March 18th, 2025

3/18/2025

Introduction: For this book club, I would like for you to consider this text in relationship to To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm not exactly asking you to write a compare and contrast, but I sort of am. If you were to put these two books in conversation with each other, what possibilities open up for literary analysis/scholarship on both texts?

Before you write: take a moment to read the re-cap of the TKAM book club journals on the LT Updates page on this website. Consider the ways you all thought about approaching a literary analysis of that novel and think about what For Lamb might allow you to write and think about--perhaps similarly or differently. Remember that I'm asking you to think, write, and talk about the novel as literature.

To Remind You: 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.

Here are the general directions for all book clubs: 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.

12 Comments

Kaitlynn Davis

3/18/2025 04:17:48 pm

One of the things I'd like to take a closer look at is how consent is handled respectively in each novel, especially by the protagonists Lamb and Scout. Scout has a lot of agency through the novel and even in moments where she is punished, there is ultimately some agency in how she interacts with the world. With Lamb that is so different.

She has little agency in the first few chapters where she is forced to sing at choir, then she is pressured into reading a book, then she is pressured into befriending a white girl who does not take ANY of her rejections into account, then there is the sexual assault. Almost every part of this novel, Lamb's agency is being stripped and whittled away, while we watch the events unfold.

In TKAM, Scout has agency over the story. It is her and her older brother that end up sneaking into the court house that allows us into this deeper meaning, something that is THEIR choice. Even as Lamb is trying to leave so many different situations

So, I would really like to compare the perspective and consent of the narration.

Caitlin Kelly

3/18/2025 04:21:46 pm

I think the most interesting way to approach For Lamb and To Kill A Mockingbird is through the lens of lived experiences. Scout and Lamb are both young protagonists, who experience similar coming of age story arcs based on racial injustice. However, though have common experiences in common, their lived experiences are exceptionally different.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, we learn of the injustice of Tom Robinson's false accusation, guilty verdict, and eventual death through the eyes of a white narrator, who senses the injustice but doesn't understand it on any deep or I might even argue meaningful level. For Lamb presents an entire different experience. Lamb is constantly aware of the racist society that she must navigate daily, and her rightful place within it. She feels immediate panic when Marney shows up at her door. She in constantly looking over her shoulder, whether she is doing the "wrong thing" by being with Marney, or just existing. She knows when to stay quiet, and why she needs to do so. For Lamb ends with Lamb's mother being brutally lynched in front of her, while in TKAM, Scout ends up safe and warm at home with Atticus as he reads her a bedtime story. There is no parallel at all between their lived experiences, despite the fact that there are commonalities between each of the situations.

Emily Grarham

3/18/2025 04:22:15 pm

I think when it comes to a connection between To Kill A Mockingbird and For Lamb, the discussion I am most interested in having is the black experience at war and the American hypocrisy of views of prejudice. I actually did substantial research on the first "Great War" from the British perspective in my research methods class on Peter Pan and I have a strong interest in American History and Government. I think this all ties in with propaganda. What promises does this country sell? Who does the Constitution protect and at what times? I had already discussed the World War comments about the Nazis being villains by her teacher that even Scout is able to recognize is hypocritical when considering how she spoke about black people. This can tie in with Chester's telling of his experience as a second class soldier at war and his demotion of veteran status when he returns home. You can also discuss how this all ties into white comfort. Having to respect black men as veterans would go against their disposition. The conversation with Marny about "bed men" that she changes her opinion on when she realizes that she isn't talking about the Nazis also would demonstrate this.

Marisa Silk

3/18/2025 04:22:29 pm

For my To Kill a Mockingbird close reading, I wanted to examine how the domestic sphere is presented in the tea party scene, while examining the female dynamics within the room. I didn't think of this before, but it seems that all the women in the tea party have different levels of social awareness, education, and privilege. Similarly in For Lamb, the relationship between Marny and Lamb could be analyzed using feminist critical theory and critical race theory, relating to the power dynamics within their friendship and within Jim Crow society. Specifically, imagine if Scout befriends Tom, instead of Boo Radley. How would this shift the narrative?

A big part about For Lamb is that the Black experience is in the active, foreground, rather than the background like the Tom Robinson case/storyline. With this, I think a synthesis of how having white experiences in first person perspectives elevates the white supremacist values of the period when discussing race. For Lamb is anti-racist in how it is critical of all the white characters, granting them no mercy or compassion because of how their actions harm Black people. Overall, I would position Lee's text as not the touchstone "anti-racist" text that should be taught in curriculums, but how For Lamb should be in how it purposefully uses multiple Black perspectives to powerfully uphold their stories and histories.

Gabrielle Sleeper

3/18/2025 04:23:17 pm

When looking at For Lamb and TKAM, my mind immediately jumps to the scene where Marny asks if she can visit Lamb's house (which Lamb immediately shuts down, though Marny later does so anyway). Marny thinks that she is entitled to go wherever she would like to go and emphasizes how she has done this before with Gloria Jean, a Black woman who works for her family. Marny goes on to say how nobody was rude to her when she went with Gloria Jean, to which Lamb internally comments that they couldn't be. To me, this moment truly emphasizes Marny's privilege and lack of consideration toward Lamb. Marny even goes on to look up Lamb's address at work, fully taking away Lamb's autonomy.
This brings me back to TKAM, where Scout goes to visit Calpurnia's church. Aside from one Black woman, nobody says anything, and in fact Scout and Jem are welcomed with open arms. For Lamb offers some perspective in this moment about the privilege Scout has. In a realistic setting, Calpurnia has to be respectful of Scout because Scout's father is her boss. Calpurnia's church has to be welcoming because Scout is white. The power imbalances here aren't even mentioned. They aren't given a second thought, because Scout is a child and the novel is from her perspective (and because Lee herself may not have given this power any thought).
I think it would be interesting, then, with an informed perspective from For Lamb, to look at other ways in which Scout has power and how she chooses to use (or perhaps unintentionally abuse) it. Would the few Black people Scout actually gets to talk to view her in a similar way that Lamb and her family view Marny? Does Scout's ignorance toward her own power unintentionally hurt others in the way that Marny hurts Lamb?

Devon Melo

3/18/2025 04:23:21 pm

I can see comparison of utilizing a historical lens for both TKAM and For Lamb. In addition, (I’m unsure what lens to use) by looking closer at the single parenting aspects of both texts, sibling relationships, and community/setting of both.

For contrast, I’m intrigued in closely looking at For Lamb through a Queer/historical lens. I’d use the two interchangeably throughout a potential essay. There are several suggesting moments in the text that portray a more than friendship between Marny and Lamb. Of course there is also, Marion and Myrtle’s hidden relationship and how that's told from the perspective of Simeon, Lamb, Marion, and Myrtle as well which I'd be interested in exploring more through an additional read. Additionally - Meghan Johnson makes a point in my readers notes that made me think of the ending of the novel with the perspective of Myrtle. I found it to be an interesting choice, and question if Cline-Ransome is suggesting that this text is centered for Marion this whole time considering also the title (For Lamb).

Sadie Petta

3/18/2025 04:23:22 pm

The experiences of Lamb and Scout are so different. Scout has more freedom than Lamb, though she is much younger. Scout befriends (and attacks) anyone without any fear. Meanwhile, Lamb and her family have to face so many consequences because she becomes “friends” with Marny, which Lamb was reluctant to do in the first place because she knows the dangers. Scout can be impulsive and fights others, often boys, because she gets mad at them. This can open up another conversation about Scout’s actions of rebellion and how they are handled. She has the privilege of making mistakes (her and Jem both). Simeon, on the other hand, does everything he can to be as lawful as possible, yet faces immense consequences the one time he tries to stand up for what’s right. Scout fought other kids and her, Jem, and Dill terrorized Boo Radley for little to no reason and with almost no consequences. Simeon tries to get revenge for Lamb’s assault (in a way that isn’t even an eye for an eye), and has to flee the state and lose his mother as payment. The experiences of childhood are wildly different as a result of the race of the characters.

I would want to teach For Lamb before I taught To Kill a Mockingbird. I think it would be more powerful and provide the students with a more educated lens of race and privilege to examine the novel with. They would be more aware of and expectant of Tom Robinson’s fate, which I think is important. I understand there is some power in the reading of the court scene, but I think if students already had an idea of what is going to happen, more time could be spent on dissecting the scene and the setting rather than dealing with the initial shock factor. Also, it would be more powerful to read about Lamb and Simeon’s tragic experiences and then recognize the privilege in Scout and Jem’s problems in TKAM.

Ryan Juliano

3/18/2025 04:23:50 pm

Perhaps the most obvious avenue through which to look at TKAM and For Lamb is critical race theory. Both novels touch on similar ideas as YA works, but they approach those ideas differently because the identities of their protagonists are rooted in their racial identities; they have to be given the historic period in which each narrative occurs. So, it would be interesting to look at how the YA concepts are approached from a white perspective vs a black perspective.

Many of the comparisons to be made go through race first. Scout and Lamb and Jem and Simeon encounter some similar problems as young people, but their experiences vastly differ because of their difference in race. A slightly related idea that comes to mind is gender roles. Scout is a tomboy, Lamb is not. Could Lamb even afford to be a tomboy if she wanted to? Would that not just draw more unwanted attention to her from the white people in Jackson?

Stemming from that, it would be worth looking at how TKAM’s white dominated narrative almost pulls its punches when it comes to confronting the concept of racism while For Lamb’s black dominated narrative looks at the concept in an unblinking, almost brutal manner. Why does the white view feel the need to soften the blow?

Megan Johnson

3/18/2025 04:24:09 pm

In the largest left turn possible, I wanted to think of For Lamb and To Kill a Mockingbird from an unsuspecting branch of literary criticism, Marxism. There is a great deal of content dealing with social class in both novels. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the families such as the Cunninghams or the Ewells represent the poorest classes, or at least the poorest classes with the most characterization or narration surrounding them. In For Lamb, readers see how race impacts and closely depicts lower socioeconomic classes. In both novels, class conflict is clearly present but treated much differently. In TKAM, class differences are simply known and acknowledged; even a young girl like Scout can clearly articulate to her teacher why Walter Cunningham is the “way he is.” Additionally, Mayella Ewell’s lack of schooling becomes much more overt once she is placed in the courtroom with Atticus and his well-versed questioning and manners. This conflict, although not particularly contentious, is seen as a way of life. In contrast, For Lamb shifts the perspective towards class conflict and shows how oppression creates a sense of either fear (like Marion) or rebellion (like Simeon) in characters. Oppressed characters get no reward for their rebellion either; this novel shows that characters like Simeon, or even Lamb, are immediately punished or taught a “lesson” when they attempt to defy the class they were set in. Even though both novels discuss similar main topics, the purpose in conveying class conflict and oppression is obviously quite different in each story.

Megan LeBlanc

3/18/2025 04:24:11 pm

I would most like to discuss the differences between Scout's childhood/environment and Lamb's. While Scout is much younger, which makes their priorities different, we also see a much different world surrounding both characters. I think analyzing and comparing their lives at home would be super interesting.

I also think Marny's life has a place in that conversation as well - all three girls only have one parent and a brother (while Scout's and Marny's mother passes and they live with their dad and brother, Lamb's father is just absent until her mother passes and he takes over as the parent for his kids). Scout and Marny also both have hired help in their homes - Cal and Gloria Jean - who take on maternal roles to help raise the girls. While Lamb has a paternal figure in Chime, it's a different dynamic completely. Both novels take place in the South, both novels feature young, female protagonists, and both novels show the characters learning about the realities of the Jim Crow era.

TKAM is often thought of as a book that deals with racism, but it barely scratches the surface. While the trial is a focus for half of the book, the focus isn't on Tom Robinson but rather the injustice of the court system. The reader doesn't care about Tom's fate because the characters only sort of care. How can the events and realities of Lamb's life add context to the lives of the characters in TKAM? How can For Lamb add to the existing criticism of TKAM?

Taylor McKinney

3/18/2025 04:25:25 pm

If you were to put these two books in conversation with each other, what possibilities open up for literary analysis/scholarship on both texts?
If I were to try and have a conversation with both these books, To Kill a Mockingbird and For Lamb, I think the best lens to look at both through would be in analyzing the difference in gender roles between the two books. Looking at the protagonists Scout doesn't fit that traditional female role presenting more tom-boy like. Lamb seems to fit into that traditional role better, but would this be influenced because of her race and needing to fit into a white dominated world.
Looking at both through the lens of race would be my other way to look at both texts, meaning that the portray of race and the effect that race had on each characters outcome in each novel played a significant role in the overall purpose of each novel. Like discussed in class, we never hear the voices of the white characters in their own chapters, while in TKAM we have white voices telling the story.

Diane Gentile

3/18/2025 04:35:32 pm

There are several parallels and connections between Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Lesa Cline-Ransome’s For Lamb. Most obviously, both of these stories explore racial injustice during a time of segregation in our country. Both of these novels, as is common in YA, develop events surrounding innocence (or the loss of it), racial inequities, familial relationships, and gender roles.

The major difference between these two novels, which I feel would make for excellent conversation or scholarship, is the difference between our narrators. In To Kill a Mockingbird, we learn about the struggles, injustice, and death faced by a black man from the perspective of a young white girl who witnessed it and was close to the case. In For Lamb, we learn about the struggles, injustice, and tragic loss faced by a young black girl. This difference in narrator creates so many differences in how the story is told but more importantly, how the story is felt.

As was mentioned in our class discussion, For Lamb leaves absolutely no room for a white person to “save the day” in the way that Atticus tries (and fails) in To Kill a Mockingbird. This difference allows us to see the raw reality of the time period.

March 18th, 2025

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