Other structure and style points

1. Strong use of dialect to mark class and race in Maycomb

2. Symbolic figures and recurring images tie scenes thematically

Inscrutable

hard to understand or figure out

Impassive

showing no emotion

Indignation

Anger about something unfair or wrong

Propriety

proper or polite behavior

Cadence

the rhythm or flow of sounds or speech

unctuous

Overly flattering or fake in a greasy way

Ruefully

in a regretful or sorry way

tactiturn

Quiet: not talking much

Jim Crow

laws that enforced racial segregation in the South

Segregation

separating people by race or group

Lynching

killing someone by mob violence without a legal trial

Jury

a group of people who decide a court case

Camellia

a flowering plant or bush

Knothole

a hole in wood where a knot fell out

Almanac

a book with facts, dates, weather, info and calendars

Pulitzer Prize

A famous award for writing and journalism