To Kill a Mockingbird Part One Review

Structure for Test (10/5)

• Part I: Identification Section. Six character descriptions. Decide who is being described in each quote.

• Part II: Short answer section. Respond to each of the FIVE short answer questions with three-four sentences each. Respond with specific details from the text.

• Part III:Literary Short Response. Following the rubric from class, you will produce a response to a major theme from Part One.

1. Boo Radley

• Evidence from the text:• As Part One concludes, the reader experiences the sensation that there

may be more to Boo Radley than simply the rumors projected by Miss Stephanie Crawford.

• This is due to the fact that Jem and Scout are growing older. • Evidence that Boo Radley is not a monster: leaving gifts in the tree,

covering Scout with a blanket during the fire, sewing Jem’s pants. • Evidence from the text—drawing conclusions from the text: • Jem begins to feel genuine empathy for Boo Radley at the end of chapter

seven when Mr. Nathan Radley covers the knothole with cement, even though the tree does not appear to be dying. Jem concludes that Mr. Radley only wants to restrict Boo’s contact with the outside world.

Boo Radley’s Past

• He was raised as a “foot-washing” Baptist. He turned out to be a good person. The things people said about him were not true, and he meant no harm to anyone.

Chapter 11: Mrs. Dubose / Courage

• Atticus tells Jem at the end of the chapter 11 (p.112) that Mrs. Dubose was the “bravest lady he ever knew”. She kicked her morphine addiction in spite of the fact that she was dying anyway.

• Connection to Atticus: p.76• “Just because we were licked one hundred

years before we began is no reason for us to not to try to win.”

Child Narrator Limitations

• Sometimes it is difficult for us (the reader) to see certain things clearly because Scout doesn’t see the situation clearly herself.

Child Narrator Limitations• We can see evidence that our view of the story is limited because

of Scout’s narration when on the first day of school, Scout tries to explain the Cunningham situation to Miss Caroline. Instead of helping anyone, she embarrassed Walter and called out Miss Caroline on the fact that she did not know Maycomb’s ways.

• Later on in the novel, Scout has a hard time understanding why Atticus is deliberately going against Maycomb to defend Tom Robinson if he isn’t going to win. She is subjected to nasty remarks and being called things like an “N” lover. It is difficult for her to completely understand her father and so is therefore more difficult for us to understand Atticus’ perspective.

Killing A Mockingbird

• In chapter 10 it talks about how they should shoot at cans not mockingbirds. They do no harm or any hurtful things, they just sing. That’s why they say in chapter 10 it says it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.

• If Boo Radley does no harm, and mockingbirds do no harm. Perhaps the “mockingbirds” in this story could refer to any character that does no harm…

Maycomb’s Usual Disease Chapter 9

• Atticus tells Uncle Jack at the end of Chapter Nine that, “Why people go stark, raving mad when anything a Negro comes up is something I don’t pretend to understand…”

“Mad Dogs” Chapter 10

• Atticus shoots Tim Johnson (the mad dog). • Only Atticus is capable of shooting this dog;

Heck Tate passes the rifle over to Atticus.• Jem and Scout have no idea of Atticus’ ability

to shoot (defend Maycomb/ his children) against the “mad dogs” (usual disease).

Evidence of Racism/ The Finch Household as a “Safe Haven.”

• Atticus is defending Tom Robinson, which angers the people of Maycomb because the people in Maycomb presume that blacks are bad.