To kill a mockingbird, 2nd entry.
To kill a mockingbird, 2nd entry.
I have now read till page 209 in the book: To kill a mockingbird, and on page 99 Atticus gave his kids air rifles, but he didn't want to learn them how to shoot so he gave that job to his brother Jack who had to teach them. The only thing Atticus said was: "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. Scout got so surprised that her father had told her something was a sin to do, though Atticus doesn't make a habit of saying that things are sinful. So she had to ask their neighbour Miss Maudie what he meant and she said:"Your father's right, Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy, they don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" And with those quotes I think they mean that it is a sin to ruin something so pure and beautiful that hasn't done any harm to you.
Some more reading in the book and you will meet the Maycomb-pet Tim Johnson. Tim is a dog and he's very sick so someone has to shoot him and then it comes forward that Atticus as a boy was nicknamed One-Shot Finch (page 107) and Jem and Scout who thinks their father is old can not understand why Atticus doesn't continue to use his skills for hunting. When this came forward the children had to ask Miss Maudie again and she said: "'still think your father can't do anything? Still ashamed of him?" and Scout answered: "Nome", on page 108.
I think that Jem and Scout who in the beginning of chapter ten didn't think their father could do anything, now realised he’s not so bad anyway.
In chapter twelve one Sunday when Atticus aren’t home, Jem and Scout follow their black housekeeper to the "black church". I think there are many different things about the "black and the white" churches, one example is that the "black church" allows Jem and Scout to enter, but I'm pretty sure if two black children came to the "white church" they wouldn't even come in. One more thing is that the "black church" don't have any hymn-books, and when Scout ask Calpurnia about it she answered:"we don't have any", on page 132. This doesn't mean they don’t sing any hymns, cause they do but in a special way. They do it with only one hymn-book and that's the pastor's, he sings first and then the people in the church are singing after him, and it all ends "in a melancholy murmur."(citation, page 134)
Scout and Jem, whose names really are Jean Louise and Jeremy Finch are siblings, Scout is about 9-10 years and Jem are some years older. Their father's name is Atticus and they tell us that their mother died when they were little babies. That’s why I also think Scout is a tomboy because she grew up with only boys and had no female role model. The family have a housekeeper named Calpurnia (she's black) but they treat her like family. For example when it came a really cold and hard winter, Atticus asked if Calpurnia wanted to stay and that she didn't have to go home in the evening, on page 75. In chapter 13 their Aunt Alexandra moves in with them, to look after the kids during the summer but it seems more like she is there to make them more mature. One thing why Alexandra is there is because she want to make Scout more like a lady but Scout still doesn’t want to wear dresses she just wants to be herself, so it doesn’t really work out. Jem has also grown really much, he got older so people now call him Mr. Jem. Another example is that he doesn’t like to play with Scout anymore he just wants to read his football-magazines. Atticus is nearly fifty and almost blind on his left eye, and the kids think he’s too old and can’t do so much but when Mr. Heck calls Atticus one-shot Finch they changed their minds. Page 107
One evening when they had argued they were made to go to bed earlier, but when Scout came in to her room, something was on the floor under her bed. It was Dill and he had ran away from his father who didn’t care for him so he ran off to Scout and Jem in Maycomb and after they had made some calls and and convinced Atticus and Miss Maudi, he could stay in Maycomb.
One evening when Atticus all of a sudden went to ”work” he unusually took his car, which he never does. Scout, Jem and Dill had to check out what would happen, they thought he was at work but found out that he was by the prison. They watched him argue with some men about Tim Robinson and after a while Scout breaks in to stop them, so they wouldn't hurt her father, and to do that she starts talking about Walter Cunningham who goes in her class, to Mr. Cunningham and he got bad conscience so they left and both Atticus, the children and Tom went left by okey. On page 170.
When I had read the part about mockingbirds and later read where they were in court and Atticus defends Tom Robinson who Mayella ”think” raped her, I came up with an idea and that was that I think Tom Robinson is one of those who don’t make any harm to you, so why ”destroy” him? It also popped up in my mind that Boo Radley who we met in the beginning of the book also is one of these human mockingbirds, otherwise why would Harper Lee write about him?
I have two alternatives, and I can not decide which I think will happen. The first one is that they will find out who actually attacked Mayella, which I think is her own father. And also that Boo comes ”forward” and it becomes kind of a truce between black and white people, and that everybody realises that Boo and Tom aren’t ”animals”. My second alternative is that unfortunately Tom sentenced and they kill him because he raped Mayella and somehow something happens to Boo, and then both we readers and Scout self realises that they didn’t make any harm to ”us” and that they were mockingbirds.
