When I heard we had to read To Kill a Mockingbird for our summer assignment, I was pretty excited since I heard really good remarks about how great the book was. As a result, the book ended up being exactly what it was described to be and something I enjoyed reading once I started.
The story gives us a broad description of how life was lived in the deep South of Maycomb, from how the children would roam about and play and the racism towards African Americans, not to mention the roles of women and young ladies if you were one. This role of the typical girl gender would be having great manners and doing what young "ladies" should be doing. Social class also played a role in the story because the color of your skin. In the story there is a lot of suspense on what you would think would happen next such as the scenes with the Radley family. Everytime I read about them and the accusations of the Maycomb neighbors made me want to find out more about the Radley family and I still don't know about them. I really wonder how Boo Radley is, minus the gossip that goes around.
The story introduces many characters throughout the book, beginning with Scout and her brother Jem. Scout is the protagonist of the story, very strong and tough, mostly described as a tomboy. She doesn't care about what people think of her. She as a girl, loves hanging out with her brother Jem and Dill whom only comes and visits during the Summer. Jem is very brave and doesn't like to back down on any dares but tries to conquer all that is said that he can't do. Throughout the story he slowly matures and becomes the gentlemen he is suppose to be.Dill has a very active imagination almost to where you can't tell if he's lying or not. He is one reason why Scout and Jem do the things they do. All three enjoy their time, going on adventures and bothering Boo Radley, their neighbor who no one has ever seen after a scene that happened a long time ago. The children really want to find out more about there anonymous neighbor, from the way he looks and acts. By doing so, they take on challenging missions and sneaky trips that most kids would not dare to do after hearing how Boo Radly enjoys feasting on blood.
Life in Maycomb has its good and bads. The town seems very small since everyone knows eachother. We hear about each neighbor as the story goes on and Scout describes them. Education for the children is taught slowly and each child is expected to be on the same level as the others in the same grade. There is drama between certain neighbors and the Finch family since their father, Atticus Finch is accused of being a "nigger-lover". Boo Radly plays as a great symbol throughout the story bringing the importance of innocence as the story progresses. No one really knows about him but the stories they hear. He is like a child superstition in the town of Maycomb because all the dreadful things that he supposedly does to humans. From the little unnoticed things that he does for Jem and Scout, he becomes more intriguing to them. If he were really bad like he sounds, he wouldn't have put that blanket over Scout when the fire happened or sew Jem's pants when he ripped it at the gate when he was escaping. Boo seems to be just like everyone else but why does everyone analyze him as a bad figure in Maycomb? What really happened that day when he was outside with the knife?
Overall I can't wait to get more into the story as I read along. I finished Part 1 and I am slowly making my way into Part 2. I hope to hear more about Boo Radly since I haven't heard about him towards the end of Part 1. The story is really exciting and something I easily could understand.
The story gives us a broad description of how life was lived in the deep South of Maycomb, from how the children would roam about and play and the racism towards African Americans, not to mention the roles of women and young ladies if you were one. This role of the typical girl gender would be having great manners and doing what young "ladies" should be doing. Social class also played a role in the story because the color of your skin. In the story there is a lot of suspense on what you would think would happen next such as the scenes with the Radley family. Everytime I read about them and the accusations of the Maycomb neighbors made me want to find out more about the Radley family and I still don't know about them. I really wonder how Boo Radley is, minus the gossip that goes around.
The story introduces many characters throughout the book, beginning with Scout and her brother Jem. Scout is the protagonist of the story, very strong and tough, mostly described as a tomboy. She doesn't care about what people think of her. She as a girl, loves hanging out with her brother Jem and Dill whom only comes and visits during the Summer. Jem is very brave and doesn't like to back down on any dares but tries to conquer all that is said that he can't do. Throughout the story he slowly matures and becomes the gentlemen he is suppose to be.Dill has a very active imagination almost to where you can't tell if he's lying or not. He is one reason why Scout and Jem do the things they do. All three enjoy their time, going on adventures and bothering Boo Radley, their neighbor who no one has ever seen after a scene that happened a long time ago. The children really want to find out more about there anonymous neighbor, from the way he looks and acts. By doing so, they take on challenging missions and sneaky trips that most kids would not dare to do after hearing how Boo Radly enjoys feasting on blood.
Life in Maycomb has its good and bads. The town seems very small since everyone knows eachother. We hear about each neighbor as the story goes on and Scout describes them. Education for the children is taught slowly and each child is expected to be on the same level as the others in the same grade. There is drama between certain neighbors and the Finch family since their father, Atticus Finch is accused of being a "nigger-lover". Boo Radly plays as a great symbol throughout the story bringing the importance of innocence as the story progresses. No one really knows about him but the stories they hear. He is like a child superstition in the town of Maycomb because all the dreadful things that he supposedly does to humans. From the little unnoticed things that he does for Jem and Scout, he becomes more intriguing to them. If he were really bad like he sounds, he wouldn't have put that blanket over Scout when the fire happened or sew Jem's pants when he ripped it at the gate when he was escaping. Boo seems to be just like everyone else but why does everyone analyze him as a bad figure in Maycomb? What really happened that day when he was outside with the knife?
Overall I can't wait to get more into the story as I read along. I finished Part 1 and I am slowly making my way into Part 2. I hope to hear more about Boo Radly since I haven't heard about him towards the end of Part 1. The story is really exciting and something I easily could understand.
Hi Kathleen! I'm glad to see you've read all the way through the first part. I'm not quite there, but I can still identify with a lot of the ideas you've posted.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the theme identification you touched on at the beginning of your post, specifically concerning the distinction in Maycomb's hierarchy. Most easily seen in Scout, the role of a typical girl that you had mentioned constitutes as the main motivation for her internal disputes and resulting actions. Her struggle between whether to fit in with her brother or to follow her natural instinct and act like a lady serves as one of the story's strongest driving forces in the plot so far.
On another note, I'm also curious about how you've described Boo Radley. I have a slight idea about how you had identified symbolism within him -- just to clarify, it's because he's seen as such a horrifying figure even when he probably isn't even half as bad as he seems, right?
Anyway, I'll save the rest for my own blog later. Have fun reading the rest :)
All good stuff, just remember to be specific, cite items directly, use quotes, your argument will make more sense.
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