To Kill A Mockingbird - Family

Quick Quiz

Exemplar Exam Questions

1. What do the examples of good and bad parents in the novel suggest about the best way to raise kids?

2. What does Macomb’s African-American community think about the idea of family?

3. What effect does Harper-Lee create by causing Jem & Scout to call their father Atticus and not dad?

4. What is the story behind Dill’s family and why doesn’t he like speaking about his parents back in Mississippi?

1. How is the theme of family presented in the novel?

2. How does Harper Lee present the Finch family in To Kill A Mockingbird?

3. Show how Harper Lee uses the character of Aunt Alexandra to discuss the theme of family in the novel.

To Kill A Mockingbird - Family

The Theme of Family

Useful Quotes

Family and the Community

Francis - "Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he's turned out a nigger-lover we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin. He's ruinin' the family, that's what he's doin'." (9.96-98)

After my bout with Cecil Jacobs when I committed myself to a policy of cowardice, word got around that Scout Finch wouldn't fight any more, her daddy wouldn't let her. This was not entirely correct: I wouldn't fight publicly for Atticus, but the family was private ground. I would fight anyone from a third cousin upwards tooth and nail. Francis Hancock, for example, knew that. (10.6)

Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was. (13.28)

Family and community are two very closely tied ideas in Maycomb, with many members of the relatively small community being linked by blood or marriage. The black community is especially close, as is shown through their generosity towards Atticus after he defended Tom Robinson. The white comity in Maycomb also seems very close, as demonstrated through Scout expecting Miss Caroline to understand why Walter won't take her money just by saying he's a Cunningham.

Family is one of the most important themes of "To Kill A Mockingbird", with Maycomb being a small town in which the same families have lived for generations. The children of the county are expected to live up to their family names, creating a comfortable predictability, yet causing stagnation and lack of needed change. During the depression, family and friends took a more major role in people's lives, with "nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with".

The Ewells

The Radleys

The Cunninghams

The Finches

The Ewells are presented as the opposite of an ideal family in the novel. Bob Ewell is an unemployed wreck of a father who scrounges off of the state and people's sympathy for his children to fund his whiskey addiction. The only thing that the Ewells have that makes them better in Maycomb than their black neighbours is the colour of their skin, as Bob knows.

However, the Ewells would like to improve their situation, despite Bob not being willing to put in the effort and Mayella lacking the resources. Mayella is shown to be the only glimmer of hope for the Ewells, with her red germaniums; but she loses our sympathy by accusing Tom Robinson of rape.

The Cunninghams are presented as the good side of poor families in the novel. They are honest farming folk, hit hard by the depression, but are unwilling to take money from the state or others that they can't repay.

Although the Cunninghams appear at the jail to lynch Tom Robinson, showing their prejudiced side, the fact that Scout gets them to leave by showing kindness, and that it was a Cunningham who voted innocent at the trial, shows how prejudice stems from ignorance and, in the Cunninghams case, their eyes can be opened with experience.

The Radleys are a family isolated from the community by choice. They are surrounded by a lot of superstition because of this, not only by children, but by some adults and the black community too ("A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked").

Both the father, and later Nathan, are seen as cruel by the more informed members of the Maycomb community, while Boo is the most frightening to some and the biggest victim to others.

Scout's immediate family is presented as a somewhat ideal family in the novel, with Atticus as the model father (being wise, kind and understanding).

The extended family, however, is revealed to be less than ideal. With the exception of Uncle Jack, the Finches appear proud and pompous, with Aunt Alexandra calling Walter Cunningham trash and Francis saying that Atticus lets Jem and Scout play in the dirt like dogs.

Essay Plan

• Intro - Focused opening, answer the question immediately, list points that may be covered
• Main Paragraphs - Discuss 3-5 answers, use 2 quotes per point, explain points well
• Conclusion - evaluate Harper Lee's overall reasons for their decision and / or suggest which element they felt was more important and why

5 Points:

• Intro to the novel
• Visit to Finches Landing
• Aunt Alexandra comes to stay
• Discussion of the Ewell family in court
• Jem and Scout are attacked