To Kill A Mockingbird Chapters 2-4

* Jem still thinks that juries are a crock of @#$%, and Atticus tells him that if the jury had been made up of Jem and others like him, Tom would have been acquitted. He goes on to say that the jury left behind the written law to follow the unwritten one – that the white man always wins.

Atticus is guarding the jailhouse to make sure no one hurts Tom Robinson before his trial, when he is approached by Walter Cunningham and his fellow goons. Atticus shows his bravery by standing his ground for what he believes is right in front of his son. When Scout lashes out to her father’s side, Jem holds onto her and tries to stop her from interfering. Then Jem refuses to go home and stands up for his father’s side although the odds were against them, while trying to protect his sister from harm. In page 152, chapter 15, Scout says, “... but from the way he stood, Jem was not thinking of budging.” This shows us that Jem has matured from the boy who would do anything if dared, to a young man who can barricade his emotions and proceed with reason in difficult situations.

He implies if one does not follow their conscience will, they will live overwhelmed by guilt. Here, the moral of human beings is threatened by the recurring subject of racism, as well as discrimination issues. Jem is an epitome of a corrupted person as he justifies that Atticus is wrong because everyone else thinks so. Nevertheless, he finds himself after the testimony is given. When it comes time for the trial, Jem follows it closely. Having grown up in the home of a lawyer, Jem understands the workings of the courtroom, besides its racial bias. Once the judge goes over the evidence, Jem becomes increasingly confident that Atticus won but his belief that Tom is innocent contrasts with what actually occurs: Tom is found guilty. While looking at Jem, Scout sees how his “shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between them.” By comparing Jem’s reaction to a “stab,” Lee not only shows Jem receiving blows of devastation over the case and feeling physically attacked but also points to the broader attack on things that Jem thought were once true. This is something that causes him great emotional pain as he has a hard time coming to terms with general unfairness. Jem has counted on the strength of bigotry but in

When Scout arrives home from school to explain to Atticus what her classmates have been calling him he stated that “I’m simply defending a negro...but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn’t be defending this man.” (Lee. 75). Entirely based on the fact that Tom is black he is seen as less than therefore does not deserve the justice services offered to the white community. During Aunt Alexandra’s get together, Atticus pulls her and Calpurnia aside and tells them the bad news. “Tom’s dead...they shot him. He was running. It was during their exercise period. They said he just broke into a blind raving charge at the fence and started climbing over. Right in front of them.”

Scout’s conversation attempt makes the men go away. Because she does this, Mr. Walter Cunningham is reminded of his own child and wonders what will happen if they kill Atticus. They then go away.

Also as the lynch-mob arrives to murder Tom Robinson, Atticus refuses to compromise and stands his ground. This event shows Jem and Scout how brave their father is to have stood up for his client the way he does without means of violence and without using guns. up to this point The children believe that it is a man’s gun that makes him, they now see courage in a whole new light. Thanks to her father, Scout gained the courage to confront Mr. Cunningham the same evening and is successful in causing Mr. Cunningham to call off his Old Sarum mob. She talks to Mr. Cunningham on a personal level “Don't you remember me, Mr. Cunningham? I'm Jean Louise Finch. You brought us some hickory nuts one early morning, remember? We had a talk. I went and got my daddy to come out and thank you. I go to school with your boy. I go to school with Walter; he's a nice boy.”(chapter 15, Lee)

As a result of Atticus's decision, Jem and Scout get into a number of fights with classmates and their cousin when they taunt them and call Atticus a "nigger lover." Life seems to be full of lesson for Scout and Jem. For example, when a rabid dog chases Scout, she discovers that her father, whom she previously thought too old to do anything, does possess some talents. Atticus turns out be a crack shot, killing the dog in one shot at a great distance. Another time the children learn to be tolerant of people who have problems even though they say mean things. A neighbor, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, derides Atticus and spreads lies about him, and screams insults at the children when they pass by. Jem gets very angry at her and cuts off her flowers from her bushes. Instead of siding with Jem, Atticus feels that what he did is wrong and as punishment, Jem has to read out loud to her every day to take her mind off her predicament. Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage as she

As the story begins and we start to analyze the characters, Scout comes off as an being unable to grasp the realities of life due to her childlike innocence. We see this through her thoughts and actions. Walter Cunningham has a misfit with Scout in the beginning of the novel that can be an example of both her innocence and intolerance. It starts when Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline, tells Walter to take her money for lunch and suggests paying her back later. Walter refuses and Miss Caroline gets irritated. In attempt to explain why Walter doesn't take the money, Scout tells Miss Caroline the stigma of the Cunninghams. Scout says that Walter can't pay her back because he doesn't have the money; No Cunningham would ever take anything they couldn't pay back. When Scout gets in trouble for talking back, she blames it on Walter and reacted as follows, "Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt..." (Lee 30). This quote

During this time, Atticus, who is a lawyer, takes on a very difficult case. He is defending Tom Robinson, who is an African American man being charged with raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. At the trial, Jem and Scout try to find seats, but they are all taken. Reverend Sykes, the reverend of the African American church, runs into Scout and Jem and tells them “There’s not a seat downstairs. Do you all reckon it’ll be alright if you all came to the balcony with me” (186)? The children happily take his offer and travel to the balcony where “Four negroes rose and gave them their front-row seats” (186). As time passes, Jem becomes very engaged in the trial. Scout says that “Jem seemed to be having a quiet fit. He was pounding the balcony rail softly, and once he whispered, “We’ve got him” (202). Jem is very confident that they have won the case, and thinks that Tom Robinson will not be convicted to be guilty. Later in the book, when they take a break from the trial, Jem

Scout comes home, frustrated about her first day at school. Scout’s positive expectations of school were crushed when Miss Caroline tells her to stop reading because she has been taught incorrectly. After school Scout explains her day at school to Atticus, and her teacher’s cluelessness and unreasonability. Scouts most valuable lesson from her first day of school comes from her father, where she learns to try to see situations from the others point of view. Ironically, Atticus teaches more to Scout and Jem, than their teacher, Miss Caroline,

Tom Robinson is being moved to Maycomb County jail. This sparks trouble. Heck Tate one day comes to Atticus’s house with men on his lawn wishing they could speak to them. When Atticus went out that night to work Jem was getting ready to follow him, when Scout saw she insisted on going with Dill and Jem. They let her come. They followed him sneaking out of their house to find him. They found him sitting alone outside the jail reading the paper. Then four cars show up and it looks like Atticus was expecting them to arrive. Scout runs after Atticus and Jem and Dill then soon reveal themselves. Atticus immediately demands them to go home. Jem did protest and when he did one was the men grabbed him by his collar. Then Scout kicked him. The man said

Atticus Hill cherished and fostered his role as the bad boy in the family. He always dressed in all black, rode a Harley, and had long, shaggy black hair. But now that all his brothers had found their Mr. Right he thought maybe, at age thirty-nine, it was time to look around for a partner. He thought the drummer at the gay bar was sexy, so headed off there to check him out.

Atticus spoke up and said that her story had differed than how she told it before and said “Well which story is it Mayella?” She got very angered at that comment, and then screamed at the court that she didn’t lie and that everyone is a bunch of bad people if they don’t accuse him to be guilty. There were a couple moments of silence, and then the trial continued on. After that, the jury went to go decide on the conviction. Atticus noticed his children in the back of the building, and told them to go home immediately. He also said after they ate dinner, they could come back

Similar to Jem, Scout began to see the world differently as and after the trial took place. The Finch children began to comprehend reality and understand that people can be cruel and deceiving. While Jem began to mature and comprehend this after the trial ended, Scout showed the readers her maturity before the trial even began through her narration. Before the trial begins, the three children witness an argument between Atticus and the jury in front of the jail in chapter 15. At the beginning of chapter 16 on page 208 the text reads, “The full meaning of the night’s events hit me and I began crying.” To elaborate on this sentence that Scout narrates; at this point, after witnessing what she had that day in front of the jail, she realizes the risks that her father is facing for taking the job and ill-treatment that their society would give them for being connected to the black community and treating them equally. Finally, at the end of the book, Scout presents to the readers and viewers that she has found the understanding of ‘to kill a mockingbird’. In both medias of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout tells Atticus, “Yes sir, I understand,....Well it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” This shows that Scout truly understood what her father had taught her, she realized that evil existed in the world, and it showed how she has grown throughout the

After starting school, Scout comes upon his first lesson from Atticus. When Walter Cunningham refuses to take a quarter from Miss Caroline to pay for his lunch, Scout begins to explain to her teacher that “The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back.” Scout had overheard her father talking to one of his clients, Mr. Cunningham, about how he would pay Atticus for his work on his entailment. Atticus explains to Mr. Cunningham that the money was the least of his worries. Scout later learns that the Cunninghams pay in what they have, for example, stovewood or turnip greens. When Atticus says “ If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Scout learns that some people live differently than her, and that it is important to always accept that some people are different. When she explains the situation to her teacher, she gets in trouble, in turn making her not want to go to school anymore.