Month: February 2015

At school, Scout nearly starts a fight with a classmate named Cecil Jacobs after Cecil declares that “Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers.” Atticus has been asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. It is a case he cannot hope to win, but he tells Scout that he must argue it to uphold his sense of justice and self-respect.

At christmas time Atticus’s brother, Jack, comes to stay with Atticus for a week during the holidays. Scout usally gets along greatly with Uncle Jack but when he arrives in Maycomb she starts to curse alot which she has been picking up lately. After supper Uncle Jack sits Scout on his lap and warns her not to curse in his presence. On Christmas Day, Atticus takes his children and Jack to Finch’s Landing, a rambling old house in the country where Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, and her husband live. Whilst staying there Scout meets Aunt Alexandera’s son called ‘Francis’ and Scout thinks Francis is the most “boring” child she has ever met. She also has to put up with the prim and proper Alexandra, who insists that Scout should dress like a lady instead of wearing pants. One night, Francis tells Scout that Dill is a runt and then calls Atticus a “nigger-lover.” Scout is furious and as a consequence she curses him and beats him up. Francis tells Alexandra and Uncle Jack that Scout hit him, and Uncle Jack spanks her without hearing her side of the story. After Uncle Jack punished her she becomes really really angry and says ‘ill never speak to you again as long as I live! I hate you an’ despise you an’ hope you die tomorrow!’

After they return to Maycomb, Scout tells Jack what Francis said and Jack becomes furious. Scout makes him promise not to tell Atticus. Jack promises and keeps his word. Later, Scout overhears Atticus telling Jack that Tom Robinson is innocent but doomed.

In Chapter 6 Dill, Jem and Scout just finished attempting to get in contact with Boo Radley, but whilst attempting this Atticus caught them at the scene and told them to stop bothering him.

They sneak behind the Radley house, but see the shape of a man on the back porch and run. A shotgun fires behind them. As they duck under the Radley fence, Jem’s pants get caught. He leaves his pants behind. The shotgun blasts the one Nathan Radley had shot into the air had awoken the neighborhood. Jem’s missing pants cause suspicion, but the kids says Jem lost them playing strip poker with matches.This suprises Maycomb because gambling is seen as a sin and it is against the religious life they life in. Also late that night, Jem sneaks out and retrieves his pants, and returns home unharmed.

Jem and Dill start excluding Scout, who begins to spend more time with Miss Maudie Atkinson, a neighbor who grew up with Atticus. One evening, Scout asks Miss Maudie why Boo Radley never comes out. Miss Maudie says it’s because Boo doesn’t want to. She says Boo was always polite as a boy, and that Boo’s father was a Baptist so religious he thought all pleasure was a sin.

The next day, Dill and Jem get Scout to help them try to slip a note through a window of the Radley house with a fishing rod. Atticus catches them and tells them to stop bothering Boo Radley.