Essay Options for To Kill a Mockingbird
Choose one of the following options for your essay.
 Address all aspects of the prompt.
 Use specific details to support your claims.
 Organize your body paragraphs purposefully, with topic and closing sentences that
indicate the main ideas.
 Use at least two direct quotes in two different places in your paper, cited correctly, no
longer than 2 lines each.
 The essay must be typed in MLA formatting.
 All rules of formal writing apply.
Courage
Throughout the text, courage is displayed in many ways. The meaning of courage seems to be
different among the characters; in fact, what is “courageous” at the beginning may seem trivial
compared to what is considered “courageous” at the end. In a well-written essay, discuss the
following topics:
 How one or more characters view (or act out) courage toward the beginning of the story,
 How one or more characters view (or act out) courage in the middle of the story, and
 How one or more characters view (or act out) courage by the end of the story
Childhood Innocence
Throughout the story, childhood innocence is both revealed and lost by multiple characters. The
characters “come of age,” or grow up (though to varying degrees). In a well-written essay,
discuss the following topics:
 How one or more characters are innocent at some point,
 What causes one or more characters to lose childhood innocence, and
 How the character(s) are different afterwards
Ethics
Many characters in the story act in ways which may be deemed both ethical and unethical,
depending on one’s point of view. Choose one or more of these characters’ actions and, in a
well-written essay, discuss the following topics:
 How one or more characters are or are not ethical
 Who (else) in the text views the character(s) as ethical
 Who (else) in the text views the character(s) as unethical
Example prompt (you may not choose this one):
What is a good parent? People may have very different definitions of this, as we see when
parents raise their children in specific ways. In a well-written essay, discuss the following topics:
 How one or more characters are shown to be “good parents,”
 How one or more characters are shown to be “bad parents,” and
 What Harper Lee believes to be the qualities every parent should have
BRAINSTORMING
1. Decide which topic you will use by looking back through your character list and reading
guides to see which prompt you can answer most thoroughly.
2. Decide if you will use one or more characters and list them here:
ORGANIZATION
Option 1: Organize by Character
With this kind of organization, you will separate your paragraphs by character and address each
aspect of the prompt within each paragraph.
Example:
Body paragraph 1: Atticus = good parent: caring, sets high expectations, good role model
Body paragraph 2: Alexandra = good and bad parent: caring and sets high expectations, but not a
good role model
Body paragraph 3: Bob Ewell = bad parent: not caring, doesn’t set high expectations, not a good
role model
Notice how the qualities remain the same among all three paragraphs.
Option 2: Organize by Idea
With this kind of organization, you will separate your paragraphs by how many aspects of the
prompt there are and address multiple characters within each paragraph.
Example:
Body paragraph 1: Good parents are caring; shown by Atticus and Alexandra but not Bob Ewell
Body paragraph 2: Good parents set high expectations; shown by Atticus and Alexandra but not
Bob Ewell
Body paragraph 3: Good parents are positive role models; shown by Atticus but not Alexandra or
Bob Ewell
Notice how all three characters appear in each paragraph.
Begin thinking about your organization; you’ll get more guidance tomorrow in class.