Chapters 1-5 pg. 3-50
The book begins with the narrator, Scout, talking about when Jem broke his elbow. Then she talks about her family history and her father, Atticus, who is a lawyer. Then she begins to talk about her summer before she starts school for the very first time. A boy named Dill moves in down the street for the summer and Scout and Jem tell him all about the mysterious Boo Radley who lived at the end of the street, which makes Dill very intriged. When September comes, Dill goes back to Mississippi and Scout gets ready to go to school. On Scouts first day of school the teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, askes who goes home for lunch and who brings their lunch. When Walter Cunningham does raise his hand for either Miss Caroline tries to give him a quarter but he refuses it Scout tries to explain to Miss Fisher that the Cunninghams are poor and don't take anything they can't payback. When she does this Miss Fisher smacks her hand with a ruler. During lunch Scout goes and tries to fight Walter for making her get embarassed. Jem comes over and invites Walter over for lunch. On the last day of school Scout finds a tin wrapper with gum inside it in the knot hole at the Radley place. She tells Jem and the next day they find 2 pennies in there. Dill returns for the summer and the gang plays a new game. "Boo Radley." One day they even try to put a note in the window of the Radley house but Atticus sees them and stops them and tells them to leave Auther (Boo Radley) alone.
DictionThe diction throughout the chapters change. One example of the diction is:
"The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darken to the color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard-a "swept" yard that was never swept-where Johnson grass and rabbit tobacco grew in abundance." (Lee 8). Lee used words like jutted, rain-rotted, and slate gray, to make to the house seem abandoned and eerie. She did this because it adds to the development of Boo Radley. If she had describe the house they lived in with words that create a happy or enlighten feeling she wouldn't have had the same effect on the reader and it would make the reader get a different image of Boo than what the author intended. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language in the first section is:
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-' 'Sir?' '-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." (Lee 30). Lee used this when Atticus was telling Scout about how Miss Caroline didn't know any better and that Scout shouldn't get mad at her until she sees things from her point of view. By using the idiom, Lee is able to get her thought across without blatantly saying it. How Atticus says it |
Chapters 6-10 pg. 50-99
In chapter 6, Jem, Scout and Dill sneak over to the Radley place to peek inside the house. Mr. Nathan Radley shoots at them and they run away. Jem and Scout go back to school and start to see things in the knothole on the Radley Place, but the next day they see it filled in with cement. When winter comes it snows and Jem and Scout make a snowman with the little snow that there is. Then in the middle of the night, Atticus awakes the children and they go outside to see Miss Maudie's house on fire. While Jem and Scout are standing and watching the neighbors help Miss Maudie, Boo comes up and puts a blanket around Scout, but neither her or Jem notice it. In chapter nine, Atticus is assigned to defend Tom Robinson. Tom, a black man, is accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. This cause the kids at school and others to call Atticus a "nigger-lover" to Scout which makes her lose her temper and fight them. As the kids get embarrassed of Atticus because of his old age, a mad dog comes down the street and Sheriff Tate makes Atticus kill the dog, in which he does in one shot.
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. That's why its a sin to kill a mockingbird."
DictionOne example of diction in this section of the book is
"At the front door, we saw fire spewing from Miss Maudie's dinning room windows. As if to confirm what we saw, the town fire siren wailed up the scale to a treble pitch and remained there, screaming." (Lee 69). I believe Lee used words like , spewing, wailed, and screaming it help set the setting. By using these words Lee is able to make it seem very chaotic and urgent. When Lee talks about the fire siren wailing, it is something most people are able to relate to and makes it easier for the audience to put themselves in the story and get a feel for what is going on. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language in this section is:
"The back porch was bathed in moonlight, and the shadow, crisp as toast, moved across the porch toward Jem." (Lee 53). Lee used this personification and simile when Jem was on the porch of the Radley's and he was trying to peep inside of the house to see if they could see Boo.The author is trying to tell you that the only light is coming from the moon and there is a lot of light and that the light is causing a man to cast a shadow that is very crisp and obvious. When she does this it creates a suspenseful feel. You start to worry if Jem is going to be caught sneaking around. |
Chapters 11-15 pg.99-155
In chapter eleven their neighbor Mrs. Dubose makes Jem come and read to her and Scout comes along. They later learn that she has an addiction to morphine, and later dies. Then summer comes and Dill doesn't come but sends a letter to Scout and Jem. Calprunia takes Scout and Jem out to her "colored" church when Mr. Finch is out of town. The church puts up money to help Tom's wife have enough money to help out while Tom is in jail. When they get back, Aunt Alexandra is there waiting for them and announces that she will be staying there for a while to have some "feminine influences" and to talk more about the Finch family history. Jem and Scout get into a fight then when Atticus breaks them up Scout spots Dill hiding under her bed. He said he ran away from home. When a the Tom trial is coming soon Heck Tate says there might be a mob after Tom. Atticus goes and sits by the jail in the middle of the night and waits for them, but Jem Scout and Dill follow him and when the mob arrives Scout intervines and tries talking to Mr. Cunningham. The mob soon leaves and Atticus and the kids goes home.
DictionOne example of diction:
"First Purchase was unceiled and unpainted within. Along its walls unlighted kerosene lamps hung on brass bracket: pine benches sewed as pews. Behind the rough oak pulpit a faded pink silk banner proclaimed God Is Love, the church's only decoration. There was no sign of piano, organ, hymn-books, church programs --- the familiar ecclesiastical impedimenta we saw ever Sunday. It was dim inside, with a damp coolness slowly dispelled by gathering congregation. At each seat was a cheap cardboard fan..." (Lee 120). Wen Jem and Scout was at Cal's church, Lee used this time to explain how the colored church wasn't anything like the church that Scout and Jem go to. This church was more empty and lack alot of basic things the white church usually has. It shows that the blacks didn't have as much as the whites did and that they didn't have as much as the whites. It also seems that back then the whites where more superior. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language is:
"Jem was scarlet." (Lee 102). Lee used this metaphor when Ms. Dubose, the old sick but rude lady was yelling at Jem and Scout about how their father was defending a negro. She said how shameful that was, to go against his raisings. Jem got mad and that's when Lee used the metaphor "Jem was scarlet," because he faced turned really red, or scarlet as Lee says. |
Chapters 16-20 pg. 155-199
The trail is about to begin and the whole town comes to watch. Jem Scout and Dill tries to wait to get seats in the back so Atticus won't see them but they can't only get seats in the colored balcony. Atticus cross-examines and examines the witnesses on the trail and makes the point that Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face and Bob is left handed. Then he testifies Mayella. He makes a point to question her why she didn't yell and scream and that it would be highly unlikely that Tom would've hit her because the bruises were on the right side of her face and Tom's left arm is useless and couldn't make those bruises. Tom testifies the Mayella was the one that tried to seduce him but her ran when he saw Bob. After the break, Atticus states his convincing closing statement.
DictionOne example of diction in this section is:
"Mr. Ewell reminded me of a deaf-mute. I was sure he had never heard the words Judge Taylor directed to him -- his mouth struggled silently with them-- but heir import registered on his face. Smugness faded from it, replaced by a dogged earnest that fooled Judge Taylor not at all: as long as Mr. Ewell was on stand, the judge kept his eyes on him, as if daring him to make a false move." (Lee 174). I believe Lee used words like smugness and dogged to make us feel that Mr. Ewell is the 'Bad Guy'. Which in this case he really is. It helps us set the tone of the courtroom and it allows the reader to get the same feel as what the people in the courtroom are feeling. The tone is a very serious almost threatening. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language is:
"Well, the night of November twenty-one I was comin' in from the woods with a load o'kindlin' and just as I got to the fence I heard Mayella screamin' like a stuck hog inside the house --" (Lee 172). Lee is using the the simile to describe what Mayella's scream sounded like. Using a simile helped achieve what Lee was trying to say by comparing it to something that people have heard or can imagine what it is like. |
Chapters 21-25 pg. 199-241
Cal comes in the courtroom and tells Atticus that the kids aren't home and then the kids beg Atticus to let them come back for the verdict. He agrees. The jury comes out and convicts Tom Robinson guilty of raping Mayella Ewell. Jem's thoughts about Maycomb's people were shattered and Bob Ewell swore revenge on Atticus. Atticus tells the kids that Bob is just mad because he made a fool of him. Jem tells Scout that maybe Boo doesn't come out because he doesn't want to. When Alexandra was having a tea with other women Atticus comes and tells her ans Scout the Tom tried to escape prison but the shot him when he started to run. Jem tells Scout about when he was at Mrs. Robinson's house with Atticus and Dill when Atticus was telling Helen about Tom's death. Jem said that Bob came and said "one down, and about two more to go" (Lee).
DictionOne example of diction is:
"I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury. 'Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty...' I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the railing, and his shoulders jerked as if each 'guilty' was a separate stab between them."(Lee 211). Lee used this create a heartbreaking tone and mood. The readers are disappointed in what the verdict is and you can tell that Jem is upset by the way that he his reacting. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language in this section is:
"Scout,' said Dill,'she just fell down in the dirt. Just fell down in the dirt, like a giant with a big foot just came along and stepped on her. Just ump-' Dill's fat foot hit the ground. 'Like you'd step on an ant." Lee used this simile to help the reader visualize what Mrs. Robinson looked like when she found out Tom had been shot. I think it is also slightly symbolic too. I think the ant would be Tom/Helen and the giant foot would be society just stomping on them. |
Chapters 26-31 pg.241-281
Bob Ewell continues to make trouble with all of the people involved in the case. There is the first Halloween pageant and Scout gets to play Ham and has to wear a large costume. On their way to the school Cecil Jones scares them in the dark. On the way back, after Scout 'ruined' the pageant, Scout and Jem hear someone and they think it's Cecil again but its not. The man attacks them and Jem breaks free and drags Scout but then the attacker grabs Jem again and Scout hears a snap and Jem's scream. Then a man carries Jem towards their house and Scout follows behind. Atticus calls Heck and Heck goes to investigate he reports that Bob Ewell was the attacker and was found dead with a knife in his chest. He claims that fell and killed himself but when really , the man who carried Jem back and saved them, who was Arthur Radley (Boo) actually killed him. They say this so Boo wouldn't have to have the attention of the town on him. Scout walks Mr. Arthur home comes back and watches Jem sleep.
"Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough"
DictionOne example of diction in the last section is:
"Don't like to contradict you, Mr. Finch -- wasn't crazy, mean as hell. Low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children. He'd never have met you face to face."(Lee 269). I believe that Lee made Mr. Tate tell this to Atticus to show that Bob Ewell was a truly bad man. He went after to Atticus's kids instead of going to Atticus himself. This makes for a very disgusted mood for the reader. The reader becomes very hateful towards Mr. Ewell. |
Figurative LanguageOne example of figurative language in the last section is:
"Atticus spoke, 'He can't hear you, Scout, he's out like a light. He was coming around, but Dr. Reynolds put him out again.'"(Lee 265). Lee used this simile to explain to Scout that Jem is just unconscious. It also lightens the mood. It helps let Scout know that Jem isn't going to die and that for her to not worry. |