LuDoMa

Dill ran away from home! But wait… something’s wrong. There’s an inconsistency in his story. At first, when he was explaining his situation to Atticus, he said:

“having been bound in chains and left to die in the basement (there were basements in Meridian) by his new father, who disliked him, and secretly kept alive on raw field peas by a passing farmer who heard his cries for help (the good man poked a bushel pod by pod through the ventilator), Dill worked himself free by pulling the chains from the wall.” (Lee 140)

However, this initial story doesn’t match up with his later explanation. He attempts to make Scout understand his situation at home on page 143 by saying:

“‘The thing is, what I’m tryin’ to say is–they do  get on a lot better without me, I can’t help them any. They ain’t mean. They buy me everything I want, but it’s now-you’ve-got-it-go-play-with-it. You’ve got a roomful of things. I-got-you-that-book-so-go-read-it.’ Dill tried to deepen his voice. ‘you’re not a boy. Boys get out and play baseball with other boys, they don’t hang around the house worryin’ their folks’” (Lee 143)

He twisted his story. He just said his parents buy everything he wants, but don’t spend time with him. However, in the last explanation, he said his parents chained him to the basement and survived only on raw field peas. I dunno which is the truth. His stories seem mighty fishy to me.

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Surprisinghow easily people are angered. When I first heard Tom Robinson was going to jail, I dismissed it with little regard. However, I didn’t take into account the poor condition of a small, town jail. This jail is easily accessible to mobs and angry people, and I didn’t understand until later why Atticus stayed the night with Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was in mortal danger while in the town jail. In normal prisons, people are confined, shut off from society. Nobody comes in or out without the officials knowing. However, in this “town prison”, or ratherbetter described as a dingy shack, outside people can enter and do what they want without the officials knowing. Nobody was on guard duty, so the mob that gathered at the prison would have killed Tom if were it not for Atticus’s presence.

This just reminds me all too much of the need to refine the American Criminal Justice System. The ideal held true (or false in this case) for the American Criminal Justice System is “Innocent until proven guilty”. (Sound familiar?) But in Tom Robinson’s experiencein jail that night, it proved the real ideal for the American Criminal Justice System is actually “Guilty until proven innocent”. (Sigh) So many innocent lives have been improperly imprisoned through this ideal. Someone like Atticus must change America’s serious incarceration problem.

Chapter 13-16

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Something smells fishy and I’m pretty sure it’s Reverend Sykes. What’s he doing in that church? On page 120 a brief description was given of him. In addition to the normal black suit and short stature, he also has a shiny gold chained watch. Hmmm… That’s funny, in the beginning, Scout narrated that Maycomb was supposedly “poor”. If poor means gold watches and fancy suits, sign me up! But there’s something wrong with that Reverend Sykes person. I have a bad feeling about him. He’s not supposed to be rich. It’s the great depression, nobody is rich in the great depression, or rather, it is very rare to see a rich person in the great depression. It’s just a guess, but I think that he’s a liar and a thief. I don’t think he’s giving Mrs. Robinson the full amount he gathered at church. For all anyone knows, he could be keeping the money for himself. It’s the only explanation. There could be no other way for anyone to be rich in the great depression, even more so if he’s black. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just that blacks are at an economic disadvantage compared to whites. This is espicially ture in the south due to the black codes and the Jim Crow laws. If he did so, he cheated the whole black neighborhood. But again, it’s only a theory.

Chpters 10-12

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“If Uncle Atticus lets you run around with stray dogs, that’s his own business, like Grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family–” (Lee 83)

This is just one of the many tortures Scout must endure as her father takes on the Tom Robinson case. This quote is from Francis when he and Scout were fighting at Simon Finch’s landing. This is an insult not only to Scout, but mostly to Atticus. Being as protective as she is of her father’s dignity, she is one to defend her pride. Scout’s fury shakes the earth in the scenes that followed. But in a similar incident, she kept a cool head:

“Somehow, if I fought Cecil would let Atticus down. Atticus so rarely asked Jem and me to do something for him, I could take being called a coward for him.” (Lee 77)

It seems as though Scout can keep her temper in check when she’s insulted, but when someone insults her father, she will fight anyone who says so with tooth and nail.

Chapters 5-9

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Whoa! The mad “liver-colored bird dog” (Lee 93), Tim Johnson finally lost it like Crazy Addie. But in times of crisis, one’s true abilities show. However, I never expected Atticus’ ability to do things at this extent! Simply put:

“With movements so swift, They seemed simulaneous, Atticus’s hand yanked a ball-tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle cracked. Tim Johnson leaped, flopped over and crumpled on the sidewalk in a brown-and-white heap. He didn’t know what hit him.” (Lee 96)

One shot Finch did it again. Yet as to why he put up his gun, we might never know. But when he first gave Jem and Scout their air rifles he hinted to his past when he said:

“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.” (Lee 90)

He must have meant something when he said those words. Atticus said those words with some kind of experience, a tone of which he could only acquire through years of expertise. As to why it was a sin, it was explained by Miss Maudie:

“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 90)

Chapters 10-12

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Boo Radley… Good? All the myths and legends were lies? I dunno… The evidence ispretty alarming. Of all the rumors of Boo Radley, nearly all of them seem ridiculous. If not before, even more so after the recent events after the incidents of pants and the fire. The accused allegedly gave Scout a blanket to cringe, helped out with the fire, saved Jem’s pants, and patched them up for him. There’s also the question of the person hiding the items in the previously existing tree-knot, who is assumed to be Boo Radley, as owner of the tree. That doesn’t seem like a 6.5 feet bloodthirsty beast who peeps in windows at night. As said in the book:

“That is three-fourths colored folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford” (Lee 45)

The myths and legends seem to be pretty thin here now. What kind of person Boo Radley truly is is a question to be answered. This dynamic character is just as unpredictible as little brothers. Though nobody saw him, he emerged from his house for a quick second to help out with the fire. Through his recent actions, he doesn’t seem to be a malevolent creature, but rather one who is kind hearted.

Chapters 5-9

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“as I read the alphabet a faint line appeared between her eyebrows, and after making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud, she discovered that I was literate and looked ate me with more than faint distaste. Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading.” (Lee 17)

Miss Caroline is one strict teacher. Moreover, this quote teaches much about her personality. This quote shows her dissent toward anyone out of line. Scout was the unusual one. She was the only one who stood out in class. Scout’s unprecedented intellect likely threw off Miss Caroline’s lesson plans. Miss Caroline is strict with a possible dislike toward people who stand out. Scout is in a load of trouble.

But it’s quite unfair how Miss Caroline is treating her. Scout has to take the heat for her father, unsuppored by nobody. Scout must face Miss Caroline’s unrelenting fury due to, not to her father’s teachings, but her own curiosity and partially Atticus’ newspapers, as explained in another quote:

“I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow I had been wallowing illicitly in the daily papers.” (Lee 17)

Chapers 1-4

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This is a picture of Gregory Peck who played Atticus in the film “To Kill A Mockingbird.”Chapter 10 tells us that Atticus is 50 years old and that when he was asked why he was so old while Jem and Scout were so young, he said that he got started late. When Scout hears about other kids parents’ age, she can see how young they are in comparison to her own father. She then says that since Atticus is so old, he can’t really do anything. He doesn’t really play with them or go out hunting or anything. He more of stays home and reads. Miss Maudie tells Scout that he is the best checker-player and that he can play the Jew’s Harp. This doesn’t impress her, but when she sees first hand that her own father was the best shooter in town and is still pretty good even after 30 years, she sees him in a different light. So what if her daddy is old and can play the Jew’s Harp; he’s One-Shot Finch!

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When Scout and Jem went with Calpurnia to her church, some people didn’t approve. Lula, the main opposer, didn’t approve of Calpurnia bringing white people to the church that black people went to. Others, however seemed to enjoy Scout and Jem coming, since it was their father who was defending Tom Robinson. When Lula confronted Calpurnia, she talked “nigger-talk”, as Scout called it. Calpurnia replied in the same manner, which Scout found odd. She never really talked that way when she was at the house with Scout and Jem. When Scout questioned Calpurnia about it, she gave multiple reasons, but one of them I found very interesting. She said that it’s not necessary to say everything you know. When you talked properly with other people, it aggravates them because you appear to be talking to them as if they were stupid and you’re superior. You can’t win somebody over that way, so the only thing you can do is appear to be like him or her, neither superior or inferior. I personally had never thought that if I talked or acted properly, it might offend someone else. They might think that I’m trying to make them feel stupid or less of a person.

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