To Kill a Mockingbird - Self-respect and Injustice

Hey, i've been recently assigned with a 5 paragraph grade 10 level essay on TKAM.

Assignment: Consider the role self-respect plays when an individual responds to injustice and how this idea is reflected and developed in To Kill a Mockingbird. Discuss how Harper Lee's character(s) confront injustice with regards to self-respect.

I need help starting with a precise thesis that i can bring through the whole essay, which are going to discuss Atticus, Bob Ewell, and Mayella.

Any help is appreciated :)

Well, why don't you brainstorm a bit and see what you can come up with on your own? Perhaps you might start by thinking about why Atticus takes a case he knows he will lose, that he knows will end unjustly. You might also ask yourself why Bob Ewell is so angry at Atticus after the trial, and why Mayella lies on the stand. Maybe you might even ask yourself if self-respect is always independent of what other people think, or if in some people it exists only as a reflection of what other people think, and how such a distinction might explain the differences between the way the three characters you have chosen act.

Yes, I agree, some brainstorming is in order. Think about self-respect in relation to each of those characters in turn, jotting down everything you can think of. How does the character's self-respect (or lack thereof) influence his or her actions? Does it grow or change in the course of the book? What scenes in the book indicate something about the character's self-respect?

Only once you have decided what you want to say about each character can you then frame a thesis statement that will express your viewpoint concisely. Feel free to come back here once you have a draft thesis statement for some help on outlining and drafting the essay itself.

So I've jotted down some answers and know what I want to talk about for the characters. I've swapped Bob out for Tom since Bob did not really have an injustice happen onto him. I've written a draft thesis connecting all three characters together. Here goes

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee utilizes character development to suggest that retaining self-respect when confronting injustice, an individual will not only be able to endure the injustice, but can also influence others to do the same. The characters which she uses are Atticus Finch, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson.

The last sentence is a transition into the next three paragraphs.

Any ideas or edits?

I'm having trouble coming up with a nice spotlight intro sentence. I usually use a quote since they are easy to get the idea of the essay into the reader's mind but I haven't found any quotes which would work with my thesis.

Good!

... to suggest that by retaining self-respect


The characters through which she communicates this are...

As for your spotlight intro: Which scene in the book that illustrates your thesis stands out most strongly in your mind? Instead of quoting, you could describe that dramatic moment.

Thanks! :D

Before you commented I actually found a pretty decent quote which I like so I placed it into my intro paragraph

And editing or suggestions would be terrific as my intro might need a little bit of reworking

Robert Francis Kennedy once stated: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." This quote means that whenever someone has the self-respect to stand up for something that individual believes in, that quality will channel forth to others and inspire them to do the same. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates this idea through the choices the characters unconsciously make based on their self-respect. If the choices are good the character demonstrates self-respect. If the choices are bad it shows that the character has no self-respect. Not only would a respectful choice have a personal impact on the character, it would also affect that characters social realm. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee utilizes character development to suggest that by retaining self-respect when confronting injustice, an individual will not only be able to endure the injustice, but can also influence others to do the same. The characters through which she communicates this are Atticus Finch, Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson.

I would omit the sentence that starts "This quote means..." If you do keep that sentence, say something like "What Kennedy meant..." or omit the words "This quote means that," starting the sentence with "Whenever..."

I notice you sometimes leave out commas:

If the choices are good, the character...
If the choices are bad, it shows...

But "it shows" is a weak phrase, as is "it would" in the next sentence. Indeed, that whole string of sentences is weak. How can you make these sentences stronger? I'll do one, and then you or another user can try the others.

Characters demonstrate self-respect by making good choices.

Do you really want to argue that characters demonstrate self-respect by making good choices (which is what you have written), or do you want to argue that people who possess self-respect make good choices as a result. I sort of get the idea from the rest of your intro that you are trying to do the latter, so be careful not to reverse the causal links at the outset.