Thinking Writing 5 Write for the period in response to one or more of the following questions.
1. What evidence does Heck Tate present that makes it clear to Atticus that it was Arthur who killed Bob Ewell? Include specific references to the text.
2. In Chapter 30, Harper Lee draws the attention of the reader to an earlier scene:
Atticus made his way to the swing and sat down. His hands dangled limply between his knees. He was looking at the floor. He had moved with the same slowness that night in front of the jail, when I thought it took him forever to fold his newspaper and toss it in his chair.
Here is the description of Atticus that night in front of the jail:
Atticus got up from his chair, but he was moving slowly, like an old man. He put the newspaper down very carefully, adjusting its creases with lingering fingers. They were trembling a little.(Chapter 30).
Why is Harper Lee drawing the reader’s attention to these two different but similar moments in the novel?
3. In the last chapter, Scout thinks to herself:
As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn’t much else left for us to learn, except
possibly algebra.
What do you think Scout means when she says there wasn’t much else left for her to learn except algebra?
On the one hand, it is certainly true Scout has much more to learn about life, but it is also the case that after
surviving a murderous attack and being saved by Boo Radley, who existed previously only in her
imagination, she has had an experience that will stay with her for the rest of her life, one upon which she will
think deeply and about which she eventually writeTo Kill A Mockingbird. Yes, she has more
to learn, but doesn’t she know something now that will guide her for the rest of her life?
4. Write about an experience you have had from which you have learned something that will
stay with you and guide you for the rest of your life or create a fictional person who reflects deeply
about something that she or he has learned from at an early age.
5. When Scout stands on the Radley porch she relives the past years from Arthur’s point of view. Can you
imagine a similar situation in which you do the same thing. For instance, you may want to
think back to your years in the 6-7 Division or in your elementary school and watch yourself and your
classmates at work and play. Or imagine what a teacher sees as he or she sits and watches you at
play and remembers perhaps his or her own youth.
6. Who in the novel do you see as a/the mockingbird?
7. Write a poem called “Bird Song” or “The Song of the Mockingbird”. Here is one I wrote:
Poets sing in the voice of birds
and write upon the wind
and like the birds of summers past
they sleep like death like spring.
O do not tell me you understand
and feel that lift of wing
unless you too shallspeak a word
that makes an old heart sing.
Just so a callfrom winter's waste
does wake me from my feathered rest:
so fair a word, so fair a face,
all wind and song, all bird and ache.
8. Write about whatever is in your heart or on your mind today.