To kill a mocking bird
“To Kill A Mockingbird” I have read the whole book in one night. Part I The first chapter was very interesting. It introduced the characters, the scene and the time it was set it. It also introduced the premise of Boo Radley, who, near the end of the novel, will be a very important character. I also liked Chapter two, because I saw that Scout was quite a smart character, able to write in script and able to read. I also feel sorry for her, because her teacher bans her from reading and writing. Chapter three was quite boring, so I’ll skip that. Chapter four was mildly better, but it was quite boring. Skip that. As well as Chapter 5. Chapter 6 was quite good, with the boys, Dill and Jem lying about how Jem lost his pants. Quite hilarious. Chapter nine was one of my favourites. It told me that what the book was going to be about the trial of a Black man against a while man’s words. A good theme. Racism. The rest of Part I was quite boring, until Chapter eleven, where we see a morphine addict, Mrs Dubose. I saw how she seemed to be a old hag, but I agreed with Atticus in that she was quite brave. Part II This is the better section, because it involves more action. Chapter thirteen was quite interesting, because it introduced “classes”. Aunt Alexandra introduced the concept of “Fine Folks”. I think she meant that they, the Finches, were like the best type of people. Chapter fifteen onwards is quite interesting, because this is where most of the story's main events happen; the trial of Tom Robinson and his death, and the attack on Jem and Scout by Bob Ewell, and how they were saved by Boo. Chapter seventeen was quite interesting, because it proves that Mr Ewell was like an animal, but is better than a black man. Near the end of the novel is my favourite part. It was quite exciting, with the climax happening when both Jem and Scout were attacked by Mr. Ewell. There was a happy ending. Which was very good, because of the horrific events that happened earlier. Chapter Summaries Chapter one Chapter one introduces the narrator, Scout Finch and most of the main characters in the book, Atticus and Jem Finch, and Dill. It also tells us of the Finch family history. Atticus is a lawyer. The real narrative begins with the first meeting between Scout, Jem, and "Dill", a feisty, imaginative boy who is nearly seven but very small for his age ("I'm little but I'm old"). From Meridian, Mississippi, Dill will be spending the summer at the nearby house of Miss Rachel Haverford, his aunt. He impresses the Finch children with his dramatic recounting of the movie Dracula, which wins him their respect and friendship. The three engage in summertime play activities of tree house-improvement and acting out the plots of several of their favourite books, with Dill proving to be "a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies." By late summer, having exhausted these pursuits, the children turn their thoughts toward the Radley place, a mysterious household on a curb beyond the Finch house, which is said to contain a "malevolent phantom" by the name of Boo Radley. Though never seen by the children, he is rumoured by popular superstition to be over six feet tall, with rotten yellow teeth, popping eyes and a drool, eating raw animals. He is often named as the source of strange evil. Boo's story concerns the story of the unsociable Radley family, who disregarded local custom by "keeping to themselves." Prior to his death, Mr. Radley had only been seen on his daily trip to collect groceries from 11:30-12, and the family worshipped in their own home on Sundays. Their youngest son, Arthur, mixed with "the wrong crowd," a gang of boys who were finally arrested and brought to court after driving an old car through the town square and locking Maycomb's beadle in an outhouse. Though the other boys went to industrial school, Arthur (a.k.a. Boo) Radley's family preferred to keep him hidden inside the home. After fifteen years of this invisibility, it was claimed that the thirty-three-year-old Boo had stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. Refusing to permit his son to be deemed insane or charged with criminal behaviour, Mr. Radley allowed Boo to be locked up in the courthouse basement ("the sheriff hadn't the heart to put him in jail alongside Negroes"). Boo was eventually brought back to the Radley home. After Mr. Radley's death, his older brother Nathan arrived to continue keeping Boo inside and out of sight. Dill develops an insatiable curiosity about Boo, and wants to lay eyes on this strange "phantom," which is said to walk about at night looking in windows. Dill dares Jem to go inside the boundary of the Radleys' front gate. After three days of hedging, Jem's fear of Boo succumbs to his sense of honour when Dill revises his terms, daring Jem to only touch the house. Jem finally agrees to do this. He runs, touches the house, and the three scramble back to the Finches' porch, where looking down the street to the Radley house "we thought we saw an inside of a shutter move. Flick - and the house was still." Chapter Two Chapter two is about Scout on her first day to school. She is quite smart, but the teacher, Miss Caroline, says to her to not let Atticus teach her anymore, saying that it is “wrong” technique. We are also introduced to Walter Cunningham, whose father works on the farm. Miss Caroline tries to lend Walter some money, but he refuses. Scout explains why he cannot accept her money because they do not accept other people’s help; they just get on with what they have. However, Miss Caroline gets annoyed, and taps her hand several times with a ruler, and makes her stand in the corner. Everyone is confused, and when they realize what has happened, they all start to laugh. Until the sixth-grade teacher comes in, and threatens them. Then they become quiet. Chapter 3 Chapter three is about Jem inviting Walter Cunningham over for lunch. He reluctantly accepts. He and Atticus talks in an adult speech. Back at school, a big commotion occurs when a student, named Burris Ewell, comes to school with head lice. Miss Caroline takes this quite seriously, and tells him to take a bath, and to sit down. Burris seems to take this as an insult, and tells off Miss Caroline, which upsets her greatly. She cries and all the children comfort her. When Scout comes home, she says to Atticus that she does not want to go back to school. She says that she wants to be like Burris Ewell. Atticus says that the town authorities bend the law for the Ewells because they will never change their ways. Atticus then makes a compromise with Scout: if she goes to school, Atticus will let her keep reading with him at home. Scout agrees and Atticus reads to her and Jem from the papers. Chapter 4 School continues; the year goes by. Scout doubts that the new educational system is really doing her any good - she finds school boring and wishes the teacher would allow her to read and write, rather than ask the children to do silly activities geared toward "Group Dynamics" and "Good Citizenship." One afternoon as she runs past the Radley house she notices something in the knot-hole of one of the oak trees in the Radleys' front yard. It turns out to be two pieces of chewing gum. Scout is careful but she eventually decides to chew them. Jem makes her spit it out. Later, toward the end of the school year, they find in the same place a little box with two polished Indian-head pennies inside - these are good luck tokens. They aren't sure whether these have been left for them, but decide to take them anyway. Dill comes to Maycomb for the summer again, full of stories about train rides and his father, whom he claims to have finally laid eyes upon. The three try to start a few games, but they quickly get bored. Jem pushes Scout inside an old tire, but it ends up in the Radleys' yard. Terrified, Scout runs back, but Jem has to run into the yard and retrieve the tire. Dill thinks Boo Radley died and Jem says they stuffed his body up the chimney. Scout thinks maybe he's still alive. They invent a new game about Boo Radley. Jem plays Boo, Dill plays Mr. Radley, and Scout plays Mrs. Radley. They polish it up over the summer into a little dramatic re-enactment of all the gossip they've heard about Boo and his family, including a scene using Calpurnia's scissors as a prop. One day Atticus catches them playing the game and asks them if it has anything to do with the Radleys. They say it doesn't, and Atticus replies, "I hope it doesn't." Atticus's sternness forces them to stop playing, and Scout is relieved because she's worried for another reason: she thought she heard the sound of someone laughing inside the Radley house when her tire rolled into their yard. Chapter 5 Jem and Dill have become closer friends, and Scout, being a girl, finds herself often excluded from her play. Dill has in childish fashion decided to get engaged to Scout, but now he and Jem play together often and Scout finds herself unwelcome. She often sits with their neighbour, the avid gardener Miss Maudie Atkinson, and watches the sun set on her front steps or partakes of Miss Maudie's fine cake. Miss Maudie is honest is her speech and her ways, with a witty tongue, and Scout considers her a trusted friend. Scout asks her one day about Boo Radley, and Miss Maudie says that he's still alive, he just doesn't like to come outside. She also says that most of the rumours about him aren't true. Miss Maudie explains that the Radleys are foot-washing Baptists -they believe all pleasure is a sin against God, and stay inside most of the time reading the Bible. She says that Arthur was a nice boy when she used to know him. The next day Jem and Dill hatch a plan to go leave a note for Boo in the Radleys' window, using a fishing line. The note will ask him to come out sometimes and tell them what he's doing inside and that they won't hurt him and will buy him ice cream. Dill says he wants Boo to come out and sit with them for a while, as it might make the man feel better. Dill and Scout keep watch in case anyone comes along, and Jem tries to deliver the note with the fishing pole, but finds that it's harder to manoeuvre than he expected. As he struggles, Atticus arrives and catches them all. He tells them to stop tormenting Boo, and lectures them about how Boo has a right to his privacy, and they shouldn't go near the house unless they're invited. He accuses them of putting Boo's life history on display for the edification of the neighbourhood. Jem says that he didn't say they were doing that, and thus inadvertently admits that they were doing just that. Atticus caught him with "the oldest lawyer's trick on record." Chapter 6 It is Dill's last night in Maycomb for the summer. Jem and Scout get permission to go sit with him that evening. Dill wants to go for "a walk," but it turns into something more: Jem and Dill want to sneak over to the Radleys' and peek into one of their windows. Scout doesn't want them to do it, but Jem accuses her of being girlish, an insult she can't bear, and she goes along with it. They sneak under a wire fence and go through a gate. At the window, Scout and Jem hoist Dill up to peek in the window. Dill sees nothing, only curtains and a small faraway light. The boys want to try a back window instead, despite Scout's pleas. As Jem is raising his head to look in, the shadow of a man appears and crosses over him. As soon as it's gone, the three children run as fast as they can back home, but Jem loses his pants in the gate. As they run, they hear a shotgun sound somewhere behind them. When they return, Mr. Radley is standing inside his gate, and Atticus is there with various neighbours. They found out that Mr. Radley was shooting at a "white Negro" in his backyard, and has another barrel waiting if he returns. Dill makes up a story about playing strip poker to explain Jem's missing pants, and Jem says it was with matches rather than cards, which would be considered very bad. Dill says goodbye to them, and Jem and Scout go to bed. Jem decides to go back and get his pants late that night. Scout tries to persuade him that it would be better to get whipped by Atticus than to get shot and killed by Mr. Radley, but Jem insists - he says he's never been whipped by Atticus and doesn't want to be. Jem is gone for a little while, but he returns with the pants, trembling. Chapter 7 Jem becomes quite moody and silent after the pants incidents. The new school year starts, and Scout finds it quite the same as first grade, boring. Days later, when they walk home, Jem tells Scout that when he found his pants, they were folded up and the tear sewn up. Jem found this quite eerie. Then they found a ball of twine in the hiding place in the oak tree. They leave it for a few days, then they take it, and decide that anything left there is okay to take. In October, they find two figures, a boy and a girl, made out of soap. On closer inspection, they see that it is themselves. They thought that Mr. Avery has done this. Later on, they find a package of chewing gum, a medal, and a broken pocket watch with a knife. Jem decides to write a letter of thanks to whoever gives them these gifts. The next day however, they find that the hole has been filled up with cement. Mr Radley claims that the tree is dying and that cement will keep it alive. Chapter 8 Chapter eight begins with the winter at Maycomb. It is being described as being harsh. Snow comes - the first snow Scout and Jem has ever seen. School is cancelled and Jem and Scout make a snowman made from both snow and soil. At night, Miss Maudie’s house is on fire. Everyone comes to help put out the fire, but the house collapses and the tin roof puts out the fire. Miss Maudie is quite cheerful, because she wanted a smaller house and she is now able to have a bigger garden. Chapter 9 Chapter nine starts off with a boy named Cecil Jacobs saying to Scout that her father “defends niggers”. Scout fights him over it. She later asks her father what it means. He tells her that he is defending a black man named Tom Robinson. Everyone says that he ought to not defend him, but he does it to “hold up his head in town”. He explains that every lawyer gets at least one case in a lifetime that affects them personally, and this one is his.