What is a good topic to bring up in an essay for To Kill a Mockingbird?

You should ask your teacher for clarification on this, as they will be grading it…

@yankeetooter
I can’t.
We had a Sub today, and my teacher just left this assignment on the board. Plus, its due tomorrow.

Without seeing the instructions your teacher gave you, I’ll hazard a guess that you should follow a format similar to what you’re calling a persuasive essay. Otherwise, your essay is just a list of vaguely related facts, right? Even if you’re not specifically trying to persuade someone of anything, it still really helps your essay to have one main idea that you introduce in a thesis sentence, that you then go on to support with examples in the body of your paragraph.

Do you have some ideas for things that might be a good thesis sentence?

And @SeaTurtle, homework questions are permitted. From the Guidelines:

Homework Questions
Feel free to ask for help on your subject, but simply posting your homework question verbatim and expecting an answer is rude! We’re not here to do your homework for you.

To clarify: we don’t do people’s homework for them, but we don’t mind making helpful suggestions—especially when someone is up front about wanting homework help and specifies the kind of help they need, as you have done.

It sounds like you are writing an expository essay. Note the last section of the linked page. (Also note that this website at Purdue is a great overall resource for writing assignments.)

If you’ve written your first paragraph, you must have made some sort of statement about racism and race prejudice as it appears in the book. Your next three paragraphs would typically cite examples from the book that prove your point, and your conclusion wraps it all up. But if this isn’t the formula your teacher gave you, follow your teacher’s instructions.

You can post your opening here if you want, and ask for comments.

There are many different types of prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird – race, gender, class etc. Perhaps you could compare and contrast race with something else?

The book won a Pulitzer prize. There is an abundance of discussion of it’s themes all over the place. Maybe you should start researching.

@josie
Maybe I should start researching? I’ve read the book several times and have done class discussions for the past two months. Clearly you didn’t take note of my actual question.

@Jeruba
Thank you SO much. That is exactly the response I needed. Thank you.

Make it simple: start with three main ways racism and prejudice was demonstrated in the book. give good examples from the story and find a “deap meaning” in some of the examples. I promise you this will work because i just recently got 100% on a similar essay