To Kill A Mockingbird -Taylor Phan

When I first heard of our summer assignment, I thought that it would just be another complex book with themes and so on that would take hours to decipher. As I read through the first few chapters of To Kill A Mockingbird, I found that the book wasn't what everyone said it would be. The first chapters weren't very interesting, it began with a short anecdote of how her brother broke his arm and traced back to her ancestors to see how they're family came about. This is my personal perception of the first few pages as it may not be completely accurate.

About ten chapters into To Kill A Mockingbird the story begins to pick up and more characters are introduced. Dill was introduced in the first five chapters I believe, and he became Scout and Jem's play partner. As they would act out various scenes. At the end of summer he leaves, which I found usual, because he seemed like a character of importance. I predicted his importance from the way he took interest in the Radley family, Boo Radley to be specific. dill would always be the one to make a move to see if anyone actually lived in the Radley house. I had doubts about Boo Radley even being alive or still living in that town, because of his actions towards his father. Dill leaves but later returns next summer. Later, we find that Boo Radley, in fact still lives there when Miss Maudie's house burns down. Boo Radley appears and covers Scouts head with a blanket I believe and Jem was there to witness it.

Atticus is Jem and Scout's father, and he seems protective of his children. He's not very open, and he doesn't reveal too much about himself to the audience or the his children. For example around chapter ten, his children find out that he was once known as one shot Finch because of his accuracy when hunting. Jem tells Scout to keep it a secret, because if Atticus wanted them to know, he would of told his children himself.

Scout is the narrator, and she isn't very old. She just started first grade and she didn't like it much, because the teacher didn't teach her very well. When the teacher found out that she had been taught to read by her father, she wasn't very happy. She begins to dislike school, but her brother Jem told her that it will get better as time passes. In the novel, Scout is perceived as a trouble maker because of her actions, but from the audiences point of view, we can see clearly that she had a reason for everything she did. For example, when she went to the old house for Christmas. The child there named Francis had disrespected Scout's father saying that he was a "nigger-lover". Scout becomes furious and beats the boy up. Francis tells the grown ups and her uncle Jack spanks her. From our point of view, we can see that Scout was only defending her father, but the characters in the story didn't give her a chance to tell her side of the story until after she got spanked.