Mockingbird

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Caitlin Smith, as a first-person narrator, serves as the novel’s principal focus. Her father, however, is a dynamic character whose emotions change radically during the novel.

• What is the nature of Harold Smith’s transformation? (topic sentence)
• Identify 3 passages that, taken together, illustrate a change in Harold’s character. Analyze each, noting not only how Harold is changing but why.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how Harold’s character arc demonstrates The Need for Closure.

2. In addition to exploring how a child with Asperger’s negotiates her family, friends, and school, the novel is about a mass shooting in a middle school.

• How does the novel depict the school shooting? (topic sentence)
• Choose 3 passages related to the shooting. What is the focus of these passages? What role does each play in the novel?
• In the conclusion, relate the reality of a school shooting to the novel’s Dedication and to Caitlin’s growing awareness of The Power of Empathy.

3. The relationship between Michael and Josh becomes an important lesson for Caitlin.

• Why does Michael make friends with the school bully who picks on him and whose cousin is one of the shooters in the attack that killed his mother? (topic sentence)
• Compare and contrast Caitlin’s attitude towards Josh with Michael’s, drawing on at least 2 passages from the text.
• Finally, use the closing scene at the school service with Michael, Josh, and Caitlin to write a closing sentence or sentences define the novel’s sense of The Power of Empathy.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Caitlin’s father uses the phrase “good and strong and beautiful” to describe the cabinet he and Caitlin finish together (219), suggesting that they have made something fine from fragments and bits of wood. Does the phrase have other applications in the novel? Consider, for instance, the friendships that Caitlin makes with both Josh and Michael or the artwork that Caitlin creates. It could even refer to Caitlin’s own story that she tells in her own voice. What is the relationship between effort, cooperation, or empathy and the creation of good and beautiful things?

2. Consider the novel’s title. How does the book use the passage from the film To Kill a Mockingbird about killing a mockingbird? Why might the author have used the mockingbird as the title? In what sense are Caitlin and her brother (and Michael and even Josh) symbolically mockingbirds? Given Caitlin’s love of words and her ever-handy dictionary, why might the author have used the word’s phonetic spelling as the book’s subtitle?

3. How does Caitlin understand closure? Why do the ideas regarding closure that Mrs. Brook offers not appeal to Caitlin? Does the Eagle Scout project work? Why does it work? How does Caitlin’s pursuit of closure involve her evolving awareness of the importance of empathy? How does the novel bring those two ideas together in the closing scene at the school ceremony? Discuss how the idea of closure shifts over the course of the novel.