To Kill a Mockingbird: Themes (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Literature)

Themes

Your English Literature exam question could be on any topic, but you can be well prepared by thinking carefully about the important themes, or recurring ideas, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Having a good understanding of the themes explored by author Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird will help to ensure that you can write a confident response, using evidence from across the text to support your argument.

Here are some of the key themes in To Kill a Mockingbird to think about:

• Difference

• Inside and outside 

• Childhood and adulthood

• Justice and injustice

• Education 

Difference

In Harper Lee’s coming-of-age story, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author explores the varied attitudes people hold toward those whom they perceive to be different. While racism and racial prejudice stand out as a central theme through the story of Tom Robinson's unjust trial, the novel also addresses difference in its handling of social norms, class and gender.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The way in which Scout, Jem and Dill ostracise Boo Radley without ever having met him epitomises the prejudice that permeates the town of Maycomb and its community:

  • The children have formed an opinion of Boo, based on what the townspeople say about him

  • The rumours about Boo’s mental state and the story of the attack on Mr Radley illustrates how ignorance can lead to discrimination

• Scout, Jem and Dill are drawn into the prejudice:

  • It fuels their fear until Boo becomes a monster in their minds, which dehumanises him:

    • In Chapter 1, Boo is described as a “malevolent phantom”

• Boo is a socially isolated recluse, rarely leaving his house, but he tries to interact with the children by leaving gifts for them in the tree:

  • His loneliness is symbolic of the isolation experienced by those experiencing discrimination

• As part of their moral education, Atticus tries to teach Scout and her brother Jem the importance of empathy, although they are surrounded by prejudice at their school and within their community:

  • At school, Walter Cunningham is reprimanded for not having any lunch money:

    • Miss Caroline assumes that he has forgotten it rather than realising his family can’t afford to give it to him

    • In this instance, Walter is discriminated against because his family is experiencing poverty

    • Scout tries to explain, but is punished for speaking out, foreshadowing the treatment of her father when he defends Tom Robinson

• When Walter Cunningham has dinner with the Finch family, Scout comments on the fact he pours syrup on his food:

  • Calpurnia scolds Scout for passing comment on how he eats, reprimanding her for passing judgement:

    • Despite how she is brought up, here Scout reveals her own prejudices on the basis of culture and class

• Scout describes Calpurnia as “something else” (Chapter 1):

  • Later in the novel, Scout is surprised to learn about Calpurnia’s private life:

    • This moment reinforces the significance of seeing others as individuals beyond their occupation

• Scout and Jem are victims of prejudice when their father behaves differently from others in their Southern community when he volunteers to defend Tom Robinson:

  • Atticus knows they won’t win the case due to the deep-seated racism towards African American people in Maycomb, Alabama, but he is determined to stand up for what he believes:

    • “In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins.” (Atticus, Chapter 23)

• In the course of the trial, we learn that Mayella tried to kiss Tom, then fabricated the rape, in part because of societal pressures in Maycomb

• Dolphus Raymond is an outcast in Maycomb because he has a black partner and mixed heritage children:

  • He chooses to pretend to be an alcoholic rather than try to reason with a community steeped in racism:

    • “they could never, ever, understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live.” (Dolphus, Chapter 20)

• The societal conventions in small town Maycomb that delineate black and white people as distinct and separate are evident when Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to her church:

  • Lula, one of the members of the black community and church congregation, asks why Calpurnia has brought white children to the service 

  • Here, there is a parallel between racism towards two innocent children because they are white, and racism towards a wrongly convicted innocent man because he is black

• Scout is portrayed as being different from other girls because she wears overalls and plays with the boys:

  • The expectations of how girls and women should behave is another example of the rigid societal norms in Maycomb county

  • Scout refuses to conform in the same way that Atticus refuses to accept the community’s views on race

• Families are also a motif for difference in the novel:

  • Within the Finch family, the character of Alexandra, who is happy to maintain the social norms, is contrasted with Atticus Finch, who wishes to challenge them

  • This emphasises the conflict between tradition and advancement within both the Finch household and the broader Maycomb community

• Differences between families lead to distinct factions: the “Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the coloured folks.” (Jem, Chapter 23):

  • This illustrates the pervasive nature and absurdity of discrimination, from different races to people with different surnames

• At school the class discusses the treatment of Jewish people in Nazi Germany with Miss Gates explaining, “Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced”, prefaced by the claim that persecution doesn’t happen “here” (Chapter 26):

  • It is ironic that the class grasps the injustice of persecuting Jewish people yet fails to apply the same logic to the treatment of individuals in Maycomb

  • Lee suggests hypocrisy is often prevalent where discrimination is rife

What is Lee’s intention?

• In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee depicts a society rife with prejudice, showcasing the detrimental effects of discrimination in its various forms such as racism, sexism and classism

• The novel also illuminates the inequality present in 1930s America and explores how adversity affects the community

• Through her narrative, Lee prompts readers to reflect on their own inconsistencies and highlights the significance of tolerance and empathy

Inside and outside

The motif of inside versus outside recurs throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, serving as a symbolic representation of the rigid boundaries within Maycomb society, characterised by dichotomies such as black and white, male and female, rich and poor.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Atticus explains to his children that it is impossible to understand a person until “you climb inside his skin and walk around in it”

• However, inside and outside are shown to be separate in Maycomb:

  • Scout, Jem and Dill all play outside but are fascinated by what goes on inside the Radley house:

    • Scout recalls how it “drew [Dill] in like a moon draws water.” (Chapter 1)           

• Conversely, Boo Radley was once locked in a courthouse and remains confined to the inside of a house but is seemingly curious about the outside world:

  • Scout says that Boo went out at night and “peeped in windows”

• There are four notable symbols of the interplay between outside and inside: the Oak tree, the Finches’ porch, the fire at Miss Maudie’s house and Tom Robinson’s attempted escape from prison: 

  • Boo Radley leaves gifts for the children inside a tree, allowing for an unspoken communication between them:

    • Once the hole in the tree is filled with cement, the exchanges stop

  • Scout and Atticus speak on the porch, between the inside and the outside of the house, after her first day at school:

    • This conversation marks the initial instance of Scout’s father offering her life advice to think differently from those around her and establishes the foundation for their relationship

    • Atticus tells her, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” (Chapter 3)

  • The fire at Miss Maudie’s happens inside, then everyone comes outside: “Looks like all of Maycomb was out tonight, in one way or another.” (Atticus, Chapter 8):

    • Scout is given a blanket without knowing who put it on her shoulders, but the inference is that it was Boo Radley

  • Tom Robinson attempts to flee from prison but is shot in the process, illustrating his inability to transcend both metaphorical and physical barriers:

    • “They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over”.  (Chapter 24)

What is Lee’s intention? 

• Lee uses the themes of inside and outside to show how Maycomb society is divided and to illustrate the drawbacks of thinking in simple terms

• The novel implies that genuine understanding of others involves moving beyond existing categories by exploring the areas in between them

Childhood and adulthood

The novel deals with complex and adult issues such as discrimination and rape, but is narrated by Scout who is almost six years old when the novel begins and almost nine years old at the end of the novel.

Knowledge and evidence:

• The literary device of employing a child narrator enables Lee to depict Maycomb and its inhabitants through the lens of a child's perspective:

  •  “A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer” (Chapter 1)

• Harper Lee makes Scout relatable because she displays her own fallibility and exposes her own biases, which an adult narrator might be too self-aware to divulge:

  • “Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham” (Chapter 1)

• The intrigue surrounding the Boo Radley house, shared by Scout, Jem and Dill, is understandable when viewed through the perspective of children:

  • Their vivid imaginations symbolise how ignorance can lead to discrimination more generally

• The narrative portrays how adults influence children, for good or bad, highlighting how prejudice can become ingrained or overcome according to how young people are brought up:

  • Regarding Boo Radley, “Jem received most of his information from Stephanie Crawford.” (Chapter 1)

  • Meanwhile, Atticus is trying to bring his children up to be open-minded and fair: “Most people are nice, Scout, when you finally see them” (Chapter 30)

• Scout's innocence and lack of understanding injects bathos and humour into tense situations:

  • When Atticus is confronted by a group of Maycomb men at the jail, Scout intervenes and strikes up a conversation with Mr Cunningham about Walter's eating habits

  • When Jem and Scout are attacked by Mr Ewell, they are on their way home from a school Halloween pageant, and Scout is dressed up as a ham:

    • Scout's naivety introduces moments of light-heartedness, offering readers respite while also emphasising the absurdity of prejudice and violence

• As Scout develops throughout the novel, the reader witnesses her increasing maturity as she begins to understand that life is not as binary as she once thought:

  • At the start of the novel, she is afraid of Boo Radley – by the end she tells her father, “Atticus, he was real nice” (Chapter 30)

  • When Scout first learns that her father will be defending Tom Robinson, she assumes he must be wrong because of the way the rest of the community feels:

    • However, later on she recalls “I did not understand the subtlety of Tom’s predicament” (Chapter 19)

What is Lee’s intention?

• Through the perspective of a child narrator, Lee offers an honest portrayal of Maycomb with all its complexities and problems

• The children’s approach to Boo mirrors the rumours and ignorance that fuel prejudice in the adult world, simultaneously revealing the absurdity of discrimination

• The novel shows how attitudes can become ingrained, illustrating how easily children can be influenced by the adults around them

Justice and injustice

The themes of justice and injustice run throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, anchored by the injustice of Tom Robinson’s conviction for rape.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Maycomb is sustained by a social hierarchy that breeds injustice and discrimination in several ways:

  • As epitomised by the trial of Tom Robinson, white people enjoy more credibility than black people, purely on the basis of their skin colour

  • After Tom’s death, his widow, Helen, faces hardship and has to “walk nearly a mile out of her way” to avoid the Ewells (Chapter 27)

  • The stigmatisation of Boo Radley is based on rumours that he escaped criminal justice for allegedly attacking Mr Radley

  • Dolphus Raymond also serves to highlight the injustice of Maycomb society; he is ostracised because his partner is black, and his children are mixed heritage:

    • These instances of injustice underscore the novel's condemnation of societal norms and biases

• Although Tom Robinson is innocent, there is little hope that he will win the trial from the outset due to the racist attitudes in Maycomb:

  • Atticus appeals to the jury to have integrity, but the reality is that “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed”

  • Bob Ewell does not face criminal justice for the apparent attack on Mayella

• Poverty is a social issue in Maycomb: the Ewells live at the dump, Burris Ewell has a cootie in his hair because he hasn’t washed, and the Cunninghams can’t afford to give Walter money for his school lunch:

  • Lee reflects the injustice of economic hardship in the American south in the 1930s and highlights the injustice of poverty and its impact on families, including children

  • Miss Caroline’s response lacks empathy and reveals her own prejudices

  • This is in contrast to Scout, who describes Burris as a “gentleman” despite his dirty appearance

• The Finch siblings face punishment at home even when they believe their actions are justified:

  • Scout has “epic and one-sided” battles with Calpurnia (Chapter 1)

  • Scout receives a scolding for fighting with her cousin after he insults her father

  • Jem is told off for his "inexcusable" behaviour in cutting Mrs Dubose’s camellia flowers after she speaks poorly of Atticus:

    • In these instances, Lee illustrates the idea that there is no good in retaliation

 What is Lee’s intention? 

• Lee highlights injustice in various forms to shed light on the unfairness of social inequality

• Lee showcases the danger of being led by biases and highlights the importance of behaving with empathy and kindness

Education

Education is a significant theme both in terms of formal teaching delivered at school and the learnings that take place in the outside world.

Knowledge and evidence:

• Scout is dismayed that her teacher, Miss Caroline, is critical of the fact she has already been taught to read, instead wanting her to learn according to the Dewey Decimal System:

  • Miss Caroline’s approach to education is based on rules and structures, much like Maycomb society

  • It is also evidence that conformity is prioritised over individuality, an idea that continues through the novel

• Atticus suffers discrimination from his community as he does not conform to the prevailing racist views

• When Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia, they are shocked that most of the congregation can’t read:

  • Lee appears to be emphasise the importance of education as a means of social mobility

  • With some people unable to access education, the children (and the reader) are reminded of the importance of empathy

• Atticus is an important teacher in the novel, although he has never been to school:

  • Scout and Jem learn the importance of morality, open-mindedness and fairness from their father in direct contrast to what Scout experiences in the classroom

What is Lee’s intention? 

• The portrayal of education in the novel shows the importance of thinking critically and individually in order to change the world for the better

• Harper Lee offers a critique of formal school-based education, implying that it is important for people to question things and to learn from life experience beyond the classroom

Sources: 

Lee, H. (2010). To Kill a Mockingbird. Arrow Books.