To Kill A Mockingbird

Here are some discussion questions for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

1. What is the theme of this book?

2. The main action and storyline of the book appears to be the trial of Tom Robinson, yet the story starts years before this issue began. Why are the years preceding the Tom Robinson incident important to the theme of the book? What do those years addd to the Robinson trial and what the characters learn from that trial?

3. Throughout the novel a number of unlikable characters show themselves to be heroic in different ways, including Mrs. Dubose, Auntie, and Dolphus Raymond. Why do you think Lee included these aspects of those characters in her novel? Did it help advance her theme and the story or was it distracting?

4. Lee appeared to be writing about a society that was clinging to the past, but was slowly changing its values in spite of itself--do you think her book was proposing that slow and deliberate change was an effective method of advancing various causes?

5. Why was Atticus so unwilling to let his children know that he was a dead-shot?

6. Why does Boo Radley constitute the beginning and end of the novel? What, if anything, does he symbolize? What does he teach the children, and, what does he teach us?

7. Why is Atticus's description of heroes (knowing you're licked before you start, but starting anyway)so important in advancing the theme of the book? How does Atticus's description of heroes apply to Maudie Atkinson's statements regarding the length of time the jury took to convict Robinson?

8. One of the recurring themes is the need to walk in others' shoes, how does this apply to the overall theme of the book?

9. Why is this novel still so well regarded?