To kill a mockingbird 4-5

"Gifts"

Gifts are left in the tree and Scout takes them, happily

- this adds intrigue to the plot

- Who do you think it is? Why?

Make a prediction in your notes and explain why (1-2 minutes)

Game: Boo Radley

The children persist with their game about Boo Radley.

  » Although we have never actually met Boo, he is becoming a major character in the novel as the children’s intrigue continues.

Why is Atticus so against these games?

Miss Maudie

We are introduced to Miss Maudie

» As Scout is excluded from the boys’ play, she is driven towards Miss Maudie.

Remember that Scout doesn’t have a mother, and Miss

Maudie is an older woman who Scout learns from.

» Miss Maudie presents us with a different picture of Boo – one which is more sympathetic and kindly.

How does this match up with the children’s previous accounts? Such as Miss Stephanie’s account.

Femininity

Femininity is a theme of the novel.

  » Jem throws around Scout’s being a girl as an insult, and we come to see that Scout’s identity as a female is a theme of the novel.

Contrast all the females we have already met in the novel. ( 2-3 min)

Theme Activity

In groups of 3 complete the Theme Chart

Leave room to add examples when we go over this in class

Education

We see how Scout learns from the people around her.

o Learns to read from Atticus / to write from Calpurnia / general

knowledge from Jem

• Harper Lee presents a critique of the formal schooling.

o Atticus never went to school and Scout sees him as one of the most

intelligent people she knows.

o Miss Caroline tries out new pedagogical

methods which seem irrational and ineffective.

• There does seem to be a connection between level of social class and level of education. The Ewells never become educated.

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Quote about Education

"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 Co unty school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something."

- Scout

Prejudice

• The children have prejudged Boo Radley.

o They have never actually met him and don’t actually know his

story, but they have already decided that he is malevolent

• Miss Maudie presents the problem of prejudiced views in her metaphor of the weeds.

o Racist/prejudiced views can be so insidious that they take

root and spread across the whole of society.

• Atticus tries to teach Scout to not prejudge her teacher Miss Caroline, but rather to first try and imagine things from her perspective.

Quotes about Prejudice

“ ... one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. ”

“ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... u ntil you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Femininity

• As this is the story of Scout’s growing up – it is not surprising that it also explores what it means to be a woman.

o Scout doesn’t have a mother, so she learns about femininity from the women around her.

o Lee presents different types of women in Calpurni, Miss Maudie, Miss Stephanie (and later in Aunt Alexandra and Mrs Dubose)

• Women in that time were viewed as the property of men. As we see even in the humorous account of Dill’s ‘proposal’.

Quote about Femininity

“ I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it's mortifyin’ ”

"He staked me out, marked me as property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me. ”

Growing Up

• We see Dill, Scout and Jem behaving as typical children, going through the maturing process and playing as children do. They are extremely innocent and naive to the more complex issue of society.

• Scout is growing up and learning from the world around her. She doesn’t always quite understand things that we as the reader understand (e.g. the complexities of Boo’s situation).

• Scout, in the way of a child, often says it how it is and then is perplexed when she has been misunderstood (as with Miss Caroline)

• Jem and Scouts relationship shifts as he matures and leaves her behind

Quote about Growing Up

“ If I could have explained these things to Miss Caroline, I would have saved myself some inconvenience and Miss Caroline subsequent mortification, but it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus ”