TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Critical Analysis / Research Paper
ENGLISH 9
While reading this book, you may encounter events, ideas, beliefs, lifestyles, and even a writing
style that may seem new to you. Understanding these things will help increase your
comprehension of the novel and to appreciate Harper Lee’s remarkable craft as a writer.
Choose one of the topic choices listed below. Then, research info about your chosen topic and
literally explain your topic. Next, identify where your topic surfaces in the story. Finally,
consider how your topic enhances the story. Your thesis will focus on how your chosen topic
affects the story. For example, we will discuss in class how the rabies issue actually develops
characterization, theme, and foreshadowing. Please take notes during this session.
Create a four-page, typed, and double-spaced paper using the attached guidelines. The paper
must include proper parenthetical documentation and a Works Cited page with at least 3 works
cited. One source will definitely be the novel.
This paper is due _______________ and will be valued at 100 points. Please see the
attached outline for the essay checklist.
TOPIC CHOICES
Halloween
Knotholes in a tree
Missionary Work
Great Depression
Jury system of the 1930s
Radio
FDR’s New Deal
Rabies
Women in the 1930’s
Southern Sayings/Idioms
Education in the 1930’s
Agoraphobia, a phobia
Ku Klux Klan
Snowmen (Morphodite)
Being “a lady”
Adolf Hitler
Soap carvings
Plants of Alabama (camellia, geraniums, etc.)
Insects (cooties, roly poly)
Southern cooking (scuppernongs, crackling bread
Lane cake, pickled pigs knuckles, salt pork,etc.)
OBTAIN APPROVAL FIRST, IF YOU’D LIKE TO USE ANOTHER TOPIC.
Attachments include format info on:
Research Paper General Info
MLA Format for Works Cited – on sample format for in-text citation and entries
A Sample Works Cited Page
Essay Checklist (MUST BE COMPLETED & RETURNED WITH YOUR ESSAY)