Harper Lee describes To Kill a Mockingbird as a love story. A love story?? What does she mean? Think about To Kill a Mockingbird in that context. What kind of love story is it? Does thinking about it in that way change your perspective? Can you think of it as a love story? I can! What do you think?

Ms Stewart

To Kill a Mockingbird is bursting with allusions. “Maycomb had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself” (p.6) is one that comes early in the novel. The one that struck me today is during Atticus’ closing argument to the jury. He’s talking about the fact that people misuse Jefferson’s quote that “all men are created equal.” Atticus says its a phrase that “Yankees and the distaff side of the Executive branch in Washington are fond of hurling at us.” This is an allusion to a well-known person of the time. Can you find out who? (You might start by looking up the word “distaff.”

Ms. Stewart

Remember when you were little and you had a favorite book that you asked everyone – mom, dad, grand-parents – to read to you? How many times was that book read to you? I bet I have read To Kill a Mockingbird that many times.

I began to re-read TKAM again on Sunday, and as always, I felt like I was welcoming an old friend back into my life. I know this book so well, and yet it gives me something new every time I read it.

Yet there are questions I ask every time I read it that I never quite get answered: What are “Big Mules,” who was “Lorenzo Dow,” and is the Gray Ghost a real book or something that sounds real that Harper Lee made up? No matter. These details add resonance to the story but you don’t need to know all the answers to follow the plot.

Are there stories you like to re-read? Why do we enjoy reading things over and over? Have you ever re-read something and not enjoyed it as much as you recalled? Tell us about your experiences with re-reading.

Two high school juniors explore the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird in the video below.