Another intriguing fact is that once Scout realizes that she forgot her shoes and Jem and her go back. The lights in the High School suddenly turn off. Harper Lee added this into the book because it is showing that everything is dark, therefor it adds to the fact of pure darkness that Harper Lee added early on in chapter 28. Then on page 348-349, Jem makes Scout stop. “Hush a minute, Scout......Be quiet.” Harper Lee added this detail to make the reader realize that something wasn’t right with the whole scenario that Harper Lee wrote it out to be.
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Questions
What do you think Scout is feeling during and after the fight scene with Mr. Ewell? What do you think was crossing Scouts mind, when she realizes that Mr. Arthur Radley saved her life? Why does Harper Lee make the whole fight scene be under the tree?
Scout was probably scared during the fight because the whole time she thought Jem was trying to scare her, or Cecil was so when it actually happened she was probably very unsettled. I don't think Scout actually knew that Mr. Arthur Radley/Boo had saved her life because in the book it says, "He was some countryman I did not know." She doesn't even have any idea that it could have been Boo. When she does realize that is was Boo that saved her and Jem, she will probably almost be speechless. She, Jem, and Dill had bothered his summer after summer, so why would he help them? Scout will obviously be very gracious to Boo, and I think that in the moment of her realization she will have a minute of pure childhood, and refer to him directly as, "Boo." I think Harper Lee made the fight scene under the tree because when Jem and Scout are walking over Jem is talking about Hot Steams, and Haints. The cold spots that will suck their breath away. It's ironic because Jem says they'll know when they get to the schoolyard because under the tree, it will be cold. It's also ironic because it's cold under the tree, technically where the "hot steam" is trying to get them, but in this case the hot steam is Mr. Ewell. Harper Lee ingeniously tied their childhood fantasies and nightmares into their maturing worries, and realities without making it obvious.
ReplyDeleteThe weather is the easiest and most interesting way of foreshadowing. For example,"it was a dark and stormy night...." when you read this you automatically think something bad or scary is going to happen. This is what Harper Lee uses to set up chapter 28 (the climax). "The weather was unusually warm for the last day of October." This symbolizes that something out of the ordinary (or "unusual") is going to happen. "The wind was growing stronger..." wind usually means craziness or disaster, like when in a tornado (tornado=wind) there is stuff flying everywhere (craziness) and houses and trees being destroyed (disaster). Also, like Max mentioned, the new moon gives darkness and darkness represents bad chiz. These examples combined show Harper Lee likes using weather as foreshadowing.
ReplyDeleteHarper Lee uses these chapters to sum up how much Scout has grown through these past years. Not only was the technique of foreshadowing and suspense used as a way to progressively build up to the climax, it was also used to show Scout’s gradual evolution towards adulthood. The reader can see Scout’s first step forward when she is no longer scared of haints and starts to see Boo as human instead of as a source of childhood fun and games. When Scout finally realizes who had saved her, Boo the childhood phantom becomes Boo the human being: “His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. ‘Hey, Boo,’ I said.” (P. 265) With this sentence, Scout is using the grown-up moral perspective that Atticus has shown her throughout the book.
ReplyDeleteHarper Lee also brings up the significance of the novel’s title one last time, but instead as a way for Scout to finally see the light in Atticus and Aunt Alexandra’s words. When Heck Tate covers up for Boo and says that Bob Ewell fell on his knife, Scout states that exposing Boo to the public would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.” (P. 267) Scout is having her “knothole moment” where she is showing a moment of sympathy and understanding by learning how to see the world through someone else’s perspective. All of her past experiences of Atticus devoting his time trying to teach her lessons of compassion, human nature and “walking a mile in someone’s shoes before judging them,” the times where events have shaken her family and the moments where Scout gets a glimpse into the evil, prejudice adult world, the reader can conclude that the experiences of cruelty haven’t destroyed Scout’s faith in goodness. This is shown when Scout cried when she realized Boo saved a child’s life, which makes her see that there is still goodness that exists in Maycomb and in the world.
How was the significance of the book’s title shown in these chapters? Do you think Scout will become friends with Boo? When and what was your “knothole moment?”