Chapters 1-11 (Part I)Wrap Up

To Kill a MockingbirdBy Harper Lee

Point of View and ScoutThe novel is told from first person point of view.

The narrator uses “I” and “Me” to describe events in the novel.

The narrator: Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, a 6 year old girl.

Scout is the adult narrator in the novel, but Scout, the child, takes part in the action of the novel and engages in the dialogue.

The narrator is an ADULT, but she retells the events as she remembers experiencing them as a child.

Harper Lee is Scout

Harper Lee, the author, is a woman.

Scout represents the author as a little girl although the story is not strictly autobiographical.

The novel is shaped by a young girl who sees the story from a position of naïve acceptance.

Advantages and Disadvantages of First Person Point of View

Advantages:

Draws reader/viewer into story and character when one who is a part of the story tells it.

Makes story and narrator believable.

Interesting combination of Scout as the narrator and as the child protagonist.

Disadvantages:

Her perspective is limited to what she saw and felt at the time.

Scout, the child, does not understand the full meaning of what she observes, but her childlike perceptions are a source of humor.

“Atticus was feeble: he was nearly 50” (Lee 89).

John Hale Finch“Uncle Jack”

Atticus’ brother

10 years younger than Atticus

Studies medicine

Atticus invested in his education

Alexandra Finch

Atticus’ sister

Remained at “Finch’s Landing”

Married a taciturn man who spent time lying in his hammock

Atticus FinchGrew up in “Finch’s Landing”

Was taught at home by his father

Attended law school and practiced law in Maycomb

Town lawyer

Represented his county in State Legislature

“He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb county born and bred” (Lee 5).

Related to nearly everyone in Maycomb.

Widower

Father to Scout and Jem

“He played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment” (Lee 6).

Atticus’ Wife

15 years younger than Atticus

She died from a heart attack when Scout was 2 and Jem was 6

Jem remembered her clearly and missed her, Scout did not

CalpurniaAtticus’ black cook/housekeeper

Was all angles and bones

Nearsighted; she squinted

Wide, hard hand which she used to discipline Scout

“Tyrannical presence” (Lee 6).

Always ordering Scout about

She always won the battles with Scout because “Atticus always took her side” (Lee 6).

Mother-figure to Jem & Scout

Charles Baker Harris “DILL”Seven years old

From Meridan, Mississippi

Spends every summer with his aunt, Ms. Rachel (Finch neighbor)

His mother’s a photographer; does not have a father

Won $5 in a photo contest; used it to see the same movie twenty times

“Dill was a curiosity” (Lee 7).

Plays with his cowlick

Spent the summer playing with Jem and Scout

They improved their tree house

They produced plays they wrote, based on books they read

Fascinated by the Radley place and Boo Radley

Gave them the “idea of making Boo Radley come out” (Lee 8).

The Radley Place3 doors south of the Finches

Low house; once white but darkened to a slate-gray

Rain-rotted shingles

Oak trees kept the sun away

Unswept yard filled with weeds

“Malevolent phantom” (Lee 8) lived inside the house; Jem/Scout have never seen him

• Many people fear the Radley Place and cross the street to avoid it

• Any lost ball in the Radley’s yard remains there.

The Radleys• Lived with their two children• Kept to themselves; “unforgivable in

Maycomb” (Lee 9).• Did not go to church; principle recreation

in Maycomb; worshiped at home• Mrs. Radley never had coffee with her

neighbors nor did she take part in missionary work

• Their shutters and doors were closed every Sunday; kept their shades drawn to discourage visitors

• Never participated in Sunday formal afternoon visiting

Mr. Radley• Thin, leathery man

• Colorless eyes; did not reflect light

• Sharp cheekbones; wide mouth

• Ramrod straight posture

• Made a living doing nothing; “bought cotton” (Lee 9)

• Walked to town at 11:30 am every morning and returned home exactly at 12 pm carrying a brown paper bag

• Never spoke to Jem and Scout

• Calpurnia refers to him as, “the meanest man ever God blew breath into” (Lee 12).

• Kept his son, Boo, out of sight

• Jem figured he kept his son chained to the bed, but Atticus felt “it wasn’t that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people into ghosts” (Lee 11).

• After his death Mr. Nathan Radley, Boo’s brother, returned from Pensacola and took his place

Arthur Radley (BOO)According to Jem…

• He was 6 and a half feet tall

• Ate raw squirrels and cats

• Had blood-stained hands

• Long jagged scar on his face

• Yellow, rotten teeth

• Drooled

BOO Radley People in Maycomb said

…• Arthur goes out at night after the town is

asleep

• He was responsible for any crimes committed in town

• He peeped into windows at night

• He breathed on azalea’s (flowers) and froze them

Boo RadleyThe Real Story…

• Got into trouble with a wrong crowd of boys; came before a judge for disorderly conduct

• Rather than being sent to a state school by the judge, Arthur was released in his father’s care

• Mr. Radley guaranteed that “[he would see to it] that Arthur gave no further trouble” (Lee 10).

• As a result Arthur was not seen again for 15 years

• As a result the doors of the Radley house closed on weekdays as well as Sundays

BOO: The Real Story (continued)

• At age 33, Arthur reportedly drove the scissors into his father’s leg

• Mrs. Radley ran outside and started to scream, “Arthur was killing [us] all” (Lee 11)

• Boo’s reaction: He continued to cut the newspaper like nothing was wrong

• After being temporarily locked up in the courtroom basement for a while, he was taken home by his father

• From that day on people said “the [Radley] house died” (Lee 12).

Miss Caroline Fisher

• Scout’s teacher

• 21 years old

• Bright auburn hair

• Pink cheeks

• Crimson nail polish

• Wore high heels and a dress

• “She looked and smelled like a peppermint drop” (Lee 16).

• Lived in a room at Miss Maudie’s house

• Jem has a crush on her

• From Winston County in North Alabama

• Beliefs much different form Maycomb County

• “When Alabama seceded from the Union…Winston County seceded from Alabama, and every child in Maycomb County knew it” (Lee 16).

Conflict with Miss Caroline

With Scout

• Seemed unaware that the children were, “immune to imaginative literature.”

• Tells Scout to tell Atticus not to teach her how to read anymore.

• Scout gives in to Miss Caroline’s accusations

• She is “introducing a new way of teaching” (Lee 18).

With Walter Cunningham

• Offers him a quarter to eat downtown.

• Walter refuses.

• Scout tries to explain the Cunningham’s and gets herself in trouble

• Scout gets hit on the palm with a ruler for being disrespectful

Think about this… “My sojourn in the

corner was a short one. Saved by the bell, Miss Caroline watched the class file out for lunch. As I was about to leave, I saw her sink down into her chair and bury her head in her arms. Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, I would have felt sorry for her. She was a pretty little thing” (Lee 22).

1. How do you think that Miss Caroline is feeling at the end of Chapter 2?

2. Why?

3. Was Scout’s first day of school all she thought it was going to be?

4. What proof can you find in the text to support your answer?

Conflict Caused by Walter

• Between Jem and Scout

• Between Calpurnia and Scout

• Between Scout and Atticus

• At the schoolyard, resulting in Jem inviting Walter for dinner

• At dinner when Walter covers everything in syrup

• Scout wants Atticus to fire Calpurnia, but he says that he never will

The same afternoon…Conflict between…

• Burris Ewell

• Miss Caroline

• Chuck Little

Events of the day…

• Burris has creatures crawling out of his hair

• Miss Caroline tells him to go home and wash with lye and kerosene

• Chuck Little gets involved, knowing that he is a Ewell -foreshadowing

• Burris leaves, but not before making Miss Caroline cry in front of the class

Maycomb’s Societal Conflicts

• Although every member of the Finch family understands the way Maycomb society works, they do not conform to Maycomb’s rules of class.

• Walter is welcomed into the home by Atticus.

• The Ewell family, on the other hand, in no way fits into Maycomb society. They even live on the edge of town. Burris and his father refuse to obey the school attendance rules and the hunting regulations of Maycomb.

• Society elects to turn a blind eye on these activities.

Burris Ewell vs. Walter Cunningham

A child’s behavior can be explained by his family’s last name.• “He was the filthiest human I had

ever seen” (Lee 26).

• Dark grey neck

• Rusty hands

• Black fingernails

• Cooties in his hair

• Comes to class the first day every year and then leaves

• Has repeated first grade three times = illiterate

• No mother, drunk father

• “He’s a mean one, a hard-down mean one” (Lee 27).

• Rude to the teacher; made her cry

• “He looked as if he had been raised on fish food” (Lee 23).

• Thin because he has hookworms - shoeless

• Red-rimmed and watery eyes

• Neat and clean appearance

• Doesn’t take money offered by Miss Caroline because , “he’s a Cunningham” (Lee 20).

• Illiterate due to family obligations on the farm.

Social Class: Poor Whites

The Cunninghams

• Poor country farmers; “The crash hit them the hardest” (Lee 21).

• “They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have” (Lee 20).

• They do not take what they cannot pay back; they won’t accept handouts - Ex: Welfare

• Walter won’t take lunch money even though he is starving because he cannot repay it.

• Pride: “Came from a set breed of men” (Lee 21); remain honorable despite situation; cannot pay Atticus with money for his legal services, so they pay him with farm crops.

Poor Whites Continued…

The Ewells

• Disgrace of Maycomb for three generations

• None of them had done an honest day’s work in their lives

• They were people, but lived like animals

• Father spends relief checks on whiskey

• Lived outside local and national laws because they are poor and ignorant - children do not attend school and father hunts out of season

• Maycombians allow this because of their name: Ewell

Lessons Scout Learns• Calpurnia teaches Scout that when people differ, Scout

is not “called on to contradict ‘em. . . ” (Lee 24).

• Scout also learns from Calpurnia that guests in her home should be treated as such.

• Atticus teachers her to consider things from another person’s point of view in order to understand that person. He indicates that sometimes it is better to bend the law a little in special cases. Find the quote in chapter 3 that exemplifies this.

• He also tells Scout that at times it is best to ignore things. He reminds her that Maycomb overlooks Burris’s skipping school and Robert Ewell’s hunting out of season. He applies this to Jem in the tree house; if Scout will ignore Jem, Jem will come down.

Stylistic Devices in Chapter 3

• The repetition of sounds, or alliteration, is used often. For instance, the reader finds words like “snorted and slouched” and “snot-nosed slut.”

• Scout uses an idiom when she says that Walter made her start off “on the wrong foot.”

• Walter’s dialect is apparent as he says, “Almost died first year I come to school and et them pecans—folks say he pizened ‘em and put ‘em over on the school side of the fence.”

Theme of Bravery• Once again the children must prove their bravery in

the face of many threats. Often, this is easier in a group.

• The children walk by the Radley Place when they are together, but go by “at a full gallop” when they are alone.

• The children fake bravado in front of their peers, but they allow free rein to their feelings when they are unobserved.

• Bravery versus cowardice also occurs with the confrontation of Little Chuck Little and Burris in the classroom. Little Chuck Little, one of the smallest children in the class, displays bravery and is able to confront Burris, “a hard-down mean one.”

Questions:

• Why do the children make Boo’s story into a game? Whose idea is it?

• What do they do in this game? What scene do they seem to enjoy the most?

• Do you think the game is an accurate version of what happens in the Radleys’ home?

• What might be the cause of laughter from inside the house?

Answers….

• The three of them act out scenes from the stories they have heard about the Radleys.

• The scene they enjoy play acting the most concerns the rumors that Boo once stabbed his father with a pair of scissors.

Significance of their games..

• Are the children listening to Atticus advice about trying to understand other people’s ways or have they forgotten?

• The games of Scout, Jem, and Dill have a childish innocence, but they can be cruel.

• Do you think the Radleys would appreciate having their private problems dramatized for the entire neighborhood?

Atticus and the Radleys• “So that’s what your

doing, wasn’t it? Makin fun of him?” “No” said Atticus, “Putting his life’s history on display for the edification of the neighborhood. Jem seemed to swell a little. :I didn’t say we were doin’ that, I didn’t say it!” Atticus grinned dryly. “You just told me,” he said. “you stop this nonsense right now, every one of you.”

• Atticus is rarely stern with his children.

• The fact that he is being stern shows that his opinions toward the Radleys differ from the children’s opinions.

• Atticus does not believe the Radleys are bad people.

MISS MAUDIE• Widowed lady who lives next door; “a

benign presence” (Lee 42).

• Hates her house; spends as much time as possible working outdoors in her garden

• Obsessed with her flowerbeds; tends to them despite the disapproval of the “foot washing Baptists” (Lee 44), who accuse her of spending too much time in such vain earthly pursuits

• Religious; she finds a relationship between maintaining beautiful things in the world and connecting with God

• Grew up with Uncle Jack Finch; teases him

Miss Maudie continued….

• Forms a special friendship with Scout (Why?)

• “You’re the best lady that I know” (Lee 45).

• Believes in the importance of pleasure and the enjoyment of life

• Kind, gentle person (Proof)

• Allowed Scout and Jem to play in her yard; baked them cakes; never told on them

What does Miss Maudie tell Scout about Boo Radley?

• Knows that Arthur is still alive “because [she has not] seen him carried out yet” (Lee 43).

• Says that legends about Arthur are “three fourths colored folk and one fourth Stephanie Crawford” (Lee 45).

• She knew Arthur as a boy; “He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did” (Lee 46).

• Tries to make Scout see that Boo is a real human being who deserves her sympathy

• Suggests Arthur’s family hold strict religious beliefs, which have affected the way they treat him

• What does Miss Maudie mean in the following statement that she makes to Scout?

“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of someone else” (Lee 45).

Objects in The Tree

Scout and Jem find more objects in the tree:

– Figurines carved in soap (a boy and a girl)

– A pack of chewing gum

– A spelling contest medal

– A pocket watch and an aluminum knife

Jem writes a thank-you note…

Dear Sir,

We appreciate everything which you have put into the tree for us.

Yours very truly,

Jem Finch

Jean Louise Finch (Scout)

• When Jem and Scout go to deliver the letter they are horrified to discover that the tree has been plugged up. Mr. Radley claimed the tree was dying.

• The children ask Atticus about the tree and he tells them it is healthy. However, when they tell him what Mr. Radley has done Atticus says that he probably had good reason.

Chapter 7 Analysis

• The reader can infer that it is Boo Radley leaving the objects in the tree

• The objects represent someone who is generous and thoughtful, yet with few social skills

• Mr. Radley discourages this interaction

• Jem is upset by this; yet this indicates that he is mourning the passing of childish things as he moves closer to adulthood.

Chapter 8 Summary

• A harsh winter comes to Maycomb.

• Mr. Avery blames the children for the inclement weather.

• Mrs. Radley dies and Atticus visits the Radley household.

• Snow arrives and Jem and Scout build a snowman that looks like Mr. Avery.

• Atticus says that perhaps the children should make the snowman a little less realistic.

• On a bitterly cold night, Miss Maudie’s house catches fire.

• Atticus has the children stand safely by the Radley house.

• Atticus saves Miss Maudie’s most prized possession.

• Miss Maudie’s house collapses.

• Scout has a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and the children realize that Boo must have done it.

Chapter 8 AnalysisThroughout the novel, the location of people and events inside or outside of houses speaks toward themes of the book.

For example, those who willfully stay inside are corrupted by the prejudices of society (Mrs. Dubose), yet those who are forced to stay inside are victims of society (Boo Radley and Tom). Those who are outside, are free and think freely.

Atticus is the exception

• The presence of his office provides him a different type of “house”.

• He is tied into the fabric of society yet is also outside of it.

• His daily walks show that he is a part of those in the outside world, the free thinkers.

• This is symbolic of the fact that his morals are the same whether at work or at home.

Chapter 9 Summary• Cecil Jacobs, a boy at school, teases

Scout about Atticus defending Tom Robinson

• Later, Scout asks Atticus why he is taking the case, Atticus responds that if he didn’t he would not be able to “hold up my head in town” or even tell his children what to do

• He explains the importance of this case and how it will affect him personally

• Atticus advises Scout not to fight• Scout listens to this advice and is

able to keep this up until Christmas

• The Finches go to Finch’s landing for Christmas

• They are spending the holiday with Uncle Jack and Aunt Alexandra

• Aunt Alexandra tells Scout she should be more ladylike; this upsets Scout

• Francis calls Atticus names

• Scout punches Francis

• The Finches return home

Chapter 9 Analysis• Atticus knows the Robinson trial will

be difficult for the children

• He knows the case is hopeless because the jury simply won’t believe a black man’s word against a white man’s

• Atticus will defend Tom anyway because he must follow his conscience and set an example

• He believes that if he is false in his work than he cannot be true to his family

Characters: Scout

• Scout is seeking to maintain her own identity

• She is a tomboy

• Adventurous

• Curious

• Tough

• Intelligent

Aunt Alexandra:

dominating

strong

traditional

She has strong opinions about how Scout should behave. Thus, she imposes her ideas of what a “Southern lady” should be.

Chapter 10 Summary• Scout and Jem do not think their

father can “do anything”

• He does not do physical work

• He wears glasses

• Instead of hunting, he sits and reads inside

• The children received air guns for Christmas and Atticus tells them the following:

Titular line:(where the title

comes from) Atticus said to Jem, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something.

"You're father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (Lee 98).

“One-Shot Finch”

• A rabid dog named Tim Johnson is loose in the neighborhood

• Atticus reluctantly picks up a gun to shoot the dog

• Jem is dumbstruck because Atticus is such a good shot

Atticus Finch

• Does not like using a gun because it gives him an unfair advantage

• He puts aside this moral for a higher goal: the protection of human life

• Atticus does not want his own children to inflict cruelty upon the innocent mockingbirds

• His warning emphasizes that those with power must be careful not to use it cruelly

Mrs. Duboseo neighbor to the Finches

o elderly

o spends most of her day in a wheelchair

o rumored that she keeps a pistol

o Physical Description:– Old– Face the color of a dirty pillowcase– Has liver spots– Pale eyes– Knobby hands– Lip protrudes

Mrs. Dubose Actions:– Criticizes Jem and Scout– Yells racial slurs about Atticus– Attempts to kick her morphine habit

Mrs. Dubose’s words:

• Yells at the children: “…hey you ugly girl!” (Lee 99).

• Calls Atticus trash for defending a black man

• Calls Atticus a “nigger-lover” (Lee 108).

Scout, Jem and Mrs.. Dubose

Opinions of other characters:

• “Jem and I hated her” (Lee 99).

– vicious– Mean– Old– nasty

Atticus’s View of Mrs. Dubose

• “She’s an old lady and she’s ill” (Lee 100).

• He knows she is a morphine addict and she was determined to kick the habit before her death.

• “She died beholden to nothing and nobody” (Lee 112).

• “…she was a great lady” (Lee 112).

• “She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee 112).