Homework for Tuesday, 5/4

Read chapters 25-26 of TKAM!

Homework for Monday, 4/26

This was going to be an in-class assignment, BUT now you're doing it for homework instead :)

Answer the following questions:
Background of the Novel:
1.What is the SETTING of the novel (time and place)?
2.What kinds of attitudes/ideas do people in the town have?
3.Why did Harper Lee write this book?
4.What is the DIALECT of the novel?
5.From what POINT OF VIEW is TKAM written?

NOW. For each chapter, 2-20, I want you to write what you think is the main (most important) event of the chapter. Just come up with one. Here are three examples of what you could write for Chapter 1. Not sure what to do? E-mail or call! :)
Chapter 1
a.Reader is introduced to the narrator, Scout Finch
b.Scout describes her family history and the town of Maycomb
c.We learn that Scout is telling this story later, when she’s older.

Homework for Friday 4/23

Read Chapters 19-20 of To Kill A Mockingbird. Answer the following questions:

1. How had Tom ever been in trouble with the law before?
2. Why does Scout think Mayella must have been lonely?
3. According to Tom, why were the children gone that day?
4. According to Tom, what had Mayella asked him to do?
5. Did Mayella suggest she'd ever been kissed before?
6. According to Tom, toward whom did Mr. Ewell direct his anger?
7. On what, according to Atticus, is a lawyer supposed to concentrate during a witness's testimony?
8. Why is Tom's left arm important to his defense?
9. What does Tom say to Mr. Gilmer that makes the crowd angry?
10. Why is the Judge furious with Link Deas?
11. Why do Scout and Dill go outside?
12. Why does Dolphus Raymond pretend to drink?
13. Why, according to Atticus, does Mayella want Tom to be found guilty?
14. What did Atticus do in public that Scout had never seen him do?
15. What one way are all men created equal, according to Atticus?
16. Who comes to the trial at the end of the chapter?

Homework for Tuesday, 4/20

Read Chapters 16-17. Answer the questions! :)

Chapter 15:
1. What persuades the lynching-party to give up their attempt on Tom's life?

Chapter 16:
1. What “subtle change” does Scout notice in her father?
2. What sort of person is Dolphus Raymond?
3. How does Reverend Sykes help the children see and hear the trial? Is he right to do?
4. Describe how the Maycomb people act at the courthouse square--when they arrive to view the trial of Tom Robinson.

Chapter 17:
1. Describe Tom Robinson's alleged crime, as told by Bob Ewell and Heck Tate.
2. What evidence does Atticus reveal about Bob Ewell that may find him guilty of Tom Robinson's alleged crime?
3. Describe Bob Ewell (describe his actions, language/speech, and other people's points of view).

homework for Friday, April 16

Read chapters 13-14 of TKAM. Be prepared for a quiz! :) Complete these study questions (IF you copy/paste the questions, you do not need to answer in complete sentences)


1.Briefly explain Jem's and Scout's visit to First Purchase church (Calpurnia's church). What do people think/feel about them? How do they feel about this experience?
2.What new things do Scout and Jem learn at this church about how the black people live?
3.Describe Calpurnia's education and her son's education--refer to their literacy.
4.Explain why Calpurnia speaks differently in the Finch household, and among her neighbors at church. How is language different in a workplace and in a social setting and/or around family?
5.Why does Aunt Alexandra come to stay with Atticus and his family? What is she like?
6.Read the first two things Alexandra says when she comes to the Finch house. Are these typical of her or not (explain why)?
7.Alexandra thinks Scout is “dull” (not clever). Why does she think this, and is she right?
8.How does Aunt Alexandra involve herself in Maycomb's social life?
9.Comment on Aunt Alexandra's ideas about breeding and family. Why does Atticus tell them to forget it? Who is right, do you think?
10.Why does Alexandra think Atticus should dismiss Calpurnia? How does Atticus respond to the suggestion?
11.Why is Scout pleased when Jem fights her back? Why is she less pleased when he tells Atticus about Dill?
12.What do we learn from Dill's account of his running away?

hmwk for Friday, 4/9

Read chapters 9-10. Then write a page responding to this quotation by Miss Maudie (by respond...do you agree? disagree? What do you think it means?)

(Talking with Scout, she says...)

" ...sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of -- oh, of your father" and "There are just some kind of men who -- who're so busy worrying about the next world that they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results." (Chapter 5)

Study questions for Chapters 3-8

Read carefully and answer the questions. They do NOT need to be in complete sentences, but please make sure you fully answer the question! :) Read carefully and review before Tuesday....there might just be a quiz over Chapters 1-8.

Ch. 3:

1. Who is Calpurnia? What is her place in the Finch household?
2. What is Walter Cunningham like? What does his behaviour during lunch suggest about his home life?
3. What do you think of the way Atticus treats Walter?
4. Does Scout learn anything from Walter's visit? What do you think this is?
5. Atticus says that you never really understand a person “until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. What does this mean?
   
6. What do you learn in this chapter about the Ewells?
7. State the bargain that Atticus struck with Scout.

Chapter 4

1. What risky behavior do Scout and Jem engage in?
2. Why do the children make Boo's story into a game?
3. How does Atticus react to the game? What does his reaction tell us about his character?
4. Identify at least 2 slang words/phrases appropriate to the 1930's in Maycomb Alabama. Translate these words/phrases into today's language.

Chapter 5:

1. Describe Miss Maudie Atkinson? How typical is she of Maycomb's women? What do the children think of her?
2. What does Miss Maudie tell Scout about Boo? How does this compare with what Scout already believes?
3. Scout claims that “Dill could tell the biggest ones ” (lies) she ever heard. Why might Dill have told such lies?
4. What reasons does Atticus give for the children not to play the Boo Radley game? Do you think he is right? Why?

Chapter 6:

1. Why does Scout disapprove of Jem's and Dill's plan of looking in at one of the Radleys' windows?
2. What does Mr. Nathan Radley know about the intruders in his garden? Why does Miss Stephanie refer to a “negro” over whose head Mr. Nathan has fired?
3. How did Dill explain the loss of Jem's pants to the crowd in front of the Radley place?

Chapter 7:

1. When Jem tells Scout about getting his trousers back, he tells her of something strange. What is this?
2. Can you find any evidence that Jem is beginning to understand more than Scout about Boo Radley? What do you think this is?
3. Does Jem still fear the gifts in the tree? Give reasons for your answer.
4. When the children plan to send a letter to the person who leaves the gifts, they are prevented. How does this happen? Who does it, and why might he do so?

Chapter 8:

1. Why does Scout quiz Atticus about his visit to the Radley house? How much does Atticus tell her?
2. What is the “near libel” which Jem puts in the front yard? How do Miss Maudie and Atticus react to it?
3. Why does Atticus save Miss Maudie's oak rocking chair?
4. When Atticus asks Scout about the blanket around her shoulders, what does Jem realize?
5. Explain what Atticus means by telling Jem not to let his discovery “inspire ” him to “further glory”? Is there any reason why Jem might now do as his father says?