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Sec. 1 2 3 4
To Kill a Mockingbird
Chps. 10-11 Provoking Passages
Provoking Passages:
 Pick a passage (5-10 lines) from EITHER ch. 10 or 11 that makes you think deeply/differently about the key themes or main characters. It cannot be one that Mrs. O’C shared with the class!!
 Copy it down, including quotation marks & page number in parentheses at the end.
 Then explain in 8-10 sentences why you chose this quote. Consider the following: How does it make you think deeply/differently about a theme/character? What inferences can you make? What is the author suggesting? Is there any language you can analyze? Be very specific. (See model on the back.)
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“‘Right. But do you think I could face my children otherwise?
You know what’s going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a
Negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand… I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me enough ‘” (117).
This passage is provoking because it addresses a crucial theme in the book, and it reveals important personality traits about
Atticus. When Atticus refers to racism as “Maycomb’s usual disease,” he uses a very appropriate metaphor. As Harper Lee shows with some of the children in the story, namely Francis and
Cecil so far, racism is not an innate quality, but rather a belief that is passed on, or “transmitted,” from parent to child, just like an illness. It also “infects” people so that they lose their ability to think reasonably or logically; they go “stark raving mad.” Atticus makes it clear that he’s going to fight the “infection” by confronting it head-on, an action that’s morally right in his view but unpopular in Maycomb. His decision to defend Tom Robinson suggests that he is both brave and scrupulous. Thus he serves as a positive role model to his children. In effect, he’s “vaccinating” them, so they don’t become “infected,” which also demonstrates he’s a very protective and caring father.