Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
and
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This summer, when you read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, enjoy the books!

Get all you can out of them! Go beyond surface reading and be a thinking reader!
From your middle school Pre-AP English classes, you know that thinking readers ask questions and notice patterns. They pay attention to literary techniques used by the author and they think about how those techniques reveal characters, themes, and the author’s attitudes (tone). Both novels are full with techniques to notice: foreshadowing, rich details, figurative language, irony, and symbols, to name a
few. Once you spot a literary technique, don’t stop there! Think about its purpose and effect.

Here are some points and questions to help you with that kind of thinking with these two novels:
What words and phrases describe the setting? Are there striking or powerful word choices? Are the verbs strong? Are the adjectives or adverbs precise? Which places and natural objects have the richest, most detailed descriptions? Why is so much attention given to these places and objects? Notice the atmosphere or places that are at odds (juxtaposed). An example from To Kill a Mockingbird is the creepy, boarded up home housing a “maniac” set in a sleepy, small town.
Think about the narration, or point of view. For Their Eyes Were Watching God, it’s third person omniscient. That means the narrator who is telling Janie’s story knows how it all turns out and gives the reader insight into Janie’s character, decisions, thoughts, and feelings. Think about why Hurston chose to tell Janie’s story in this way. To Kill a Mockingbird is written in first person. The story is told by Scout as an adult looking back at a significant period in her childhood. Parts of the story are told through Scout’s eyes as a child and parts of the narration have adult insight.
Think about why Lee told the story in this way. What is the effect of the child’s perspective and the adult insights?

Look closely at the characters. Are they balanced with strengths and weaknesses or are they one dimensional with exaggerated traits? How does the author reveal traits? Is it gradual, revealing deeper layers, or is it immediate and less well-developed? For which characters are there figurative language and rich descriptions? Do any characters surprise you? If so, how? What do Janie, Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch want? Need? Fear? How do their wants, needs, and fears
create the conflict they feel? What is their big, internal conflict?

When looking at Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God, pay close attention to the way she changes physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It may help you to keep in mind some typical elements of folklore. There are often sets of three and there is often a youth who leaves home, faces adventures and danger, learns lessons along the way, and returns home “older and wiser.” How is Janie older and wiser when she returns home? What were the adventures and dangers she faced along the way? How did she change as she faced those challenges? What was
her big lesson?

When looking at Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, notice the way she changes. With Scout, really think about her experiences with her family and in first grade. What do you learn about her? By the end of third grade, she has changed in some important ways. What was the catalyst for the change? Think deeply about the events that affect Scout and Jem. When things happen that shake your world, you can either or adapt or not. If you adapt, how have you changed? If you don’t adapt, what is the result?

Think about the natural objects, places, and people in both novels that could be symbolic. Some suggestions for Their Eyes Were Watching God include Janie’s hair, Janie’s rags, the pear tree, and the hurricane. In To Kill a Mockingbird, of course, there’s the mockingbird! Also look at the people like Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch. What could these objects and people represent beyond their literal meaning? With To Kill a Mockingbird, think about what the author would say about hatred, prejudice, ignorance, racism, innocence, and what happens when the innocent encounter evil.

To help you dig into what you’re reading and note your thoughts along the way, your summer reading assignment is to annotate the text as you read and keep a dialectical journal. The annotated text and dialectical journal together are a major grade.

Bring the book and your journal to class on the first day of school. You should have:
ten or more passages in each novel for twenty or more total passages you’ve closely read and annotated, and ten or more entries in your Dialectical Journal for each novel for twenty or more total journal entries.

When school starts after the summer break, be ready with notes and ideas that show you read Their Eyes Were Watching God and To Kill a Mockingbird as a thinking reader. Be ready to write too! On the second day of class, you’ll write an essay using your annotated book and journal as a resource. Odds are the essay will ask you to compare and contrast something critical to both novels so be thinking about what they share and how they differ. Have themes, the authors’ tone, and literary techniques mulling around in your thoughts.