Themes
in
To Kill a
Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is about racism.
To
determine the theme, you have to
explain what it teaches about racism.
OK… racism is bad. We knew that
already.
GO DEEPER.
Getting To Depth
= WHAT ELSE?
 Where
does racism appear?
 How does racism affect people?
 How does racism affect a community?
 How does racism against black people affect white
people?
 Are there different types of racism?
 What is the human cost of racism?
Consider
Tom Robinson/ Tom Robinson’s death
 What Calpurnia says about two languages.
 First Purchase Church
 Dolphus Raymond and his “mixed” kids
 Ms. Merriweather’s comments at the tea party
 How Bob Ewell perceives the events
 Mayella’s “attraction” to Tom
 How Miss Gates is hypocritical

Come up with a thematic statement
about the theme about
racism
in To Kill a Mockingbird.
 Scout
Coming of Age/
Loss of Innocence
and Jem grow up in this novel. We
see each of them mature through their
behaviors, actions, and the things they say.
They lose their innocence. What do we
learn about growing up from this novel? What
happens as we grow up and get older, as
demonstrated in this novel?
Courage/Integrity
What
are some events
that are meant to teach us
about courage or integrity?
Stepping into someone else’s
skin
Write
a thematic
statement about this
topic.
Innocence
 The
mockingbird comes up several times in
the novel. It does nothing to hurt anyone
or anything, but they make music to enjoy.
It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. It is a
symbol of innocence. Boo Radley and Tom
Robinson are also innocent. What is the
author trying to make us think about
innocence from the events of this novel?
The Gothic Motif
Harper Lee includes many Gothic elements in To
Kill a Mockingbird. Why? What does it do
to the story? How does it affect it? What
was her purpose in including these elements?
Where do we see the ribbon of the gothic
throughout this novel?
Forebodings Of Evil
Imprisonment, including barriers,
walls, and veils
Ghosts, vampires, witches and
ghost houses
Home as a dangerous prison
Forbidding secrets
The prison of stereotypes
Insanity
Taboos (such as interracial
relationships)
The influence of the past and
degeneracy
Violence, especially that which
has to do with the attempt to
break boundaries
Eccentricity
The lure of terror