1. Themes…there are a lot of them
To Kill A Mockingbird
Themes…there are a lot of them

2. For those of you still unclear what we mean by theme
For those of you still unclear what we mean by theme. Theme= the central idea in a piece of writing or work of art. A novel often has more than one theme, or might have one primary them, and several secondary themes.

3. BRAINSTORM
Think Pair Share= with a partner, list the themes you can identify in
To Kill A Mockingbird

4. 1. Good vs Evil
Most important theme of the novel is the exploration of the moral nature of human beings.
Are people essentially good or essentially evil?
As children, Scout and Jem assume most people are good because they haven’t seen evil- especially not from an adult perspective.
As the book progresses, they move from a perspective of innocence to experience.
Scout maintains her basic faith in human nature- Jem’s faith in justice and humanity is damaged and leaves him disillusioned.
The Coexistence of Good and Evil
The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book’s exploration of the moral nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. The novel approaches this question by dramatizing Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence, in which they assume that people are good because they have never seen evil, to a more adult perspective, in which they have confronted evil and must incorporate it into their understanding of the world. As a result of this portrayal of the transition from innocence to experience, one of the book’s important subthemes involves the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the innocent: people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, and, as a result, they are destroyed. Even Jem is victimized to an extent by his discovery of the evil of racism during and after the trial. Whereas Scout is able to maintain her basic faith in human nature despite Tom’s conviction, Jem’s faith in justice and in humanity is badly damaged, and he retreats into a state of disillusionment.

5. 2. Morality and Ethics
Atticus is perhaps the best example in the book of a “moral” character. He tries to instill a sense of morality in his children.
He especially wants his children to develop sympathy and understanding for others.
He thinks that EVERYONE deserves a fair trial, Maycomb thinks that only white men do.
Your beliefs can get you into a lot of trouble, but if they are moral, you might just end up dragging others in a more satisfactory direction
Atticus thinks that everyone deserves a fair trial. Maycomb thinks that only white men do. Scout thinks that her father is right. Maycomb thinks that her father is wrong. So, who's more moral—the community standard, or the individual conscience? Where do the rights of the community end and the rights of the individual begin? To Kill a Mockingbird examines the conflict between the individual and the community. On the one hand, standing up for your beliefs can get you into a lot of trouble. But if your beliefs are moral, then you just might end up dragging the whole community in a more satisfactory direction. After all, a community's morals are the sum of what its individuals believe.

6. Questions on Morality and Ethics
What do individual characters in the novel base their ideas of right and wrong on?
How does the community work to enforce collective standards of morality? Where do those collective standards come from?
What moral principles does the novel suggest are desirable? Does anything in the novel undermine these moral principles? Are there times when the novel appears to be hypocritical?
Does Bob Ewell have bad morals or no morals? What's the difference?

7. 3. Racism and Prejudice
Another predominant theme in the novel is that of Racsim and Prejudice.
Examples abound….that means there are a lot of them!
Imagine a world where everyone with blue eyes got to give orders to everyone with brown eyes. If you're born with blue eyes, you get the good jobs, the good schools, the good houses, and all the fair trials you could want. If you have brown eyes—too bad. It's menial labor, rudimentary education, and a house by the dump.
Yeah. It doesn't make any sense. And if it happened overnight, there'd be massive protests. But what if it happened gradually, and what if generations after generations slowly came to accept it? Pretty soon, you'd have people arguing that brown-eyed people are just naturally inferior, and that's Just the Way It Is. And if you're living in a hidebound, one-horse town like Maycomb, there's even less reason to question the status quo. And that's where we are in To Kill a Mockingbird: a town even more traditional-bound than the rest of the South, where it's not just black people who Are the Way They Are, but the white families, too. So is there hope for this town?

8. Questions about Race and Prejudice
How does the novel portray its African-American characters? Are there elements of racism in these portrayals?
How is the African-American community similar to the white community in Maycomb? How is it different? How might these similarities and differences affect how the two communities see each other?
How might Maycomb, and the events of the novel, be different if there were more than two races represented in the town?
Does the novel seem to think that racism will eventually be overcome? Or will there always be an element of racism in Maycomb?

9. 4. Social Inequality
Differences in social status are explored largely through the overcomplicated social hierarchy of Maycomb.
This hierarchy baffles the children.
The relatively wealthy Finches are at the top, then most of the townspeople beneath them, then uneducated country farmers (the Cunninghams), then “white trash” like the Ewells, and finally the black community.
The Existence of Social Inequality
Differences in social status are explored largely through the overcomplicated social hierarchy of Maycomb, the ins and outs of which constantly baffle the children. The relatively well-off Finches stand near the top of Maycomb’s social hierarchy, with most of the townspeople beneath them. Ignorant country farmers like the Cunninghams lie below the townspeople, and the white trash Ewells rest below the Cunninghams. But the black community in Maycomb, despite its abundance of admirable qualities, squats below even the Ewells, enabling Bob Ewell to make up for his own lack of importance by persecuting Tom Robinson. These rigid social divisions that make up so much of the adult world are revealed in the book to be both irrational and destructive. For example, Scout cannot understand why Aunt Alexandra refuses to let her consort with young Walter Cunningham. Lee uses the children’s perplexity at the unpleasant layering of Maycomb society to critique the role of class status and, ultimately, prejudice in human interaction.

10. 5. Justice and Judgment
In a criminal case, a jury of one’s peers is the ideal when determining innocence or guilt. The reality in the book: a group of white men who weren’t influential enough to get out of jury duty. In TKAM, justice is a privilege not a right. -Best opportunity for a fair trial- be born white!
Ideal: a jury of one's peers dispassionately determine guilt or innocence based on the fact. Reality: a group of white men who aren't influential enough to get out of jury duty have decided the case before they even enter the courtroom. In To Kill a Mockingbird, justice is a privilege, not a right. You want a fair trial? Well, we sure hope you were lucky enough to be born white.

11. Questions about Justice and Judgment
Does Tom Robinson receive a fair trial under the law? Why or why not? Would having an all-black jury have resulted in a different verdict?
According to the novel, is it ever justified to act outside the law in order to ensure justice? If so, when is it justified? If not, what do you do when the law allows injustice?
What's the novel's take on the American legal system? What are its strengths, and what are its weakness?

12. 6. Fear There is an undercurrent of fear throughout the novel.
Early in To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel paraphrases Franklin D. Roosevelt's inaugural address: "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.“
Fear makes people lash out against what scares them to restore a familiar order.
Right on: fear can be very scary when it hijacks people's reason and compassion for others. As another great statesman, Yoda, put it, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." And where does that all leave us? The Dark Side, or in this case, racism, injustice, harassment, and senseless killing. Fear makes people lash out against what scares them to restore the familiar order, even if they have to destroy innocent lives along the way.

13. Questions about Fear
Tom is disabled and seems like a nice, unthreatening guy. So why is Maycomb so scared of him?
Why is Mayella so frightened on the witness stand? Who is frightening her?
What does the novel say about what things should be considered scary, and what shouldn't?
What's the relationship here between fear and race?

14. 7. Family In To Kill a Mockingbird, family is destiny.
Within the confines of a small town where the same people have lived for generations, no one can escape…becoming their parents. Horror! 
For better or worse, parents usually raise their children to be like them.
“Family” in Maycomb creates an attitude of comfortable familiarity and predictability. This makes progress- both individually and as a community, difficult.
Either the parents raise their kids to be like them, for good or ill, or the pressure of community expectations that a person live up, or down, to their family is too much to resist. While this attitude creates a comfortable familiarity and a cozy predictability, it also makes progress, both for the individual and the community, very difficult.

15. Questions about Family
What's the effect of having the Finch children call their father by his first name? What does that suggest about their characters? About his? Their relationship? Do you know anyone who calls their parents by their first name? (Do you?)
Why is Aunt Alexandra so obsessed with Old Family and Finch pride? What does she hope to accomplish by making Scout and Jem feel that as well?
How does family intersect with class in the novel?
What do the examples of good and bad parents in the novel suggest about the best way to raise kids?
How does Maycomb's African-American community think about the idea of family?

16. 8. Youth
The novel looks at the idea of whether or not kids are just mini versions of the adults they will someday be, or whether something substantial happen between childhood and adulthood.
One gains a little and one will lose a little as they grow up.
Are kids just the mini-me versions of the adults they will become, or is something substantial lost—or gained—in the transition to adulthood? And how does that process work, anyhow? To Kill a Mockingbird shows a child's perspective on adult events, and suggests that while children aren't just adults in miniature, they also aren't what adults imagine or misremember children to be. You gain a little and you lose a little as you grow up, and some of the abilities that disappear—like fairness, compassion, and a critical way of looking at the world—are well worth trying to keep.

17. Questions about Youth
How does the novel think of children as different from adults? Are there any adults who have child-like perspectives? How about children with adult outlooks?
What difference does it make to the novel that it's narrated from a child's perspective? How would the book be different if an adult perspective was dominant?
According to the novel, what happens in the process of growing up? What factors determine what kind of adult a child becomes?
Is identity fixed in childhood, or can it change over time?

18. 9. Women and Femininity.
Scout believes being called a girl is the worst thing possible!
The women in this novel are a product of the timeframe. Women have their “place” and it isn’t in the world of men.
This does not mean their influence is not felt.
Through the course of the novel, with influence from Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie, she learns that being a lady can take as much courage as being a tomboy.
Being called a girl is about the worst thing possible—or so thinks Scout, the female protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. Girls wear frilly pink dresses, and don't get to play outside, swear, or pretty much do anything fun. And they have to grow up to be ladies, which means being plunged into a confusing world where no one says what they mean. Scout's in for a big lesson, though: thanks to the examples of radical chicks Aunt Alexandra and Miss Maudie, she learns that being a lady can take as just as much courage as being a wild tomboy. Even if you have to wear a dress while doing it.

19. Questions about women and femininity.
Why does Scout take being called a girl as an insult? Would she have felt differently if she had an older sister instead of a brother? Why are there no other little girls in the novel?
What effect does not having a mother have on Jem and Scout? Is Calpurnia a female role model for Scout, or does Scout just see her as "black" rather than as a woman?
Why does being a lady require different skills than being a gentleman? Is there any overlap?

20. 10. Compassion and Forgiveness.
The novel presents some pretty reprehensible characters. People who are evil and unkind.
It asks: How do you feel compassion for someone who is clearly undeserving?
Some people would say don’t bother!
The novel’s answer is that you do so with a little goodness, a little humility and a lot of imagination.
There is a risk that the person may be as nasty as you suspect, but that is the risk a good person should be willing to take.
How do you manage compassion for people when they are undeserving? Shmoop's answer: don't bother. To Kill a Mockingbird's answer: a little goodness, a little humility, and a lot of imagination. (No wonder we've never won a Pulitzer.) From the outside, a person may seem vile, stupid, or just plain incomprehensible. But if you can imagine what it's like inside that person's head, you might be surprised by the answers—and compassion—you find. Of course, there's also the danger that the person is just as nasty as you thought, but that's the risk a good person has to be willing to take.

21. Questions about Compassion and Forgiveness
Is there anyone who the novel suggests isn't deserving of compassion and forgiveness? If so, who and why? If not, why not?
Lots of characters feel pity and compassion for other characters. What does the object of a character's compassion reveal about that character?
Is compassion learned or innate in the novel? Or both?
Why does Atticus refuse to pity Mayella?
Do you think Tom feels compassion for Mayella after she accuses him of rape? Why is it unforgivable for him to feel sorry for her in the first place?