To Kill A Mocking Bird - notes on the characters, setting and chapter 1.
Brief Notes On What Happens In Chapter One: - when Jem was 13 he broke his arm at elbow. His left arm was shorter than his left arm and so his thumb pointed at right angles to his body - Jem - 10 years old - from Macomb - Scout - 6 years old - from Macomb - narrator of story - Dill - 7 years old - from Meridian, Mississippi - Atticus - Layer (defends Negros) parent of Jem and Scout - Scout and jems mum dies when Scout was 2 (she was 15 years younger than Atticus) - Calpurnia - cook - strict - Chapter one is set during summer - when it was very hot - Scout says 'ladies bathed before noon, after their three o'clock naps and by night fall were like soft cup cakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum' - Jem, Scout and Atticus' house was on main residential street - Scout and Jems summer boundaries were from Mrs Lafayette Dubose's house two doors to the North to the Radley place three doors to the South - Dill stayed with his aunt (Miss Rachel) during the summer holidays, it was Dills' idea to make Mr Radley Come out. Dill played parts of Jem and Scout's Plays - Over summer Scout Jem and Dill improved their Tree House - Negro would not pass Radley house at night - they would pass to other side of road and whistle - Pecan trees shook Pecan's onto local school yard, the pecans were untouched. A ball hit into the Radley place was a lost ball - Mr Radley
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird When Jem was nearly 13 years old his arm was badly broken at the elbow. After it healed and Jem was assured that he could still play football, his arm never bothered him - though it always remained shorter than the right, and hung at a funny angle. Years later, Jem and his sister, Scout, still talked about the accident and the events leading up to it. They finally agreed it had all started the summer when they tried to get Arthur "Boo" Radley to come out of his house. Jem and Scout lived in Maycomb, Alabama, a drowsy, isolated town where everyone knew everyone. Their mother had died when Scout was two years old. Calpurnia, a Negro cook, took care of them and taught them tolerance that took them beyond the rigid prejudices of Maycomb society' Their wise father, an attorney, Atticus Finch, played with them and read them stories. In fact, Scout learned to read before going to school which later caused trouble with her teacher, who didn't think early reading fit into proper educational theory. During the summer when Scout was six and Jem was ten, the children became fascinated with the Radley place next door. Most of the community's young people believed the house was haunted. At night children would cross the street rather than walk in front of the Radley house. Nuts that fell from the Radley pecan tree into the school yard were never eaten; surely,
Critical Essay on "To kill a Mocking Bird".
Critical Essay on "To kill a Mocking Bird" By Gordon Walker In the novel "To kill a mocking bird" by Harper Lee, the author has done a wonderful job of emphasising the ever present them of prejudice, using symbolism, and setting to grip the reader's interest. The novel is set in the time of the great American depression in the nineteen thirties, in a "tired little town" called Maycomb, situated in the American Deep South. In this time period (just after the American civil war) a great deal of prejudice exists. This prejudice exists in many forms including the white communities reluctance to adhere to the equal opportunities policy laid down by the "Yankee" government. Fuelled by their feeling of superiority over those of African-American descent. Prejudice also festers in the form of persecution against anyone against the norm, with this being apparent in the town's view of "Boo Radley", and his consequent label of "freak", given in ignorance by his fellow town members. Maycomb is a very deprived town, badly crippled by the poor economical goings on of the financial market, and damaged by its hierarchical social structure, and sheer ignorance of those in the minority. The setting itself provides a great deal of fuel to the furnace of prejudice that is a core theme of the novel. With the book being set in this time of heated anger where the rich are poor, and the poor even
How do Scout and Jem change and develop during the course of the novel?
How do Scout and Jem change and develop during the course of the novel? Firstly at the beginning of the novel scout and Jem are childish and play childish games. 'Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo radley come out.' In the novel making Boo radley come out is seen as a childish game because boo never comes out. The adults of maycomb just leave him alone as he has not been out all of his life. This shows scout's and Jem's immaturity because they just think of what they want, which is to see boo radley, not what boo may want to do. In addition another example of scout's and Jem's immaturity is they are jealous over a lot of things. 'Our father didn't do anything. He worked in an office not in a drug store. He was not sheriff or anything that would possibly arouse the admiration of anyone.' Here we see Jem and scout acting childish because they are jealous of other people's fathers. This shows childish behavior because when you get older you know it isn't what job your dad does which makes him good, it is his personality and what is inside that matter. Furthermore another example of the children's immaturity is that scout believes every word that Jem says. 'When I asked Jem what entailment was he described it as a condition of having your tail in a crack.' This shows Jem's immaturity because he describes the meaning of the word wrong as he does many times
Bullet points on To Kill A Mockingbird.
CHAPTER 1: * Description of Simon Finch * Description of Atticus' job * Description of Maycomb County * Description of Calpurnia * Introduction and description of Dill * Description of the Radley place * Jem describes Boo Radley * Jem touches the Radley Place CHAPTER 2: * Scout's first day at school * Description of Miss Caroline * Atticus told no to teach Scout * Description of Walter Cunningham and his family * Scout gets 'six taps on her hand' CHAPTER 3: * Scout catches Walter Cunningham * Walter goes to their house for tea * Introduction and description of Burris Ewell * Argument between Little Chuck, Miss Caroline and Burris Ewell * Atticus tells Scout he difference between them and the Ewells CHAPTER 4: * Scout finds chewing gum in the tree * Scout and Jem find old polished pennies * Dill arrives again at summer * Scout ends up in the Radley yard of the tyre game CHAPTER 5: * Description of Miss Maudie Atkinson * Scout talks to Miss Maudie about Boo Radley * Children to give a note to Boo Radley * Children caught in there game CHAPTER 6: * Description of Mr Avery * Children going to look at Boo Radley * Mr Radley shoots a negro * Jem looses breeches on the fence in boo's back yard CHAPTER 7: * Jem finds his breeches folded up nicely * A ball of grey twine is found in the tree * Packet of chewing gum is found in here later on *
To Kill a Mockingbird.
To Kill A Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird The American Classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, first began as two separate short stories. Harper Lee needed a way to transform these stories into one compelling novel of human injustice. ***Throughout the novel, many themes/motifs are explored. The title of To Kill a Mockingbird carries a great deal of symbolic value. It provides a necessary function to unify the two major plot elements. In this story of innocence destroyed by evil, the mockingbird represents the idea of innocence. "I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Atticus is referring to the idea that a mockingbird is a harmless creature and does nothing but sing and bring happiness to the world. Miss Maudie explains to Jem: "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but ... sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." The mockingbird is a symbol for two of the characters in the novel: Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. In the novel, the people of Maycomb only know Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others say about them. These two characters are harmless songbirds that are sinfully destroyed. In the beginning of the story, Boo represents the unknown. The children of Maycomb believe that anything that comes from
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Prejudice
To Kill a Mocking Bird Speech We all know, don't we, that one of the issues in To Kill a Mocking Bird is racial prejudice - but what about social prejudice? How does Harper Lee add to our understanding of prejudice through the character of Boo Radley? How do we gain information about Boo through the language and eyes of Scout and Jem? How does Lee's language show us that Scout and Jem are both fearful yet enthralled by the nature of Boo? As we know, Jem and Scout feared the Radley House. Told to stay well away from the house, "inhabited by an unknown entity"1, they would walk on the other side of the road when passing. This is the first key incident, that Lee is able depict the strong prejudices through the character Boo. This is, as, few "had ever seen him"2, but still ready "to discard the initial suspicions"3. Calpurnia even commented on Boo's ways, "there goes the meanest man God ever blew breath into"4, proving to all of us the social prejudice in Maycomb. Lee is also able to increase our perspective of prejudice, by the use of epigrammatic style, "I tried with him. I fell sick"5, and descriptive language, "Radley lives in a 'gray house' (he is a) 'ghost' in the sense that the children don't know him - fear and prejudice surround the home. This shows how the language shapes the meaning."6 Another incident shows Scout and Jem, finding presents in the "oaks of the
To Kill A Mockingbird - Arthur
At the beginning of the novel, Scout is an innocent, good-hearted five-year-old child who has no experience with the evils of the world. As the novel progresses, Scout has her first contact with evil in the form of racial prejudice, and the basic development of her character is governed by the question of whether she will emerge from that contact with her conscience and optimism intact or whether she will be bruised, hurt, or destroyed like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Thanks to Atticus's wisdom, Scout learns that though humanity has a great capacity for evil, it also has a great capacity for good, and that the evil can often be mitigated if one approaches others with an outlook of sympathy and understanding. When he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white woman, he exposes himself and his family to the anger of the white community. Arthur "Boo" Radley - A recluse who never sets foot outside his house, Boo dominates the imaginations of Jem, Scout, and Dill. He is a powerful symbol of goodness swathed in an initial shroud of creepiness, leaving little presents for Scout and Jem and emerging at an opportune moment to save the children. An intelligent child emotionally damaged by his cruel father, Boo provides an example of the threat that evil poses to innocence and goodness. He is one of the novel's "mockingbirds," a good person injured by the
To Kill a Mockingbird - critical review
To Kill a Mockingbird is set during the 1930's in a small, isolated town in Maycomb County, Alabama. The 1930's was a period of great change with new ideas coming to the forefront of the Western world. America was fast becoming one of the most powerful countries in the world and therefore its ideas and ways of living were being copied in every far corner of the western world. Economically America was not quite so sound. Only a year earlier America had sustained a massive crash in share prices that had affected the whole nation from the richest to the poorest everybody was facing bankruptcy and poverty. In the early 1930's racism was a large factor in the way that everyone lived their lives. A true reflection of this came on March 25th 1931; it was the day of a trial of nine black teenagers who were accused of the alleged rape of two young white women; Ruby Bates and Victoria Price. It took place in a small, isolated town (much like the one in Maycomb County) in Scottsboro, Ala. The trial was significant because it was the sign of recognition from the white population that racism was not right. Eight of the boys were sentenced to death while another was sentenced to life imprisonment. The nine black teenagers were tried in conjunction with the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow Laws were legal punishments on people consorting with members of another race. The most common laws
To Kill a Mocking Bird - main characters and plot overview
Plot Overview Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together. Eventually, Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place. The house is owned by Mr. Nathan Radley, whose brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without venturing outside. Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the following summer, and he, Scout, and Jem begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another person's perspective before making judgments. But, on Dill's last night in Maycomb for the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley property, where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably
