Book Club NUmber One: TKAM

3/4/2025

Overview: You may be getting tired of me saying that this class is trying to figure out the "young," the "adult," and the "literature" of young adult literature. Sometimes we will consider these all together--as we should and out of necessity, but, also, sometimes, we will try to focus in on one aspect.

Book Club is a place to hone in on the "literature" part of YAL. There are other places where we will and must talk about all the "noise" that surrounds the genre--stuff about teaching, book banning, publishing. Noise isn't quite right, but you know what I mean. In book club, I'm asking you to treat our readings as literature. It is not always seen so, as you must know. It is not always given the literary treatment of other genres. We've discussed at length how YAL is, for many adults, escapist, pleasure reading. And we've talked about how, in other genres, there is an understood difference between high and low art. But we've resisted that discussion in this genre. And, yet, without saying one is better than the other, we should be able to have a discussion of literary merit.

To that end, it might be good to start book club with To Kill a Mockingbird. After its release in 1960, and after being a complete commercial success for Lee, the novel one the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Interestingly, No literary analysis of TKAM has been published in a literary journal in the last 5 years. Rather, since roughly the early 2000s TKAM is discussed most often as a cultural artifact in the classroom.

Details: But, for the purposes of this book club, I am asking you to spend some time writing about the novel as you might for any novel's class you might encounter. I'm essentially asking you to do a close reading of the novel in any manner that strikes you. You'll have time to post that brief and highly informal reflection and then, in a small group in a break out room, talk about those close readings. We'll close out book club with each small group reporting out.

Note that book clubs are stable groups. That means that after you are put into your groups, you'll be each other's book club partners for the rest of our time together.

16 Comments

Kaitlynn Davis

3/4/2025 04:22:58 pm

The things I'd really like to talk about with TKAM would be the aspects of gender and disability in the novel. They would need to be two separate ideas, because they are both their own idea but...

Disability: For disability I'd want to look at Tom Robinson's disability, Boo Radely's disability, and ultimately the disabling event that Jem has at the end of the novel. If I remember correctly, Scout mentions that his hands never heals right after, so it does become a long lasting thing. I'd want to analyze how this book is dealing with disability and what Harper Lee is implying in how these characters are written. Do characters like Tom and Boo deserve to have their stories end up with them being dead or locked away? Is the place of the disabled to be plot devices for teaching abled bodied people about empathy?

Gender: I think for gender I'd really like to consider Atticus's role as a single father. Scout's tom-boyish nature gets a lot of attention because it is the most prominent, but I'd really like to look at the feminine aspects of Atticus's character and how that portrays such a healthy viewpoint of masculinity (at least as far as I can think of in this brief discussion post). What does that say about toxic masculinity? How does it effect Jem and Scout and their gender? What about his interactions with other men and women in the novel?

Emily Graham

3/4/2025 04:26:49 pm

I think I would most likely analyze TKAM through a feminist lens. Sometimes I feel like I fall back on, or rely on this type of analysis too much, but it is something that really resonated with me and can be held in conversation with many other things we discussed such as archetypes, children's culture, narrator reliability, and more. I also found a lot of parallels to the way that I would analyze Jo in Little Women. I am interested in Scout being framed as a tomboy and clearly preferring the society of men but seeing her grow to respect women and their society, even if she doesn't want to follow all their rules (the same rings true for Jo). I think it helps her escape the inevitable fate of still being hated for being a woman later in life despite trying to push away femininity herself. She seems to be surrounded by her brother, her male friend, and father, but I think analysis of her relationships with Miss Maudie, Aunt Alexandra, and especially Cal would all be very insightful. You could even analyze smaller characters like her relationship with Miss Caroline or Mrs. Dubose or just any commentary about her being a "little lady."

Gus Haflin

3/4/2025 04:27:40 pm

I am drawn to talking about the narrative style of this text, which is in first person, but from the perspective of an older narrator commenting on the events from her youth. I would be curious to isolate moments from the text in which this "older" narrator comes to the forefront: why does she appear in that moment? Are these moments didactic, for building context, to advance the plot, etc? What effect does this narrative style have on the structure of the story, and does that matter? Could this be juxtaposed or compared to YA stories with similar narration and "frame" structure such as Catcher in the Rye?

I would also consider analyzing the text in terms of whether it more fully reinforces racist or anti-racist ideology; this would be accomplished by close-reading passages within original and modern contexts. Lastly, I might do something I haven't seen written about: the values of Maycomb at large. I would do this by analzying members of the "in-group" and "out-group" and what designates them as such. I think doing so would reveal much about the novel's intentions beyond the surface-level messaging about racism and injustice.

Devon Melo

3/4/2025 04:28:39 pm

I’m interested in the discussion around clothes in the novel, in particular with Scout’s tomboy style, Aunt Alexandra’s opposition to her being less lady like and so forth. There are a couple of scenes that I would be intrigued to dissect more. There was an opening line from one of the later chapters referencing the starch on Calpurnia’s smock, “Calpurnia wore her stiffest, starches apron” (260). Or Atticus taking off his jacket right before his final speech to the jury, with his “With the court’s permission” assertion (230). Lee pays attention to clothes through Scout’s eyes in this way. I would almost argue that Scout has a fascination with clothes, in various shapes and forms - questioning her own identity or how she wants to grow up, perhaps this could be a projection/rejection of feminine clothes due to mother’s absence? There is definitely something being said about the appropriateness of clothes, whats acceptable in society/not in society etc with thinking about the domestic sphere with reference to Aunt Alexandra/Calpurnia.

Megan Johnson

3/4/2025 04:56:43 pm

This is so interesting, Devon! I would read this!

3/4/2025 04:28:41 pm

The portrayal of women in To Kill a Mockingbird is awfully lacking. Lee’s portrayal of Maycomb, Alabama largely centers on men and their interactions with the world around them. Funny enough, many of these interactions are unfortunately largely unsuccessful (Atticus losing his trial, Bob Ewell terrorizing the town, Arthur Radley confined to his home, etc.) Scout, as a young narrator without many female role models, obviously limits the scope of the novel. However, her description of women is either limited to domestic tasks such as gardening or gossiping. Pushing this further, Lee’s portrayal of black women is particularly limiting. Helen Robinson is only discussed when Atticus visits her to announce that Tom has been shot, and after the fact to describe how Link Deas has given her work. Along with this, Calpurnia is additionally a secondary character; although Calpurnia is clearly aware of the trial and its effect on the Robinson family, much of Calpurnia’s characterization is absent. Lee’s portrayal of women in To Kill a Mockingbird suggests that while this novel covers a variety of marginalized groups (whether its treatment of the topic is appropriate or not), one group remains unwritten.

Catarina Morrissette

3/4/2025 04:29:18 pm

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, it explores the roles of women in Maycomb, specifically through characters like Scout and Aunt Alexandra. Scout is a tomboy who resists the expectations that are placed on her to act ladylike, even though Jem says she acts like a girl sometimes. She enjoys playing with the boys outside, which is seen as un-lady like. Aunt Alexandra on the other hand, represents the traditional woman in their society, encouraging Scout to behave in a more feminine way. Aunt Alexandra is brought in by Atticus to bring in a more feminine perspective into the home, and to show Scout what being a lady looks like, specifically a white lady in their times.

Caitlin Kelly

3/4/2025 04:29:24 pm

If I were to approach writing about this novel from an analysis perspective, I think I would choose to write about the different portrayals of friendship in the novel. Yes, this is a novel about systemic racism, but there are also many instances of unlikely friendships that serve to teach our youngsters Jem and Scout a lot of other very important life lessons. Scout's friendship with both Miss Maudie and Uncle Jack come to mind. While she is always comfortable asking Atticus all of her many questions, it is not always her father that she turns to when she is struggling with issues that are really bothering her. For example, when she struggles with how Francis (and Aunt Alexandra) is treating her father, it is Uncle Jack she confides in. When she has questions about Boo Radley as a child, or when she is left out by Jem and Dill, it is Miss Maudie to whom she turns. She also finds an unlikely, though very significant, friendship moment with Mr. Dolphus Raymond outside of the courthouse. All of these different (and sometimes minor) characters weave themselves in and out of the chapters of the novel, often playing background noise to the Tom Robinson trial. However, I might argue that all of these different friendships, or moments of friendship, actually form the backbone of the bildungsroman story arc for both Scout and Jem. After all, it is Miss Maudie who bakes Jem the larger cake after the trial verdict comes in, silently recognizing the impact of such a life experience, and showing solidarity to his feelings.

Ryan Juliano

3/4/2025 04:29:34 pm

Someone mentioned white saviorism in their reader’s notes for today and I think that is a great lens through which to look at “To Kill a Mockingbird.” More specifically, considering the novel as a white savior story through the lens of critical race theory. Much of the story revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, which is perhaps the most obvious set of chapters to focus on. The affair of the trial itself is good to consider in terms of how Tom has the deck stacked against him simply because he is black. The historic time and place leave of his “black word vs white word” means that he will lose the case. Regardless, Atticus puts a genuine effort into defending him. Atticus the white savior has to step in because Tom essentially has no voice without him.

It would be interesting to set this narrative up against more recent white savior stories to show how such narratives have evolved or devolved over time. Especially since Atticus technically fails in his white saviorism (though the black people of Maycomb do still treat him as a saint). I would be curious to see how many other white savior narratives show the white savior character failing and living beyond the death of their non-white charge.

Gabrielle Sleeper

3/4/2025 04:29:43 pm

If I were going to write a literary analysis on TKAM, I think I'm most interested in looking at it from a lens of disability studies, like we touched on at the start of class tonight. Boo Radley is a fascinating character. He's shrouded in myth and rumors for the vast majority of the novel, and dissecting how those rumors contrast this really very quiet and reserved man is fascinating to me. It's not something I've ever really put much thought into, but I am curious as to whether these rumors line up with stereotypes in the disable community (particularly developmental delays).

When we look at Boo from this lens, assuming that he has some form of developmental delay, his interactions with Jem and Scout make so much more sense. His unconventional and often awkward interactions are not simply because he has been isolated; they are part of who he is. Accepting his form of connection as part of his identity further pushes that idea that everyone should be accepted as they are.

Further, this gives so much context as to how Boo his treated by his family. It's not just that he got into some trouble as a teenager - it's that he has a disability that his family could not understand in the context of the 1930s (sidenote - I know this isn't about teaching TKAM, but talking about the history of developmental disabilities and how so often disabled people were hidden away sounds super engaging!). Boo is a mirror for how disabled people were treated for such a long time. He's something to be ashamed of, something that is even dangerous. Boo lashes out because his typical methods of communication simply don't work, whether deliberately or because others simply misunderstand him.

This also connects to how disabled people are so often treated by law enforcement. It is dangerous for those with developmental delays to come into contact with the police. Police often do not have patience and compassion when dealing with the public, and can be incredibly scary. This leads to people lashing out due to fear, which in turn leads to police retaliation. This make the final scene with Boo Radley even more important. Boo going to jail could be incredibly dangerous for him, in much the same way as it was dangerous for Tom Robinson.

Sadie Petta

3/4/2025 04:30:07 pm

I would close read on the aspect of innocence in this novel. Who has it still, who loses it, how do they lose it, how it protects characters, how it harms them, etc. Scout starts as and remains the most innocent character in the novel. Yes, she is young, but I don't think young always equals innocent. There's more to it. I think since she's a girl, she is protected by members of Maycomb more than Jem. Even though she's younger, as she grows a bit older, we don't see a huge change in her. Atticus doesn't necessarily talk to Jem and Scout differently because of gender, but other characters in Maycomb do. Jem, having to protect Scout and feeling like he needs to protect his father, moves further away from innocence as the novel progresses. His interactions with Mrs. Dubose also move him further away from innocence as he realizes the complexity of people and their experiences. Although Scout is often there too, she doesn't quite grasp what's happening. Dill also loses some innocence when he runs away to Maycomb, having to deal with feeling unimportant and unloved.

Scout's innocence protects Atticus in the scene at the jail. If she had a complete understanding of the situation, she wouldn't have approached Mr. Cunningham in the way she did. This ultimately protects Atticus, because when adults are reminded of innocence they may question their cruel intentions. At the same time, they wouldn't have been at the jail at all if Jem wasn't so curious and concerned for his father, again feeling the need to be a protector. It's a combination of Scout's innocence and Jem's loss of it that protects Atticus in this scene.

Marisa Silk

3/4/2025 04:30:31 pm

The missionary tea party that Aunt Alexandra hosts presents Scout a look into the domestic sphere and what a "lady" is supposed to be pertaining to society's gender norms. Specifically, Aunt Alexandra has Scout wear a "pink Sunday dress, shoes, and a petticoat" (306), rather than her typical overalls or pants. Scout is pouring drinks and helping serve the ladies, while overhearing their thoughts on the Tom Robinson trial. She reflects on how she feels "more at home in her father's world" (313), indirectly characterizing her inherent tom-boy. She tends to rebel against these typical gender restrictions placed upon her. However, when it is revealed that Tom is dead, she sees a beauty and grace in womanhood as Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra must put on a brave face and continue hosting the party. In this moment, Scout does not see Aunt Alexandra as the antagonist who forces her to conform, but as a moral figure like Atticus. Scout sees a new perspective of adulthood where if "Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could [Scout]" (318). This domestic sphere is no longer a cage for Scout, but it is an opportunity to see the positive side to Aunt Alexandra who has compassion for her brother and Tom Robinson. In the end of the novel, after Scout is attacked, she has Scout change from her ham costume to her overalls, signifying her acceptance of Scout's gender identity and comfort. This moment allows for Scout and Aunt Alexandra's relationship to develop to a place of mutual understanding, rather than an antagonistic bond.

3/4/2025 04:32:18 pm

Specifically, I would analyze gender in the novel in how it shapes Scout's understanding of the world.

Megan LeBlanc

3/4/2025 04:30:55 pm

If I was forced to write a literary analysis of TKAM, I would write about how Scout's age and narration influence the novel's story. It's very interesting that Scout is young during the events of the novel, and she comes back to tell her story later in the future. Because older Scout knows how the story ends, I wonder how many breadcrumbs we pass by as readers - re reading this ever year, I feel like I find more tidbits that are interesting for my students to focus on.

Much of Scout's understanding of the world around her is shaped by things she overhears - rumors, neighborhood gossip, adult conversations that she listens in on. I'm interested in putting Jem's experiences and Scout's experiences side by side, particularly where the siblings are in the same situations but react differently or have different priorities (I think of Jem spilling all of their Radley secrets to Atticus while Scout stands by panicking). The small misunderstandings Scout has (thinking the Rosetta Stone is some kind of prophecy stone) are paired with larger misunderstandings that come about because of preconceived notions (Dolphous Raymond having the reputation of a drunk because the other people don't understand him).

However, older Scout is looking BACK at these events and has to have a different perspective now. I'm curious how much I would be able to find to talk about if I go back in looking for foreshadowing/older Scout chiming in.

Taylor McKinney

3/7/2025 10:54:13 am

I would love to analyze To Kill a Mockingbird by looking deeper into the portrayal of women in the novel, and the overall family dynamics.
I would also think it could lead to an interesting discussion looking at the significance of Scout and Jem being raised by a single father. He hasn't remarried, and while Calpurnica I feel has taken on a very motherly role for the children, and has become an important person in their life and in Atticus' life, the kids know and Atticus knows that she is not the replacement for their mother.
In my understanding, Aunt Alexandra was brought in, again not to replace their mother but to be that female role model for the children, especially for Scout since she is such a tom-boy and has always been surrounded by men which could have influenced her becoming the tom-boy she is.
Looking at my own upbringing, I was brought by up a single father and I had an older brother just like Scout, and even in the 2000s, this was a very uncommon occurrence, so I would love to talk about the significance of the author's choice of having this be a single parent house hold with a single father no less, especially during the time period it takes place and when it was written.

Diane Gentile (I didn't realize we are supposed to post on here!)

3/14/2025 05:48:07 am

When I think about analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird as a piece of literature, rather than as a novel to be taught, I am drawn to Tom Robinson’s trial specifically in terms of Atticus Finch’s role. I think it is interesting to consider what reasons he had for taking on the trial (considering it is alluded to that he only took it because he was asked/told to), why he actually tried so hard in the trial, and what the result of the trial says about him. It is interesting to consider whether or not Atticus is a hero.

I find it interesting when it is revealed that Atticus was appointed by the courts to defend Tom because it means he was selected. This brings up the questions of why he was selected by the court. If he is, in fact, a great lawyer, it would suggest the court wanted Tom to actually have a chance in the trial. This is interesting given the time period and community the story takes place in. Selecting a well-established, strong lawyer to represent Tom was a purposeful decision that brings up a lot of questions.

It’s also interesting that Atticus does not directly tell Scout and Jem that he was appointed to take on this case. I believe he didn’t tell them this because he wants them to realize that people should be fought for and instill those values in them. Atticus is a single father who, despite not always being present with his children, does want them to be good, decent people who view the world in a certain way.

I believe this is also why he genuinely did try in the trial. He wanted to help Tom because he believed it was the right thing to do even knowing they were “licked” and had no chance of truly winning. When he asks Mr. Ewell to sign his name, he is trying very hard to force the jury to see what has really happened without outwardly saying it due to social pressures.

The concept of wondering whether or not Atticu is a hero is important because typically we view a hero as someone who saves another or saves something. However, fighting for someone and standing up for them when an entire community is against them and doing what you believe to be right is heroic and Atticus does exhibit this throughout the leadup to and during the trial.

Book Club NUmber One: TKAM

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