To Kill A Mocking Bird notes to chapter 8

 Chapter 1

-          Family history.

-          Simon Finch made money from slavery, first example of hypocrisy as despite being a Christian he behaves in an unchristian way by having slaves.

-          The Finch lost their wealth in the Civil War.

-          Maycomb is old, past its best and suffered economic depression, lots of inbred families in Maycomb. Strangers are not welcome. “There was no hurry, was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with.”

-          the children have good childhood despite the poverty of Maycomb

-          The children see Atticus as “satisfactory” but not exciting

-          Scout sees Calpurnia as strict, doesn’t particularly like her because she feels that she gets punished more than Jem does.  “Calpurnia was something else again.  She was all angles and bones” and “her hand was as wide as a bed slat and twice as hard.”

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Radleys

-          introduced to Boo, seen as a monster by the children and the rest of the neighbourhood.  Any strange incidents are blamed on Boo. 

-          The neighbours think that the Radleys are strange because they do not go to church “Maycomb’s principal recreation” but instead worship at home .  They are unsociable and this is seen as odd because everyone knows everyone in Maycomb.

-          The children avoid the Radleys place because they are frightened of Boo.  The stories they have heard about Boo Radley have given them a stereotypical bogie-man picture in their minds. Prejudice of Boo:

Blood stained hands

Eats squirrels

Scared face

Yellow rotten teeth

Really tall

Stereotypical ‘boogie man’ monster

-          The children have grown up being told never to go near the Radley place. When old Mr. Radleys died, Calpurnia says “there goes the meanest man God ever blew breath into.”

The second example of hypocrisy is Mr. Radley who thinks himself as a religious man however he doesn’t let his son see the outside world.

Chapter 2

-          Miss Caroline

-           Scout and her class are suspicious and have a prejudice against her as she comes from Winston County which fought on the other side of the civil war, and Maycomb history is very important to them.

-          Everyone is wary of her as she is new in Maycomb.

-          Tells them a story which they can’t appreciate because they have led such hard lives.  Scout talks about the children - “most of whom had chopped cotton and fed hogs from to the time they were able to walk.” They have already left childhood far behind.

-          Smacks scouts hand showing lack of knowledge on common punishment

-          “She looked and smelled like a peppermint drop.” We also get the impression that she is very pretty because when Miss Maudie introduced the children to her “Jem was in a haze…