“To Kill a Mockingbird” Essay Writing Guide

To Kill a Mockingbird is perhaps one of the most outstanding novels in American literature. The novel by Harper Lee was published in 1960 and remains popular to this day. The publishing of such a book was marked as a milestone in the fight for black rights.

Harper Lee masterly depicted the memories of a distant childhood full of joys, discoveries, and extraordinary incidents and brought up the topic of discrimination, which was not typical for that time.

If you have been assigned to write an essay on To Kill a Mockingbird, you are the lucky one because you have an opportunity to get acquainted with and analyze such an amazing book. In this article, we will share the best writing tips as well as useful information on the novel.

Ideas for To Kill a Mockingbird essay topics

Here are some of the best To Kill a Mockingbird essay ideas:

• Empathy in To Kill a Mockingbird essay
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• To Kill a Mockingbird essay: Tom Robinson (character analysis)
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• To Kill a Mockingbird essay: Scout growing up
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• Gender prejudice in a To Kill a Mockingbird: Societal standards and non-conformity
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• To Kill a Mockingbird: Coming of age essay

To Kill a Mockingbird essay outline

Creation of an outline will help you stick to the topic and never lose any important points. An outline of a good essay consists of the following:

• To Kill a Mockingbird essay introduction. This is basically the part that presents your topic and the issues you are going to consider.
  • How to start a To Kill a Mockingbird essay?  A brief yet powerful quotes from the novel or a discrimination fact or statistic may serve as a good opening sentence for To Kill a Mockingbird essay.
  • Next, you will need to think about To Kill a Mockingbird essay thesis. This is the sentence that will be the essence of your whole paper, and all the points stated here will have to be supported with arguments and facts. That is why your thesis has to be brief, clear, and precise. Include 3 points that you want to focus on and make sure you have enough evidence to support them before you make a choice.
• Body paragraphs. This part is the most informative and extended one. Here, you will need to present in detail all your arguments and reinforce the points of your thesis statement with strong evidence and examples. You shouldn’t also forget about a good clincher for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay, which should be present in the final sentence of each paragraph and strengthen the statements you make. An effective clincher leaves the audience with a strong final impression of the essay. You may also use some To Kill a Mockingbird essay quotes to prove that your interpretations of what was written is correct.
• To Kill a Mockingbird essay conclusion. In this final part, you have two main tasks: restate your thesis statement and summarize all the key points from the main section. Apart from it, you may also leave your readers with some food for thought in the very last sentence of the paragraph.

Rules for writing a creative title for To Kill a Mockingbird essay

In order to make a clever title for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay, come up with one when the paper is ready. This way, you will already have a clear understanding of the issue you considered and will be able to create a catchy title that is both interesting and relevant to what you have written.

What type of essay can you choose?

You definitely know that there are various types of essays. But what is the best kind for the To Kill a Mockingbird essay? Here are some suggestions depending on what you want to focus on in the paper:

• To Kill a Mockingbird character analysis essay. Everything is as simple as it sounds: you have to choose a character and analyze his or her role in the novel as well as their worldview, motivation, actions, background etc.
• To Kill a Mockingbird analytical essay. Analytical essay is a type of writing in which you put forward a claim and try to reinforce it with some arguments. The good news is that there can be a lot of topics to choose from in this case. You may even select one from the next paragraph.
• Literary analysis essay on To Kill a Mockingbird. This is a paper that you will likely be assigned in one of the English or Literature classes. In this case, you may analyze the genre or stylistic features of the novel.
• Argumentative essay To Kill a Mockingbird. As it might be obvious from the name, you need to choose a controversial topic, and argue for or against an idea you put forward. For example, you may state that while Atticus’s decision to defend Tom took a huge toll on his family, it was a smart choice to make. After that, you will have to present 2-3 supporting points for this idea, and, if necessary, 1 opposing viewpoint.
• Compare-contrast To Kill a Mockingbird essay. For this paper, you will need to choose two aspects or characters that you would like to compare, i.e. find similarities and differences for. For example, you may compare the actions of the main characters, either protagonists or antagonists, or, instead, choose to compare secondary characters and their roles in the story.

The brief history of a book

In the last century, Harper Lee published just one book - To Kill a Mockingbird, but it was enough for her to enter the history of world literature. For 50 years after this event, Lee remained silent. But in 2015, her fans learned about the release of the second book Go Set a Watchman, which is simultaneously a prehistory and a continuation of the novel about Atticus Finch and his kids.

In 2016, the writer died, and the first work remained the main legacy of her life.

Harper was born in Monroeville, a small town in Alabama - one of the most racially intolerant US states. Traditionally, the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan organization had a great political influence in Alabama. The girl’s family was large. Father worked as a lawyer and, for some time, as an editor of the newspaper. All these facts formed the basis for the plot of the book, which later became a vital part of the American school curriculum.

Important background information about racism for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay

Evaluating credible sources for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay, it is better to use not only the book itself but also trustworthy references with historical facts about racism in the XX century in The United States. However, to make your academic life easier, we have collected some shocking facts about racism, which you can use in your paper to provide some historical context of the novel:

• Before the First World War, the black population of the United States consisted of about 10 million people. 89% of them lived in the South, but at that time, more and more Afro-Americans moved to the North in search of a better life.
• The life of these ten million people was regulated by a system of racist customs called the Jim Crow laws. Even in 1940, only 5% of the Black population of the American South had the right to vote. In the South, racial segregation was universally observed. For example, interracial marriages were strictly forbidden in 31 states. This ban existed until 1967!
• In Alabama, it was forbidden for black and white people to play dominos or chess.
• Any attempt to live under the same roof with a representative of another race prompted an immediate reaction of the police in order to stop a “violation of public order.”
• An outstanding scientist, Charles Richard Drew, who discovered blood plasma, died on the doorstep of a hospital after a car accident in Georgia since doctors refused to help a black colleague.
• In 1940, only 5% of Black population graduated from high school.
• In the North, the situation was not much better. Racism was the norm of life, an unwritten custom. Blacks could count only on the dirtiest work and life in crowded ghettos; several families could live in one communal apartment (until the late 60’s).
• In 1912, Woodrow Wilson, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, promised black Americans to do his best to promote their interests in the United States. But he lied. On the contrary, with Wilson’s rise to power, the position of Black people became critical in terms of civil and human rights.
• Many senators, representatives of the Supreme Court, as well as, probably, President Harding came from the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan. The number of victims of the Ku Klux Klan is very hard to determine precisely. Formally, their number is estimated as dozens of people each year. But murders were committed all the time. People were abducted at night and never returned. Black veterans became the main hunting target for the Ku Klux Klan. In 1919, 14 of them were publicly burned, 11 of which were burned alive.

Useful tips on how to write “To Kill a Mockingbird essay”

How to write a really perfect essay that will stand out among other student’s works? Get acquainted with the following tips to find the answer:

• Engage your reader. The main thing of a good essay is to “hook” the reader from the first sentences. A short yet powerful quote or an astonishing statistic on the topic of discrimination may serve as a good hook for a To Kill a Mockingbird essay.
• Avoid writing long sentences. Short phrases often have a greater effect than extended ones. Try reading the essay out loud. If you feel that you are holding your breath, break the paragraph into smaller sentences.
• Have a rest and then revise your essay. After you finish writing your essay, put it aside for a while. Later, looking at it again, you will probably notice something that can be corrected or even rewritten.
• Show your essay to other people. Read the final result to your friends or parents. Rest assured that they will happily agree to give you advice or share some writing tips.

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