Study Guide

To Kill a Mockingbird
by
Harper Lee

Part One

I.         Chapter One

A.      Summary

1.        Scout, the narrator, remembers the summer that her brother Jem broke his arm, and she looks back over the years to recall the incidents that led to that climactic event.

2.        Scout provides a brief introduction to the town of Maycomb, Alabama and its inhabitants, including her widowed father Atticus Finch, attorney and state legislator; Calpurnia, their "Negro" cook and housekeeper; and various neighbors.

3.        The story starts with the first summer that Scout and Jem meet Dill, a little boy from Meridian, Mississippi who spends the summers with his aunt, the Finch's next-door neighbor Miss Rachel Haverford.

a.        From the children's point of view, their most compelling neighbor is Boo Radley, a recluse whom none of them has ever seen.

i.         Dill's fascination, in particular, leads to all sorts of games and plans to try to get Boo to come outside.

ii.        Their attempts culminate in a dare to Jem, which he grudgingly takes.

iii.      Jem runs into the Radley's yard and touches the outside of the house.

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B.       Commentary

a.        This chapter sets the tone and basis for everything else that happens in the novel. Scout depicts her world as a place of absolutes.

i.         This strong foundation provides an important starting point for the story.

ii.        Subsequent situations and circumstances chip away at all that the children know to be true as maturity confronts them.

iii.      This maturity is foreshadowed by Jem's broken arm and the fact that the story is told in retrospect.

C.       Literary Device

1.        Novels that deal with the formation of a maturing character are called Bildungsromans or coming-of-age stories.

2.        Scout as narrator is key to the novel's success.

a.        The reader has the advantage of a storyteller who can look back at a situation and see herself exactly as she was.

b.       Scout tells the story from an adult point-of-view but with a child's eye and voice, which gives the story a good deal of humor and wit.

c.        Scout's distance from the story also gives her some objectivity, although she admits that even in her objectivity, some events are questionable: "I maintain that the Ewell's started it all, but Jem . . . said it started long before that."

3.        The sense of place established in this chapter is integral to the rest of the story.

a.        Through Scout, Lee gives the reader a feel for the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, which is loosely based on Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.

b.       In this town, the rules of society are clearly set.

i.         One's social survival depends on how well he or she follows the rules.

ii.        Scout, Jem, and Dill come to question these conventions as the story progresses.

c.        Where a person comes from—his ancestry—is important, and like many small towns, Maycomb's citizens are suspicious of outsiders.

i.         Dill is a crucial character in the story because he is both an insider and an outsider.

ii.        He hails from a different state, but because he is a child and because "His family was from Maycomb originally," he is accepted readily.

iii.      Throughout the story, Dill acts as an observant conscience for the town.

a)       The first example of Dill as conscience comes when he and Jem disagree about the method for making a turtle come out of its shell.

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D.      Theme

1.        A hefty portion of the story focuses on prejudice and the relationships between African Americans and whites in the southern United States in general, and Maycomb, specifically.

a.        This chapter makes clear that Maycomb has very different rules for blacks and whites in the town, as evidenced by the children's surprise when Calpurnia speaks ill of Boo Radley's father because "Calpurnia rarely commented on the ways of white people."

2.        Superstition is brought to light in the children's perception of Boo Radley.

a.        Much like a mystery novel, the first chapter gives readers the idea that things may not be what they seem on the surface, as when Scout s father, Atticus, says "there were other ways of making people into ghosts."

3.        Scout gives readers their first insights into Atticus Finch in this chapter, as well.

a.        A patient and loving, if somewhat unusual, father, Atticus acts as the voice of reason for his children, and later the entire town.

b.       The fact that he has a "profound distaste for criminal law" foreshadows the emotions he has surrounding Tom Robinsons trial later in the story.

4.        Another major theme in the novel that is introduced in this chapter is that of defining bravery.

a.        For the children at this point in the story, bravery means nothing more than accepting a dare to touch the Radley house.

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II.       Chapters 2 and 3

A.      Summary

1.        Dill goes back to Mississippi for the school year, and Scout turns her attention to starting first grade—something she's been waiting for all her life.

2.        However, Scout's first day at school is not at all the glorious experience she'd been expecting from the winters she spent "looking over at the schoolyard, spying on multitudes of children through a two-power telescope . . . learning their games,. . . secretly sharing their misfortunes and minor victories."

a.        Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is new to teaching, new to Maycomb, and mortified that Scout already knows how to read and write.

b.       When Miss Caroline offers to lend Walter Cunningham lunch money, Scout is punished for taking it upon herself to explain Miss Caroline's faux pas to her. (Walter refuses to take the money because his family is too poor to pay it back.)

c.        Scout catches Walter on the playground, and starts to pummel him in retaliation for her embarrassment, but Jem stops her and then further surprises her by inviting Walter to have lunch with them.

d.       Scout is then punished by Calpurnia for criticizing Walters table manners.

e.        Back at school, Miss Caroline has a confrontation with Burris Ewell about his "cooties" and the fact that he only attends school on the first day of the year.

3.        That evening, Scout tells Atticus about her day, hoping that she won't have to go back to school—after all, Burris Ewell doesn't.

a.        Atticus explains why the Ewells get special consideration and then tells Scout, '"You never really understand a person... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'"

b.       These words stick with Scout, and she will try with varying degrees of success to follow Atticus' advice throughout the course of the story.

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B.       Commentary

1.        In these two chapters, Lee uses Scout to help the reader gain a better understanding of the Maycomb community and how it functions.

a.        Meeting Scout's classmates paves the way for meeting their adult family members later in the book.

b.       The children introduced in these chapters are a microcosm of their families.

i.         For instance, Walter Cunningham, like his father, is polite, self-effacing, and unwilling to accept charity.

c.        The Ewells are an unsavory family. 

i.         Burris Ewell displays the same sort of character traits that make his father, Bob Ewell, so dislikable.

2.        Scout considers her first day of school to be a dismal failure, and compared to what she was hoping for, it is.

a.        However, she learns a great deal about people in and out of the classroom.

i.         In one day's time, Scout learns several important lessons, but most importantly, she gets her first inkling that things are not always what they seem.

3.        Scout is different from other children.

a.        Miss Caroline's harsh reaction to the fact that Scout already knows how to read and write takes the little girl by surprise.

i.         Doesn't everyone already know how to read and write? Scout laments, "I never deliberately learned to read, but somehow had been wallowing illicitly in the daily papers"—one of many humorous observations that Lee sprinkles through these two chapters and throughout the book.

ii.        Even more astounding to Scout is the fact that Miss Caroline expects her to stop reading and writing at home now that she's in school.

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C.       Style and Language

1.        Scout is all the more confused because her father is not like the authority figures she meets at school.

a.        Atticus is not a typical parent.

b.       Lee does an expert job of getting this message across to readers simply by having the children call Atticus by his first name.

c.        He treats his children as individuals and speaks to them in an adult-like manner.

d.       Scout accepts this behavior as normal noting, "Jem and I were accustomed to our father's last-will-and-testament diction, and we were at all times free to interrupt Atticus for a translation when it was beyond our understanding."

e.        Perhaps if Miss Caroline had reasoned with Scout, the day would not have been so devastating for either of them.

2.        Other people don't understand "Maycomb's ways."

a.        Harper Lee again emphasizes that outsiders are viewed with suspicion.

b.       When Miss Caroline announces her county of origin, "The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region."

c.        When Scout tries to explain Walter Cunningham's predicament to Miss Caroline by simply saying, '"he's a Cunningham,"' she remarks to readers "I thought I had made things sufficiently clear. It was clear enough to the rest of us."

d.       The children don't expect Miss Caroline to understand the intricacies of their town, but they're forced to expand their worldview when they realize that "a Cunningham is a Cunningham" is not explanation enough for a Maycomb newcomer.

3.        Ironically, Scout soon learns that she does not understand as much about "Maycomb's ways" as she thinks.

a.        When Scout uses Burris Ewell's lack of regular school attendance as a good reason that she shouldn't have to go to school either, Atticus explains that "In certain circumstances, the common folk judiciously allowed them certain privileges by the simple method of becoming blind to some of the Ewells' activities." Dumbfounded, Scout can only accept Atticus' explanation.

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D.      Literary Device

1.        Lee uses that explanation as foreshadowing of Mayella Ewell's reliance on special consideration for the accusations she brings against Tom Robinson.

a.        Note: Lee masterfully keeps Boo Radley in the back of readers' minds by commenting that Scout "passed the Radley Place for the fourth time that day—twice at full gallop," while developing other major themes.

2.        Must be accepting of others' shortcomings.

a.        From Scout's perspective, all people, regardless of their station in life, are held to the same standards.

b.       Consequently, she feels perfectly justified in commenting on Walter Cunningham's table manners. Calpurnia takes her to task saying, '"Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this houses yo' comp'ny, and don't you let me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so high and mighty!'" Adding insult to injury, Atticus agrees with Calpurnia.

3.        Interestingly, in spite of Scout's protests that Walter Cunningham "made me start off on the wrong foot," her friendship with him will later save Atticus in a potentially life-threatening situation.

4.        The art of compromise.

a.        Despite Atticus' probing questions about Scout's first day of school, she says little.

b.       Scout is despondent at the thought of not being able to read at home anymore, but reluctant to tell Atticus after the trouble she's been in all day.

c.        Atticus is quite understanding and suggests a compromise: "'If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night just as we always have.'"

d.       Surprisingly, Atticus asks that she keep their deal a secret from Miss Caroline, introducing Scout to the idea of a white lie.

i.         Throughout the story, Atticus functions as a peacemaker.

ii.        Lee gives the reader a first glimpse into Atticus' reasoning abilities and personal beliefs in his choice to compromise with Scout rather than confront or ignore Miss Caroline.

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III.     Chapters 4 and 5

A.      Summary

1.        The school year passes slowly for Scout.

2.        Her grade is released a half hour earlier than Jem's, so Scout has to pass Boo Radley's house by herself every afternoon.

3.        One day, Scout notices something shiny in a tree at the edge of the Radley yard. When she goes back to investigate, she finds a stick of gum.

a.        Jem admonishes her for taking the gum, but Scout continues to check the knothole daily.

b.       On the last day of school, she and Jem find some coins in the tree, which they decide to keep until the next school year starts.

4.        Dill arrives two days later to spend the summer.

a.        After an argument with Scout, Jem suggests they play a new game called "Boo Radley," which Scout recognizes as Jem's attempt to prove his bravery.

b.       Against Scout's better judgment, they enact Boo's life with great gusto until Atticus learns of the game.

i.         The children play the game less frequently after that, and Jem and Dill begin excluding Scout, spending more and more time together in the tree house.

ii.        Lonely, Scout begins spending more of her time with Miss Maudie.

c.        When Scout insists that the boys include her in their plans, they tell her that they're going to deliver a note to Boo Radley asking him to come outside.

d.       She and Dill are posted as guards, while Jem tries to deliver the note, but Atticus intervenes, telling the children to leave the Radlevs alone.

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B.       Commentary

1.        As Scout finishes her first year of school, Harper Lee expands on several of the novel's central themes.

C.       Themes

1.        Education.

a.        Scout's real education occurs outside of school, as it does throughout the story.

b.       Scout herself recognizes this fact at some level when she says, "As for me, I knew nothing except what I gathered from Time magazine and reading everything I could lay hands on at home, but as I inched sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something."

c.        Scout not only learns more outside of school, but the things she learns are also more important.

2.        Prejudice.

a.        When Jem suggests that the knothole in the Radley's oak is an adult's hiding place, Scout corrects him, saying, '"Grown folks don't have hidin' places.'"

b.       Jem and Scout discover later in the book that many adults hide behind their prejudices, religious beliefs, and their personal notions of right and wrong.

c.        Miss Maudie is one of the most open-minded residents of Maycomb, and true to her more liberal leanings, she even likes the weeds in her garden.

i.         Her feelings about plants are symbolic of the way some townspeople feel about others.

ii.        Scout reports that her neighbor "loved everything that grew in God's earth, even the weeds.

iii.      With one exception: If she found a blade of nut grass in her yard it was like the Second Battle of the Marne because "'one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard.'"

iv.      Metaphorically, the Ewells are a blade of nutgrass in the Maycomb community.

a)       Some of the town's residents would also say that the African Americans who live in Maycomb are blades of nutgrass that should be eradicated from "their" yard.

b)       These perceptions become important as the story progresses.

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3.        Bravery.

a.        When Jem creates the Boo Radley game, Scout says, "Jem's head at times was transparent: he had thought that up to make me understand he wasn't afraid of Radleys in any shape or form, to contrast his own fearless heroism with my cowardice."

i.         As noted before, the concept of bravery is very important to Jem, and he cultivates it as much as he can.

ii.        He has moved from weakly accepting a dare to touch the Radley house to retrieving a tire from the Radley yard to creating a game in which the children take on the personas of various Radley family members.

b.       Jem's bravery increases when he and Dill decide to deliver the note to Boo.

i.         Scout, though, comically points out that Jem is not quite as brave as he fancies himself to be when she exclaims, '"Anybody who's brave enough to go up and touch the house hadn't oughta use a fishin' pole,. . . Why don't you just knock the front door down?"' a sentiment Atticus later echoes a little less humorously.

c.        Dill's part in getting a note to Boo presents a different side of the bravery issue.

i.         Sometimes, having someone else do the dirty work is less frightening—a belief that gives mob mentality its start.

ii.        Dill admits almost gleefully that the whole plan is his idea, yet Jem is the person taking the greater risk. This mentality will play out in the adult world during Tom Robinson's trial.

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4.        Trust.

a.        At this point in the story, Scout's world is a safe place—her greatest fears are largely products of her own imagination.

i.         Even though she is terrified to pass by the Radley house, she takes the gum she finds in their tree. Comically, Scout reports, "The gum looked fresh. ... I licked it and waited for a while.

ii.        When I did not then I crammed it into my mouth."

iii.      As Scout moves from innocence or naiveté to maturity— part of a coming-of-age story—she will learn that she can't always trust those things that appear safe.

b.       The children are beginning to understand this concept on an almost subconscious level.

i.         In comparing Miss Maudie to a seemingly more virtuous neighbor, Scout says, "she did not go about the neighborhood doing good, as did Miss Stephanie Crawford.

ii.        But while no one with a grain of sense trusted Miss Stephanie, Jem and I had considerable faith in Miss Maudie."

iii.      The clear differences between the things that Miss Stephanie does and the things she says are another indication to the children that things are not always what they seem.

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5.        Truth.

a.        Hand-in-hand with the issue of trust is that of truth.

i.         In the course of the novel, almost every character lies at some point.

ii.        Although most of the lies are meant to keep people out of trouble, some of these untruths will have dire consequences for the town as a whole.

b.       Scout is clear that "Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard."

i.         Overall, Dill's lies are harmless, but during his summers in Maycomb, Scout gets her first lessons in discerning truth and recognizing fiction.

ii.        When Scout questions Miss Maudie about the Boo Radley myths, Miss Maudie states "'That is three-fourths colored folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford,'" introducing Scout to the fact that "big ones" aren't limited to children.

c.        Scout also begins to understand that sometimes people stretch the truth to get what they want.

i.         Jem tells Dill and Scout that if Atticus specifically says they can't play the Boo Radley game, he "had thought of a way around it."

ii.        The fact that Scout is uneasy about "thinking of a way around it" foreshadows the severity of the lies told later in the story.

a)       Ironically, Atticus, who throughout the story upholds truth, is the person who dupes Jem into admitting the real purpose of the Boo Radley game.

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6.        Femininity.

a.        Introduced in these chapters, the issue of femininity and women's roles in Maycomb society is a significant theme in To Kill a Mockingbird.

i.         Jem criticizes Scout for acting like a girl, frequently making statements like "'I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it's rnortifyin'."'

b.       Scout experiences a plight familiar to many women of that era when Dill proposes marriage: "He staked me out, marked me as property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me." This sense of people as property will play out in serious ways as thestory progresses.

c.        In these chapters, Lee makes mention of four very different kinds of women: Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, Miss Stephanie, and Mrs. Dubose. (Note that the only adult the children don't refer to as Miss or Mrs. Is Calpurnia, who is black.)

d.       Scout will face many forms of femininity as she tries to understand what it means to "be a girl." Importantly, Scout most closely identifies with Miss Maudie, "a chameleon lady who worked in ... an old straw hat and men's coveralls, but after her five o'clock bath she would appear on the porch ... in magisterial beauty." As the story progresses, Scout will drift toward adopting Miss Maudie's brand of feminine behavior.

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7.        Style and Language

a.        The blacks and whites separate themselves from each other by their speech—and at some level by their superstitions.

i.         When Jem tells Dill about Hot Steams, Scout says, '"Don't you believe a word he says, Dill, ... Calpurnia says that's nigger-talk.'"

ii.        Calpurnia, an African-American herself, doesn't want the white Finch children to talk like most of the black community does or to buy into their superstitions.

a)       Granted, Calpurnia is more educated than the majority of her peers, but it still seems unusual that she doesn't want the children emulating that speech or those beliefs.

b.       Calpurnia's attitude about the way the Finch children should speak shows that she, too, separates whites from blacks.

i.         Calpurnia is teaching the children to be white, just as she taught her own son, Zeebo, to interact appropriately with the African-American community.

ii.        Keep in mind that Calpurnia's actions do not necessarily mean that she agrees with this separation; she is simply acting in a way that is consistent with life in the southern United States during this time period.

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 IV.    Chapter 6 and 7

A.      Summary

1.        On Dill's last night in Maycomb, he and Jem decide to "peep in the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a look at Boo Radley."

2.        Scout discourages them from going to the Radley house, but reluctantly decides to join them.

3.        Someone inside the Radley house comes out and fires a shotgun.

4.        The children scurry out of the yard, but Jem gets caught on the fence and is forced to remove his pants to get to safety.

5.        As the neighborhood gathers to discuss the gunfire, Dill concocts  an unlikely explanation for Jem's lack of pants. Atticus tells Jem to get his pants from Dill and come home. At home, Jem confides in Scout that he's going back to the Radley's to get his pants. Scout literally fears for his life, but Jem would rather risk life and limb than admit to Atticus that he lied.

6.        School starts again. This year, Jem and Scout walk home together, and they again begin finding things in the Radley's tree. After receiving several increasingly valuable treasures, Jem and Scout decide to write a thank-you note to whoever is leaving the gifts. When they try to deliver the note, however, they find to their dismay that the knothole has been filled with cement.

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B.       Commentary

1.        These two chapters mark several endings and beginnings for Jem and Scout in terms of understanding.

a.        Chapter 6 concludes their second summer with Dill, while Chapter 7 begins Scout's second year of school.

b.       The reader should remember that the first sentence in Chapter 1 states that Scout is retelling the events that lead up to Jem's broken arm.

c.        These two chapters lay much of the remaining foundation for what is to come by further exploring the children's relationship—or lack thereof—with Boo Radley and his family.

2.        Prejudice begins to play a bigger role in the novel in these two chapters. Truthfully, it is a kind of prejudice that spurs Jem and Dill to try to "get a look" at Boo Radley.

a.        All along they claim that their interest is in the name of friendship, but readers know by now that both boys have a morbid curiosity to gawk at what they assume must be a freak of nature.

b.       The boys show prejudice toward Scout by saying things like, "'You don't have to come along, Angel May.'" They attribute her resistance to their plan as girlish behavior, when Scout is actually more rational about the situation.

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C.       Character Insight

1.        Finally, prejudice appears when the neighbors comment that '"Mr. Radley shot at a Negro in his collard patch.'"

a.        Neither Mr. Radley nor the neighbors have any evidence that the trespasser was black; they make that assumption based on their perceptions of African Americans.

b.       The low station blacks hold in Maycomb is further revealed when Mr. Radley vows to aim low at the next trespasser, "'be it dog, [or] nigger.'"

c.        With this statement, blacks are relegated to the worth of an animal.

i.         Ironically, Atticus will later deal directly with a mad dog and a black man. How he handles each situation gives true insight into his moral code.

2.        The truth becomes a blur in these chapters.

a.        Dill makes up a fantastic story as to why Jem lost his pants.

i.         The neighbors accept the story readily, although Atticus asks some questions that lead readers to believe he may suspect otherwise.

b.       Later, Mr. Radley tells Jem that he cemented the knot-hole because the '"Tree's dying.'"

i.         Mr. Radley and Jem both know that the tree is fine and that the hole is plugged to stop Jem and Scout from retrieving any more treasures.

ii.        However, Jem is forced to accept that explanation when Atticus says, "'I'm sure Mr. Radley knows more about his trees than we do.'"

3.        Jem's bravery reaches new heights in these chapters.

a.        He puts himself in peril three times: trying to peek in the Radley's window, helping Scout and Dill get to safety, and returning to the Radley yard to retrieve his pants.

b.        In the last instance, pride drives his bravery more than fear of punishment.

c.        Scout recommends that Jem deal with the punishment for lying rather than risk his life, but Jem insists, "Atticus ain't ever whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way.'"

d.       Although Scout doesn't understand Jem's flunking, she does realize that Jem would rather lose his life than disappoint his father.

e.        A major shift occurs in Jem that night, and in an attempt to understand this change, Scout, significantly, tries "to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it."

f.         A second, and equally important, shift occurs in Jem when he begins to realize exactly why Mr. Radley cemented the knot-hole in what he and Scout now referred to as their tree.

g.       With this harsh realization, Jem moves one step closer to adulthood.

4.        Again, these two chapters show Scout and Jem that appearances aren't always what they seem.

a.        They rightly conclude that someone is deliberately leaving gifts for them in the knothole, but they can't understand why this donor won't make himself known.

b.       After hearing Mr. Radley's stance on trespassers, Jem tells Scout in amazement that his pants '"were folded across the fence . . . like they were expectin' me.'" No one would dare go into the Radley yard after the gunfire, but who in the Radley house would fold Jem's pants without confronting either him or Atticus?

c.        They discover that some adults would rather lie than be frank with them.

i.         Jem's reaction to cementing the knothole would've been entirely different had Mr. Radley admitted that he didn't want anyone leaving or taking things from his property. The Radleys remain a mystery to them.

5.        Scout is faced again with the issue of femininity.

a.        When the boys reluctantly allow her to join them on their peeping-Tom mission, Scout continues to voice reservations.

b.       Jem puts a halt to her reasoning by saying, '"I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day!'"

i.         Acting like a girl is no compliment, and Scout feels thrust into the role of co-conspirator.

6.        Gender roles are still clearly defined in these chapters.

a.        When Jem tells Scout that his pants were sewn up when he retrieved them, he's careful to relate, "'Not like a lady sewed 'em, like somethin' I'd try to do.'"

i.         Not untypical of 1930s America, women are expected to sew well, men aren't. These clearly defined roles are often what Scout rebels against.

ii.        Jem believes that whomever is leaving gifts in the tree is a man.  Scout initially disagrees, but he convinces her that the mystery person is male. From Scout's perspective, the gift bearer is more likely to be a woman, but that idea is soon stifled.

b.       This world is still one in which men don't cry.

i.         When Jem discovers the cemented knothole, his immediate response is, '"Don't you cry, now, Scout.'"

ii.        Scout is surprised to find the cement in the tree, but she never shows any indication of tears.

iii.      Jem, however, spends many tears on this loss, leading readers to believe that he was convincing himself, not Scout, not to cry.

iv.       Jem cries because a silent friendship that was cemented figuratively through little gifts in a knothole has been ended—ended before he has a chance to say thank you—by someone else's decision to literally cement the tree.

v.       Curiously, Jem, though demonstrating a new-found maturity, shows what are thought to be more feminine emotions, while Scout grapples to understand why he's so upset.

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 V.      Chapters 8 and 9

A.      Summary

1.        For the first time in decades, Maycomb gets snow.

a.        School is closed, so Jem and Scout spend their day trying to build a snowman.

b.       That night, Miss Maudie's house burns to the ground.

i.         Jem and Scout are sent to wait in front of the Radley's while the fire is still raging.

ii.        Boo Radley walks up and puts a blanket around a shivering Scout's shoulders, but both she and Jem are too engrossed in the fire to notice.

iii.      The next day, Scout is surprised to find Miss Maudie in good spirits, working in her yard and talking about expanding her garden.

2.        Near Christmastime, a classmate taunts Scout with the news that Atticus is defending a black man.

a.        Atticus asks Scout to promise to "'hold your head high, and keep those fists down. . . . Try fighting with your head for a change,'"—a promise Scout tries to uphold, with limited success.

b.       Uncle Jack Finch comes for Christmas as he does every year; Scout and her family spend Christmas at Finch's Landing with Aunt Alexandra and her family.

i.         Alexandra's grandson, Francis, begins teasing Scout about Atticus defending a black man.

ii.        She attacks Francis and is punished by Uncle Jack, who had warned her not to fight or curse.

iii.      Christmas evening, she and Uncle Jack talk, and she explains to him where he went wrong in his discipline.

iv.      The chapter ends as Scout overhears Atticus and Uncle Jack talking about Tom Robinson's trial, which will start soon.

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B.       Commentary

1.        Lee introduces a great deal of symbolism in Chapters 8 and 9.

a.        When Scout sees the snow, a very unusual phenomenon in Alabama, she screams, "The world's endin', Atticus! Please do something—!'"

b.       Atticus is reassuring, but, importantly, from this point on in the story, Scout's world as she knows it does end.

c.        After Chapter 8, everything Scout believes turns topsy-turvy, and the things she takes as absolutes are going to come into question.

2.        Jem's quest to build a snowman requires some ingenuity on his part.

a.        He first constructs a mudman, prompting Scout to say, '"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a nigger snowman.'"

b.       But Jem proceeds to cover the mudman with snow, making him white.

c.        In some ways their snowman is analogous to the way blacks are treated in Maycomb.

d.       Blacks aren't judged on their own merits, but on their relationships with the white folks in town, just as the mudman isn't something to be admired until he is a white snowman.

e.        Lee subtly and masterfully drives this point home by having the children create a nearly exact replica of Mr. Avery, a white neighbor who behaves crudely and indecently, unlike any black character in the story.

3.        Lee also introduces bird symbolism into the novel in Chapter 8.

a.        When Miss Maudie's house catches fire, Scout says, "Just as the birds know where to go when it rains, I knew when there was trouble in our street."

b.       Bird imagery continues throughout the novel to be a pivotal symbol for sensing, and then doing, the right thing. (Readers should note the connection between Lee's use of bird symbolism and Atticus' last name, Finch.)

4.        In another nod to how their world is changing, Jem and Scout have a chance to meet Boo Radley, but are too absorbed in something else to notice.

a.        Instead of seeing the blanket as a gift, Scout is sick to her stomach.

b.       Miss Maudie's reaction to the fire confuses the children as well.

i.         They can't understand how she can be so positive and interested in them when she's lost everything.

ii.        The children don't realize that the cuts on Miss Maudie's hands are evidence of the grief she chooses not to show.

c.        The fire itself is symbolic of the upcoming conflicts that Scout and the community will face.

i.         This jarring event awakens the neighborhood, and Scout, from their peaceful slumber.

ii.         The heat of the fire contrasts sharply with the intense cold, providing an allusion to the sharply defined sides in the upcoming trial and conflict.

iii.      Neither fires nor cold are common in Maycomb, and the community is forced to look at situations from a different perspective.

5.        Lee is careful to make clear that the children don't mind Atticus defending a black man as much as they mind the comments other people make about Atticus.

a.        She makes her point beautifully when Jem suggests that Miss Maudie get a "colored man" to help her with her yard, and Scout then notes, "There was no note of sacrifice in his voice when he added, 'Or Scout 'n' me can help you.'"

6.        Through dialogue in Chapter 9, Lee communicates that Atticus doesn't have a chance to win Tom Robinson's case, bringing the theme of justice to the forefront.

a.        Atticus tells Scout that he has to fight a battle he can't win because it is the morally correct thing to do.

b.       Atticus is accustomed to facing no-win situations.

7.        To their delight, he buys both children air rifles for Christmas, but says, "'I merely bowed to the inevitable.'"

a.        Later in the story, Atticus also accepts that Scout and Jem will kill birds; still, he won't teach them to shoot.

b.        Likewise, he accepts the fact that the jury will convict Tom, but he still gives him a courageous defense.

i.         Ironically, the Finch family owned slaves at one time, making Atticus' defense of Tom that much more noble.

8.        Lee foreshadows how the jury will treat Tom in Scout's confrontation with Uncle Jack.

a.        Uncle Jack punishes Scout without first hearing her side of the story. In her "trial," she was guilty until proven guilty.

b.       However, unlike Tom Robinson, Scout does win on appeal when she tells her uncle, '"you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it—you just lit right into me,'" at which point he does listen to her story. Lee adeptly helps readers understand how Tom feels by having a child experience the same emotions.

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C.       Character Insight

1.        Still, even after Scout's "acquittal," Uncle Jack continues to fumble with the truth by dodging Scout's request for a definition of "whore-lady."

a.        Readers gain a better sense of Atticus' moral code when he reprimands his brother for not directly answering Scout's question: '"Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him . . . children . . . can
spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.'"

2.        Lee uses Scout's run-in with Francis to foreshadow one more important event.

a.        Scout muses, "When stalking one's prey, it is best to take one's time," which is exactly what Bob Ewell does in his attempt to harm Jem and Scout.

3.        The outside world continues to impose standards of femininity on Scout in Chapter 8 and 9.

a.        Readers get the impression that Uncle Jack is less upset by Scouts language than by the fact that a girl using that kind of language.

b.       Scout doesn't want to "be a lady," but that doesn't stop her extended family from telling her she should be.

i.         Aunt Alexandra is more rigid about Scout's appearance than her male