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How to Read a Book 101

Title and Cover Design:
To Kill a Mockingbird

The title of a book is a tool used by the author to communicate several messages to the reader.  Tone and subject can be quickly established as the mind begins to piece together images and phrases from the context of their “reality.”  Often, authors use titles to foreshadows elements of plot, character analysis, or themes in the work.

• ​What do the words in the title make you think about?
  • Do they give us hints about theme?
  • Do they give us hints about setting or characters?
  • What predictions can we make?

The artistic design of each book is a result of a laborious process.  Several designs are submitted and edited according to the interpretation of the novel.  Studying the cover art of a book can be as critical to the analysis process as reading the plot summary.  Readers can make predictions about plot, conflict, characters, tone, and themes.

• Analyze the cover designs. 
  • ​Do we get any ideas about themes?
  • Do we get any ideas about motifs?
  • Do we get clues about characters or setting?

Publishing Information​​

The publishing information in a book is usually glossed over by readers.  However, the data provided can give us insights about historical setting or context, political perspective, and the success of the piece.

Published: 1960

• Civil Rights Movement
  • After Brown v. Board of Education but before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  • Senator Kennedy announces his run for the presidency
  • Organizations like the NAACP and CORE are organizing:
    • sit-ins
    • boycotts
    • Freedom Rides
• Harper Lee:
  • daughter of a lawyer
  • originally from Monroeville, Alabama, but living in New York City when she writes TKAM
  • 34 years old when she publishes TKAM
  • Wins Pulitzer Prize for her first novel

Setting of the novel:
Great Depression​

• Causes
  • Gold Standard
  • Oversupply
  • Stock Market crash
  • War loans & debt
• FDR "Nothing to Fear"
  • Speech
  • Video
• Hoovervilles
• FSA Photography and Color Photograph
  • Walker Evans
  • Dorothea Lange
  • Gordon Parks

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How to track theme:

Character Development

Identity Charts

• Webs
  • Mind map on laptop
  • Webs in a composition book
• Outlines
  • Word Document or Google Doc on laptop
  • Hierarchical notes in composition books

Patterns and Repetition

Track the following potential patterns through a web, mind map, word document, or composition book:

• repeating phrases/quotes
• repeating interactions between characters
• repeating symbols 
• purposeful decisions and positioning:
  • diction
  • setting
  • ​parallelism
  • juxtaposition

Conflict to Resolution

This book is divided into two parts.  

The first part introduced the major theme through minor vignettes.  Follow Scout's interaction with all of the people of Maycomb to unlock what the essential conflict of the book is going to be.  

Although the second part of the book deals squarely and almost exclusively with Tom Robinson's trial, this is not a novel exclusively about race.  This trial impacts Scout, Jem, and Dill's perceptions of Morality and Justice, but these themes have already been planted through the earlier vignettes in Part I.  

From conflict to resolution, the novel's major theme will finally be revealed in the last chapter...after Scout finally Crosses the Threshold and experiences her Apotheosis.