To Kill a Mockingbird Blog 2
My Thoughts
This past week we read chapters 10-14 of To Kill a Mockingbird. I have been wondering a lot about Boo Radley and how he will be brought back in to enhance the plot of the story. I am personally beginning to like the characters more and more as I begin to learn more about them. I am really enjoying this novel so far and can't wait to see what will happen next.
Boo Radley
One character that I am tracking and creating an empathy map for is Boo Radley. However, he really didn't appear in this set of chapters at all. For this reason, I am wondering how he will be brought back into the novel. The only sign that he will be coming back is the return of Dill in chapter 14. The characters may try to get Boo Radley to come out again or maybe Harper Lee will bring him
back in some other way.
Calpurnia
The second character that I am tracking is Calpurnia. I saw a lot of development in Calpurnia in this set of chapters. She continues to act as a mother figure to Jem and Scout as she spends time with and protects them. The thing that stood out to me the most in this set of chapters was the exposure of Calpurnia's secret life. Scout thinks to
herself, "That Calpurnia led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside our household was a novel one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages" (Lee 125). Scout thought this after she and Jem went to church with Calpurnia and saw how different she acted around the people there than she does at the Finch's. This quote really stood out to me because of the emphasis on the fact that everyone has a secret life and we don't often realize. Another quote that stood out to me was on the next page when Calpurnia told Jem and Scout. "It's not necessary to tell all you know" (Lee 126). This not only shows how she tries to raise Jem and Scout properly. This, along with her experience at church, shows her strong desire o fit in and even impress others. So one of my questions is, "Why does Calpurnia go so far to fit in with these people at her church?"
This Week's Discussion
What I found the most intriguing about this week's discussion was the talk about Atticus. When I read this set of chapters, I wondered why Harper Lee decided to include such a long section about the "mad dog." Based on the discussion, I now believe this was a way to bring up some secrets about Atticus's life. But now that I know he can shoot, I wonder how he acquired these skills. Is there a deeper secret that we have yet to discover? Speaking of Atticus, his character also developed a lot in this set of chapters as his wisdom came out multiple times. I find him to be one of the most interesting characters and hope I will learn more about him as I continue to progress through this novel.
Other Quotes
There were two other quotes that I found very interesting in this set of chapters, so I decided to include them in this post. Both of the quotes were stated by Atticus. They are as follows:
"...'but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience" (Lee 105).
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do" (Lee 112).
Questions
Along with the other question within this blog post, I have a couple more for next week. Because I find this novel to be very impactful, I'd like to ask a question like, "What themes do you see beginning to develop in this novel?" Hopefully I will be able to build on this question
after reading the next set of chapters. Also, I'd like to ask a question about Scout's relationship with some of the other characters, like Jem, Atticus, and Calpurnia. Scout seems to be a very different character and is very interesting as the narrator, so I hope to find out more about her as well.
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