Mainely Middle
Journal of the Maine Association for Middle
Level Education
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2000/2001 |
To Kill a Mockingbird:A Metaphor for the Middle SchoolI have taught To Kill a Mockingbird over sixty times in my teaching career. Although I first taught the novel to tenth graders, I spent sixteen years teaching it to every one of my eighth graders. I have wrestled with two high schools about whether or not To Kill is more appropriate for middle or high school. There are arguments on both sides, of course. In the Permabound catalog it is, after all, listed at a tenth grade reading level! And yet I taught the novel to heterogeneous groups of eighth graders, and they GOT IT. In fact they loved it. As I do. It is a great novel, rich with literary device and theme. It is a novel that teachers can TEACH, delving into theme, characterization, and plot. It is a classic novel, a classic teacher's novel, especially. It was after many readings of the novel that I began to realize that To Kill a Mockingbird is more than a great novel: it provides a metaphor for the middle school experience that parallels the developmental stages of young adolescents. In fact, the book is divided into two parts that accentuate that metaphor. In the first eleven chapters, which comprise Part I, the focus is on the lives of the three children, Jem, Scout, and Dill in their neighborhood. Several of the early chapters contain an experience in which one of the children, usually Jem, learns a lesson in maturity. Early on in the book I teach the students the maturity web (Figure 1) in which eight different maturity experiences are taught and discussed. Examples from the students own lives are drawn upon. For example, we discuss how students' parents may be providing students with more freedom because they have proven to parents that they are responsible. I then instruct them to look for these maturity experiences as they read each chapter. In Chapter 7, for example, Jem steps from childhood toward adulthood when he ceases treating Boo Radley as a "malevolent phantom" and begins to consider him as a human being with feelings. In the chapter Jem and Scout continue to find the treasures in the Radley oak tree. Scout is in the dark and Jem appears pensive about the origin of the objects. After finding gum, a ball of twine, a pocket watch and broken knife, two soap sculptures that look just like them, and other children's treasures, Jem (along with the reader) realizes Boo has placed them there for the children. In an act of cruelty, Boo's brother Nathan cements the knothole where the treasures were left, telling the children that the tree is dying. His real purpose is to keep Boo from communicating with the children, as Jem surmises when he discovers that the tree is alive. The chapter ends as Jem stands on the porch. He stood there until nightfall, and I waited for him. When we went in the house I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him. Jem does not cry because he will get no more treasures; he cries when he sees the cruelty of one adult to another, and he feels compassion for the man he used to mock and fear as the malevolent phantom. Jem shows he has sympathy for others. He shows he has begun to mature. Other chapters provide similar maturity experiences for the children. The book is a coming of age novel of maturity experiences which reflect the developmental changes that young adolescent readers undergo. In teaching To Kill a Mockingbird to middle school students, it is important to draw parallels to their own experiences and Jem's own growth. At the end of Part I, students write a Maturity Essay in which they summarize and examine one of the early chapters that contains a maturity lesson. As a follow-up, sometimes as a pre-essay writing assignment, I have them write about one of their own maturity experiences, using one of the elements of the Maturity Web. It is the parallel between Jem's experiences and those of young adolescents that makes the book so effective. Another assignment I give (Figure 2) includes three parts that directly connect Jem's and the student's lives. The first is a drawing assignment which asks students to draw the items that were found in the oak tree as they would appear in "Jem's Box", his treasure chest. In the second phase of the assignment, students draw their own box with 7-10 items that have particular meaning to their childhoods. They then share their drawings with partners and/or the class. I was amazed the first time I gave this assignment - half the class wanted to bring in their actual treasure boxes from home to share with the class. Of course, I agreed. In the third phase of the assignment, students are asked to write about a particular item in their box that has special meaning to them; this third phase solidifies the connection between reader and character, and it further challenges the reader to examine his/her own experiences. In Part II of the novel Jem must confront the issue of tolerance in society as he witnesses many of his friends and neighbors in the grips of prejudice against a black man who has been falsely accused of raping a white woman. This universal issue of prejudice and how it affects Maycomb people is the main focus of the second half of the novel. Through the trial, its aftermath, and the violent attack on the children, Jem is forced to consider the very nature of man. How can man treat his fellow man as Tom Robinson is treated? What makes people hate others? What makes some people capable of evil? It is the motivation to ask these questions and those like them that reflects the developmental stage of young adolescence that we see in our middle schoolers. I believe the middle school level enjoys To Kill a Mockingbird because it is close to home. Our eighth graders can see themselves in the characters of Jem and Scout. The first part of the book explores the games and attitudes of childhood. Later the adult world casts its shadow over this childhood. The events of the book begin to shape the growth of its characters. It is at this age that the young adolescent, along with Jem, begins to mature as he learns about the fallibility of those she/he looks up to, deals with death, learns to feel compassion for others, and even begins to stand up for what she/he believes. It is no accident that many middle schools teach about issues of tolerance like the Holocaust and Civil Rights Movement - students want to know about the big questions, but before they get to those questions, they need to examine their own childhoods and their own growth. Looking at a middle level student from the beginning of seventh grade (or earlier) to the end of eighth, we see a change from the child to the young adult… a transformation from the child who wants to explore the world of games and ghosts and malevolent phantoms to the young adult who seeks to comprehend good vs. evil, justice and intolerance. To Kill a Mockingbird is a great novel for middle schools because it mirrors the development of the young adolescent.
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