What are the effective details that Harper Lee uses in Chapter 28?

                 Harper Lee sets up suspense before the climax (Jem breaking his arm), in chapter twenty-eight by craftily using effective details. The first effective detail was choosing to have the night be Halloween night. Halloween itself creates an aura of spookiness, which leaves everyone jumpy. So when Mr. Ewell is following Jem and Scout they think that they are just jumpy since it is the eerie holiday. The second effective detail was her stress on the type of weather there was that night. “The weather was unusually warm…there was no moon.” (341) The weather description creates an eerie foreshadow for climax later in the chapter upcoming climax later in the chapter. Scout and Jem’s walk is also in the pitch-black night making it hard to see one another or tell who someone is from a distance. Their inability to see behind themselves in the dark eerie night becomes an important factor in the struggle between the Finch children and Mr. Ewell. The kids cannot see their pursuer because of the darkness and Mr. Ewell could not aim as well with his murder weapon with no visible target. The next key detail in her suspenseful set-up is adding in Cecil Jacobs. Cecil Jacobs jumps out from behind the tree in front of the Radley’s, scaring the daylights out of Jem and Scout. The readers may not notice at first why the appearance of Cecil is deliberate because the scaring blends back in with the Halloween spookiness theme. His scare was placed in the chapter deliberately because when Scout and Jem later hear Mr. Ewell’s footsteps crunching  they crush it off, as they think it is just ol’ Cecil trying to scare them again. The next effective details Harper Lee adds to the chapter have to do with Scout's performance in the pageant. 

            The first part of the pageant is just Miss. Merriweather droning on and on. Scout in her awkward large wiry ham costume settles down in a somewhat position and waits. The speech of Miss. Merriweather is so long Scout quickly falls asleep. When Miss. Merriweather calls Scout’s queue Scout does not her immediately as she is dozing. “Pork…pork? Po-ork! When nothing materialized she yelled, ‘Pork’…she caught me backstage and told me I had ruined her pageant…” (346 and 347) Scout is so embarrassed she stays in her bulky costume, to hide, and asks Jem to hang back and not leave with the crowd so she will not have to have many people confront her on her performance. Scout’s actions from her embarrassment fit in with the situation but are also effective details as they play big roles in the result of the struggle. When Heck Tate examines Scout’s wrecked costume afterwards and sees that it has a large knife slice in it. If Harper Lee hadn’t added that Scout was wearing her costume she would have been killed or been more seriously injured. If Scout hadn’t even been embarrassed in the first place Jem and Scout would not have been a single walking target for Mr. Ewell. The kids could have gotten a ride or been mixed in with the herd, unreachable. Harper Lee adds multiple effective details throughout the chapter to fully setup the climax, the dramatic scene of Jem breaking his arm, which the reader has been waiting for the whole novel long.

Q’s: Do you feels as though this was a satisfying climax? Why or why not?

Why do you think Mr. Ewell targeted the kids and not Atticus?

         

CH. 28, 29 ~ How are Scout and Jem showing signs of both maturity and childhood in these chapters?

            In the beginning of chapter twenty eight, Jem and Scout start their “longest journey together.” Atticus didn’t accompany Scout to her pageant, so Jem decided to walk to the schoolhouse with her. As they were walking across the Radley Lot, even though the rumors about Boo have surpassed them, Scout admitted she was still a little spooked. “It’s a Scary place though, ain’t it? Boo doesn’t mean anybody harm, but I’m right glad you’re along (p.341).” In addition to this moment, in the end of chapter twenty-nine, Scout explains to Mr. Tate exactly what she recollects of happening during their walk home from the pageant. She identified the man who picked up Jem and brought him back to Atticus’s home. “Hey Boo (p.362).”

            Jem walking Scout to the schoolhouse for her pageant shows a sign of maturity because he is taking Atticus’s place. Jem plays the fatherly role on the journey because he is protecting Scout and showing her where to go. From this phase of maturity, Scout is developing a new older male role model. Jem has gone from just being her older brother, to becoming another father like figure, like Atticus. After the pageant, Jem comforted Scout when she was feeling down, showing further that Jem has gained a lot of maturity throughout the novel. This moment also shows how Scout was still a little frightened. This brings back her childlike characteristics.

            When Scout realized that the man who helped Jem was Boo, she acknowledged him like he was a man they saw everyday. This moment showcases how Scout has moved from seeing Boo as the man who ate raw squirrels, to the nice neighbor who is just there to help. Her confusion and fright as a young kid have drifted away and Scout has matured. Although Scout still has her childhood moments, she is mature about ideas that she used to be confused about such as, Arthur Radley. 
As Jem and Scout grow older, do you think they will stay close siblings? Jem is taking after Atticus's ways, how is Scout taking after her father? Do you think there will be any further events in the end of the book that will increase Jem's or Scout's maturity level?

What is ironic about the lesson Miss Gates is teaching the children?

         Miss Gates is teaching her class about current events, and more specifically Adolf Hitler and how he is treating the Jews. She gets very emotional and upset talking about how cruel Hitler is because she believes it is wrong to act so meanly towards a certain group of people. She says, “There are no people better in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me. (p.329)” It is ironic that she is teaching the kids about how cruel it is to hate a group of people, when she and almost everyone else in Maycomb hate the black people. Miss Gates specifically talks about how the Jews are equal to everyone else, which should mean that she also thinks that black people are equal to white people. However, she is completely contradicting herself by telling her students that all groups are equal, and continuing to be racist towards black people.

         Later on, when Scout goes home she talks with Jem about what she learned in school. She asks, “I heard [Miss Gates] say it’s time somebody taught [the black people] a lesson, they were gettin’ way above themselves, an’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us. Jem how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home? (p.331)” This quote is showing how Scout is able to identify that what she is being taught seems contradictory to what she views in her every day life from the people of Maycomb. Scout sees that it’s ironic that Miss Gates is saying it’s wrong to hate the Jews in Germany, but when it comes to Maycomb, the black people are lower than the white people and that’s the way it should always be. The fact that Scout is able to identify this shows that she is maturing even more than we knew she was. Harper Lee puts Miss Gates and her lesson about the Jews and Hitler into the story to not only show the irony of Miss Gates’ opinion, but also to show that Scout is coming to a point in her life when she is able to respectfully question authority and think for herself.

Why do you think Jem had such a strong reaction when Scout asks him about Miss Gates? Was his reaction mostly about his feelings towards the Jews and Hitler, or did it bring up feelings from the trial?

Why do you think it is so easy for Miss Gates to talk about how it is wrong to hate groups in other countries, but when it comes to her own town, why does she need to hate the black people?