KMC Forums - To Kill a Mockingbird...help?

Has anybody read and remember To Kill a Mockingbird quite well? I've got a socratic seminar to prepare for and I'm sort of lost on my questions:

1. W.E.B. DuBoise speaks of "double-consciousness" - the sense of having to look at oneself through the eyes of others. Which characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are basically forced to look at themselves through the lens of others, being expected to behave as other people want them to behave?

2. One of the chief criticisms of TKM is that the two central storylines -- Scout, Jem and Dill's fascination with Boo Radley and the trial of Tom Robinson -- are not sufficiently connected in the novel. Why do you think the author divided the book into two parts? Do you think it worked effectively?

3. Harper Lee analyses the nature of a hero in TKM. Discuss how the idea of courage works in the lives of Atticus, Scout and Tom Robinson. Are there other characters that illustrate this theme?

4. TKM has been challenged repeatedly by the political left and right, who have sought to remove it from libraries for its portrayal of conflict between children and adults; ungrammatical speech; references to sex, the supernatural and witchcraft; and unfavorable presentation of blacks. Despite this criticism, TKM has become a classic and has remained popular. What is it about the book that keeps attracting readers over four decades after its initial publication?

For question one, all that comes to mind is Calpurnia and her distinction between her "******-talk" and her "fine English" and Tom Robinson's comment that if Atticus "was a ****** like [him]" then he would run and how he forgot to think about himself from others' points of view when he commented on how he pitied Mayella Ewell.

For question two, my take on it is that Lee uses the two story lines to contrast the two stages of Scout and Jem�s lives: the first stage as their innocent childhood phase and the second has a sort of bildungsroman feel to it. While the first part of the book deals with their worries and preoccupations with this �phantom� figure that had no real weight or threat except in the minds of children. In the second part, as Scout and Jem grow older, they�re confronted with more adult, mature problems with racism, prejudice and violence which eclipses their obsession with their boogeyman. However, at the very end of the story, it seems that as Scout and Jem develop and as events progress, the two plots are interwoven into one when the children and the audience realize that the events are related. It was, however, important to present each on its own in order to compare them.

For the third question, I�m pretty lost on how exactly to tackle it.

And for the fourth question, I�m assuming it has to do with the book representing universal themes of the evils of prejudice and slavery and just the timeless message of it being a �sin to kill a mockingbird.�

Agh, I�m just pretty confused overall. Can anybody help? I�m not asking for you to do this assignment for me, I just need some pointers so I can get started sad