Her hopes for a fun summer vanish when Dill informs them that he won't be coming and Atticus has to travel away for work. In the summer Jem almost turns 12 and after years of telling Scout not to act like a girl now starts telling her to act more like a lady which frustrates her. Atticus tells them that she had been battling an addiction and her behavior was due to withdrawal symptoms and that they should be impressed by her courage even if she was mean at times. Scout and Jem read to her for a month and soon after, she dies. Dubose makes Jem read to her every night for a month. Atticus makes him apologize and as punishment Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose constantly makes fun of Atticus defending Tom Robinson and in response, Jem destroys some of her flowers. Miss Maudie explains to them that Mockingbirds only sing to create joy for people around them which is why killing them is wrong. They receive air rifles for Christmas and Atticus tells them to never kill a mockingbird. The children wonder why the townspeople are so critical of Atticus and don't think it's fair. Later that night she hears Atticus talking to his brother Jack about being worried about the children. At Christmas one of the children call Atticus a “nigger lover” and Scout loses her temper and fights him. He tells the children that it is the right thing to do but they will face backlash from the community and that they should just ignore it. On the way home, they notice a blanket around Scout’s shoulders that must have been put there by Boo Radley.Ĭlose to Christmas, Atticus takes on the case of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. That night Maudie’s home catches fire and the children watch from the road outside Boo Radley's property. Surprisingly, the weather turns cold in Maycomb and the children see snow for the first time. When Atticus finds out he disapproves and asks them to stop. Dill returns for the summer and the three children start playing a game where they reenact the gruesome stories they have heard about Boo Radley. At the end of the year, she and Jem find pennies in the knothole and decide to keep them. She always runs past Boo Radley's house on the way back home but towards the end of the year sees two pieces of gum in a knothole on a tree at the edge of his property. The rest of the school year goes no better than the first day for Scout. In the evening Scout asks Atticus if like Burris she can skip school as well, but he explains that people feel sorry for the Ewell children because of the way their father raises them and that she must continue going to school. Burris starts swearing at the teacher, driving her to tears. The children explain to her that all the Ewell children only attend the first day. She asked him to go home and take care of it, to which he laughs saying that he's never coming back to school. Later, back at school, Miss Fisher finds lice on the head of Burris Ewell. Scout complains to Atticus about Calpurnia and asks him to fire her but he refuses. Calpurnia punishes Scout by making her eat alone in the kitchen. He invites Walter to have lunch at their house where Scout further bullies him, saying that he is “just a Cunningham”. Later in the day, Scout confronts Walter about embarrassing her which Jem quickly puts to a stop. Annoyed, Miss Fisher makes Scout stand in the corner. She offers to buy lunch for Walter Cunningham, which he refuses, and Scout explains to her that this was a mistake because Walter’s family was too poor to pay her back. Miss Fisher is new to town and does not understand the intricacies of the social structure. Her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher Is surprised to find out that Scout can already read and write and tells her that she should not learn from her father. Scout is excited about her first day at school but it does not go well. The summer ends and Dill goes back to his home in Meriden, Mississippi. The children are fascinated by the house of Boo Radley, a man who has not been seen for years, and the rumors about him saying that he stabbed his father and is a dangerous man. She goes on to describe her father Atticus Finch as satisfactory, their black housemaid Calpurnia as strict, and the nephew of their neighbor Charles Baker Harris, or Dill, with whom the brother and sister become good friends. She gives a quick introduction of how her family came to Maycomb, Alabama from Cornwall a few generations ago. Jean Louise Finch or Scout as she is known in the book starts by telling the story of how her brother Jem broke his arm when he was 13.
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