Possible Questions on “To Kill a Mocking Bird”
The book “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is a literary masterpiece written in 1960 by Harper Lee and has stood out to be a force to reckon with in the world of literature. It has been widely used over the years across America in learning institutions. It touches on important aspects of society such as gender roles and racial inequality. In this book, there are various questions that are frequently examined in its different chapters. Outlined below are ten possible questions and answers derived from various chapters of the book.
1. Atticus takes a job that makes people say mean things about him. What is the nature of this job that makes people say mean things about him?
Atticus decides to defend a black man in a court of law. People end up saying mean things about him due to the prevailing racial discrimination at that time in Maycomb County.
2. Explain whether Atticus is optimistic that he will win the case against the black man.
Atticus is not optimistic that he is going to win the case. On page 100 “it’s Tom Robinson’s word against the well. It’s like saying it is a white person vs a black person” In addition to this, almost everyone in the court is white, therefore Atticus has no chance of winning the case.
3. What disease does Maycomb County suffer from?
Maycomb County, which is the setting of the book suffers from racial discrimination, whereby the black people living there are discriminated against by the white majority. Racism is one of the major themes portrayed in this book.
4. Atticus says that he hopes he can get jet and scout through the case without catching the disease. What does he mean?
He simply means that whether he wins the case or not, he hopes that Jet and Scout will not be racists too like the other people.
5. Jem does something that surprises Scout one day as they are returning home one day. What is it that he did and why did he do it?
Jem goes to Mrs. Dubose’s front yard and decides to cut the tops off all her camellia bushes in anger. The reason why he does this is that his anger had been gradually building up over the weeks and on this day it snapped making him do what he had done. Mrs. Dubose viciously insulted Atticus.
6. Scout gets to tell Atticus what Mrs. Dubose had been calling him. What is Atticus’ response?
Atticus is not moved by Mrs. Dubose’s offensive words and instead terms them as empty and meaningless. He is unmoved by the insults.
7. According to Atticus, what is “real courage”?
Atticus articulately states that real courage is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what”
8. How does Atticus’ definition of “real courage” relate to Mrs. Dubose?
Atticus’ definition of real courage relates to Mrs. Dubose owing to the fact that she required real courage to conquer her morphine addiction. Despite the fact that she knew that she would be incomplete agony if she stopped taking the drug, she soldiered on and ultimately stopped regardless.
9. Who killed Bob Ewell and why?
It is Boo Radley that killed Bob Ewell. Boo Radley does this in order to save Jem and Scout.
10. Tate knows that Boo Radley killed Bob Ewell. However, he decides to keep this information from the public. Why does he do so?
Tate keeps this information from the public since he believes that justice has been served. He goes ahead to explain “There’s a black boy dead for no reason, and the man responsible for it’s dead. Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Flinch” Furthermore, by keeping this information to himself, Radley does not get to be treated as a hero by the people of Maycomb.
