To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #7

Choice B: Tell how the following characters respond to the jury's verdict: Jem, Aunt Alexandra, Dill, Miss Maudie, Bob Ewell.

The trial was very interesting, but it affected the views of many of the characters. One of these characters was Jem. At the beginning of the trial he seemed confident that his dad, Atticus would win. I think the time he realized it was impossible was when Mr. Gilmer was angry at Tom because Tom felt sorry for Mayella. He realized that the jury, who consisted of white men, would find Tom guilty, even if Atticus made a good argument. At the end he still thought of his father as a good lawyer, and saw that Atticus lost because the jury did not like Tom. He cried though. He was crying in anger because he said it was unfair. Aunt Alexandra felt really sorry though. She even called Atticus “brother” which neither of the kids ever heard Aunt Alexandra say.
Dill felt that the verdict was unfair. He thought it was unfair that people would judge by the color of skin. During the trial, Dill even cried because of the way Mr. Gilmer would treat Tom. Miss Maudie tried to talk to the kids and gave them cake. She talked to them that some people just have a hard job.
Bob Ewell was really mad. Despite the fact that he won the case, he lost his credibility. People knew that he beat his own daughter and that he lied and blamed a black person for it. So when he met Atticus in town he spat at his face. Unfortunately for Atticus Bob chews tobacco so the tobacco was all over Atticus’ face. Basically no one was really happy about the way things turned out.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #6

C. How do you think the story (what you read so far) would have changed if Scout and Jem had a mother present in their lives? Would it change for the better or for the worse? Explain your thoughts

I think that if Scout and Jem had a mother in their lives it would be better. First of all Scout would be more lady like. If she were Aunt Alexandra would stop arguing with Atticus about the way he raises his children. Then Scout wouldn't do things like trying to shoot people with her rifle, or beat up kids at her school. I also think that Jem would have someone to talk to when Atticus is at work.

As for Atticus, I think that his work would be easier. For one, he wouldn't have to worry about the kids at home. He also wouldn't have to worry about the way his children are growing up. Besides that he wouldn't have to explain to his children how things work when they ask him. Although I think it would help, I also think that if a mother was in the scene something would've changed drastically.

Things like when the children visited Calpurnia's church. I think they learned a lot about a different culture when they visited. I think that because of that they understood the court trial more, and they understood why Atticus thinks he might lose. Also if they had a mom, then Jem and Scout wouldn't have gone to see their dad and their dad might have gotten hurt. So basically I think there would be some good and bad things about them having a mom.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #5 Chapters 12-14

Journal #5
Chapters 12, 13, & 14
Perspective: Atticus

These few days have been a bit crazier than I expected. I expected it to be hectic, but not this much. At first it wasn’t chaotic. It was Sunday, and I had to go to work. Unfortunately I couldn’t bring my kids to church, so I let them go to church by their selves. Then I lerned later in the day that they went First Purchase African M.E. Church, Cal’s church. It appears they like Reverend Sykes. But I am really glad they went there. As much as it wasn’t expected, they were able to see how the black folk live. Hopefully they would understand what I am doing more by them seeing what was there. I also heard the offertory money was for the sake of Tom Robinson’s wife Helen. It appears he used quite a method to extract ten dollars out of the church congregation. I’m glad they did acquire the ten dollars for Helen. She might really need it soon.

Then things got really hard to cope with when Alexandra came. I agreed with her that it would be good if she stayed with the children for a bit. We decided that they needed a bit of “feminine” influence in the house. Then one night Scout found Dill under her bed, and he emerged telling his story. Apparently his father wasn’t exactly what he expected. He felt like no one cared about him so he ran away. So we reported him to Miss Rachel and everything went to normal, or so I thought.

A few days later, Heck and a few others came over and we were talking about Tom Robinson. We decided to take precautions around the antagonized folks. Heck said it was infallible that some folk would try to get Tom while he was in the Maycomb Jail. So we set up near the jail, and prepared for any danger. To our surprise, the Cunninghams and a few others showed up at night. I knew Mr. Underwood was in his office with his gun, but I wasn’t so sure I’d be safe. Another surprise came though. It wasn’t any group of men, instead it was a group of children! Scout, Jem, and Dill came to see what I was up to. To my surprise they helped me get out of the predicament. I learned there that innocence can prevail, as Scout tried to have a conversation with Mr. Cunningham, who eventually left because he listened, and couldn’t hurt her. I stopped trembling, and Tom asked if they were gone. I replied with a yes, and Mr. Underwood said he would watch over the jail when I while I went home with the kids. I just hope I could win that trial.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #4 Chapters 10-11

Journal #4
Chapters 10, 11, & 12
Perspective: Scout

Oh, how I hated her! That old woman, Mrs. Dubose. She was so mean, but now I understand it all. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about do you? Well then I’ll start at the beginning.

Hmm, well it all started on that one day. Me an’ Jem were wonderin’ what Atticus ever did besides readin’ his magazines, an’ go to work. It never looked like he did do anything. So I asked Miss Maudie ‘cause she’s seems to know everything ‘bout the folk ‘round here. So I went and skipped across the street over to Miss Maudie’s house. She was sayin’ that he was the best at checkers an’ also played the harp. Disappointed I decided to join Jem in playing. We heard something, but we didn’t know what it was ‘till we looked down the street ‘an saw the rough shape of a dog. Jem was squintin’ ‘an trying to look at whose dog it is. To our surprise it was ‘ol Tim Johnson! We ran back home ‘an told Cal ‘bout it. Few minutes later, Mr. Heck Tate ‘an Atticus was on the scene. We didn’t hear anything. But we heard Mr. Tate say something about shooting, and handed Atticus the gun. To our surprise we learned that Atticus was the most doggone shot in Maycomb. His nickname One-Shot Finch gained our respect, and we never doubted our dad never did anything again.

The next thing that happened was about another person in our neighborhood. Her name was Mrs. Dubose. I think she was married, but now she was a nasty old woman. Everyday, when we would pass her house, she shouted at us an’ ridiculed anyone who passed by. It seemed that being isolated was pretty harsh to her. One time I just tried to say “Hey” and she shouted at me. Then Jem got outraged with the perplexity of her ridiculing and smashed all the camellia bushes in her yard. Jem had to read to Mrs. Dubose for a month, ‘an we started to get acquainted with her. There was always a clock adjacent to where we sat though. We thought she was really weird because she would move ‘an squirm when the timer ran out of time. She one day died. We were sad, but understood what happened. She was a morphine fanatic. She took it too much, and it caused here to die. She died, but entrusted Jem with a camellia. At the sight of this, my brother Jem, the one I thought would never cry, wailed. He shouted, throwing the beautifully waxed camellia on the floor. The perplexity of the subject boggled my mind as I remembered. He was looking at that flower for hours while Atticus read to me the Mobile Reader. And slowly the house returned to normal.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #3 Chapters 8-9

Journal #3-
Chapters 8 & 9
Perspective: Uncle Jack

Today was one of the most hectic days ever. Right now I’m sitting on the porch of Finch Landing with my journal. Whew, kids sure can be trouble, and I swear that I will never have children. Well the whole time there was interesting ‘cause I visited Atticus, Scout, ‘an Jem for Christmas at. Hah, when they came to me at the train station, they were all shoutin’ ‘bout how they saw it snow, ‘an how they built a snowman in their yard. Was a bit surprising ‘cause I heard Scout sayin’ a few un-lady-like words. So I got strict ‘an told her that if I heard her say any of that or she might not turn out as a lady. Then she said, “I don’t want to,” and so I planned to keep an eye on her. Boy their eyes were big when they got their presents! ‘Ol Atticus told me to get them some air rifles. They teetered along as we went to the Landing to visit the rest of the family. When we got there Alexandra ‘an Atticus were at it again. They were quibbling ‘bout how Atticus raised his kids. Alexandra kept sayin’ that Atticus will never produce a lady out of Scout, so I left them to their quibbling ‘cause it was tormenting me. Then I heard the malignant side of Francis come out as I saw him teasing Scout. At first I thought it was some game, but later I knew better. Later I had to hold scout back ‘cause she had Francis on the ground ‘an was beating the light out of him. She tried to explain, but I didn’t let her. I was unfair, and my tyranny was a bit too much. She wouldn’t talk to me, then she explained her side. I realized Francis started it, and I thought he kinda got it comin’ to him. It was my first lesson in how to deal with children. Then Atticus was talking about his court case. It sure sounded interesting, but I realized that it could destroy the trust his children got in him. So that’s why I vowed never to marry or have kids.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #2 Chapters 4-7

Journal #2-
Chapters 4-7
Perspective: Jem

Well, the summer just started and it’s pretty weird already. It all started when Scout came back home with such a wad of gum in her mouth. Then I asked her where she got it. She said she got it from the tree in The Radley yard, and I was extremely surprised. Anything that comes out of that house with that malignant ghost in it must be cursed so I immediately told her to spit out the wad before Cal’s tyrannous self finds out. Then finally, school ended and the summer started. As Scout and I predicted Dill came a few days after. It was fun at first, we were rolling down the tire, but it ended as Scout, the first one to roll down, landed in the front yard of the Radley place. Apparently Scout didn’t know where she was at first, but upon realization she ran up the hill. Then I had the perfect idea, all the time we were playing things like Tom Rover or Tarzan, so I came up with the idea of playing “Boo Radley”. At first Scout was warning me about how Atticus told us not to torment Boo, but in the end we unanimously decided to play. Eventually Atticus found us playing this as he came for an unexpected visit from work, because he forgot a few things. I found that quibbling was useless so I just said ok. Then I had a better idea, we were going to give a note to through a fishing pole. We attempted to but once again, Atticus told us not to. I should’ve listened to my sister now that I look back, because the next thing could’ve ended up with me dead. Me and Dill had this crazy idea to go look inside the house. So we told Scout to stay behind by Miss Rachel’s fish pool. She came anyway but as we were so close to the house, we heard a gunshot. We ran away but as I was running I my pants fell off. We saw the entire neighborhood at the front of the Radley Place. So not to raise suspicion we joined them and asked what happened. Miss Maudie explained the Nathan Radley saw a guy walk by the back of the house and so he shot, he missed, but he said that he will shoot the next thing to pass by. Then Atticus realized I have lost my pants and asked where they went. I knew that if I told him the truth I could be stuck in the house for the rest of my life like Boo, so Dill and I hatched a big one where I lost my pants playing poker. It wasn’t as bad but I still got in trouble. So I went to get my pants back in the middle of the night, but what I saw was so scary I don’t even want to write it here.

To Kill A Mocking Bird Journal #1 Chapters 1-3

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective of Scout

This summer was really cool. Jem and I met Dill, but his real name is Charles Baker Harris. He’s from Meridian, Mississippi, and he stays with our neighbor Miss Rachel during the summers. We would play and all, but one day Dill found interest in the malevolent ghost of the Radley Place. The eccentric house became the subject of talk for quite a while. In fact, dill even dared my brother to touch the Radley House! He eventually did it and Dill had to give up his copy of “The Gray Ghost”. Then in September, he left to return back to Meridian, which left me pretty lonely. Then school started. The fact that I had to learn at such a place irked me. My father, Atticus Finch, never had to go to school! He learned from his father everything he knew. Why couldn’t it be the same with me? The pronouncements of our teacher, Miss Caroline, intimidated me. She even said that Atticus was teaching me all wrong and that I should stop reading and writing! I felt condescended after that. Then it was really horrible. I was trying to show Miss Caroline that the Walter Cunnigham wouldn’t accept anything from Miss Caroline, because the Cunninghams never took what they couldn’t pay off. Instead of making a point, I was given half a dozen hits on my arm and was told to go sit in the corner. This humiliated me as I heard my entire class laughing. It wasn’t fun at all, but then Atticus told me to try to get into someone else’s skin and try to feel what they feel. It was a pretty disappointing time, and can’t wait for next summer.