To Kill a Mockingbird Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

The events of To Kill a Mockingbird are set in the 1930s, but racism is still with us – for example, just a few years ago, African-American students at a Southern high school were harassed for sitting under a tree unofficially reserved for white students and then prosecuted for fighting back against their tormentors (they became known as the Jena Six). What can the novel tell us about facing racism today?
How do gender and race intersect in the novel? How much of Mayella’s treatment is due not just to her being a white person accusing an African-American, but a white woman accusing an African-American man?
After To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee never wrote another novel. If she had written a sequel continuing Scout’s story, what might it be like?
How would the novel be different if it were narrated from Jem’s perspective? Atticus’s? Calpurnia’s? Or in the third person?
Many lawyers credit Atticus as their inspiration for entering the law profession, but others criticize that he’s portrayed in the novel as the lone protector of powerless African-Americans who can’t do anything for themselves. To what extent can Atticus be taken as a role model?
Why do so many of the characters have nicknames?