Brittny W's Blog

In chapters 8 through 11 in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are various settings. A few of them that stood out to me included Miss Maudie’s house, and the area in front of the Radley’s. The others were the school that Jem and Scout attend, and Mrs. Dubose’s house.

I personally think the two most important events that happened in this section were the fire at Miss Maudie’s house and when Jem was forced to read to Mrs. Dubose as a repayment. The fire was important because it’s really a turning point in the book. It stops focusing on the kids’ childhood, and begins to disclose the development of Scout’s and Jem’s maturity. I also thought that having to read Mrs. Dubose really made Jem think about his actions. He ended up snapping and ended up having to deal with the consequences at the end.

I think the events influence the plot by forcing Jem and Scout to become more mature than they originally were. Before the fire we hadn’t heard of Scout really being afraid of anything, rather than disappointing her elders. During the event, Scout admits that she is scared of what’s going on. It also surprises her that Miss Maudie is still cheerful and positive even though she lost most of her belongings.  Reading to Mrs. Dubose made them realize that they shouldn’t pass judgment so quickly. Mrs. Dubose was sick, so in a way her cruelty to the children wasn’t always her fault. It taught them to take time to learn more about a person before passing any judgment.

I thought there were a few different tones to this section of the book. One that really stood out to me was I felt a sense of withheld information. Almost as if important information is being misunderstood or even unknown by the characters in the book. This causes a sense of suspense and tension. It makes the section seem very solemn at certain points.