Kyle D's Blog
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Archive of "To Kill A Mockingbird" Category
Character Analysis
The children learn right from wrong through many events in the novel, but Atticus teaches them specifically about how to be mature and to respect everybody even if they are different. If the kids are taught well when they are young, they might become good role models and they might be a good help in the future. It was good that Atticus allowed the kids to stay and watch the trial because it showed them how badly Black people were treated and Atticus wanted them to grow up and be able to respect everybody. “I agreed: they did not want us here. I sensed, rather than saw, that we were being advanced upon. They seemed to be drawing closer to us, but when I looked up at Calpurnia there was amusement in her eyes. When I looked down the pathway again, Lula was gone. In her place was a solid mass of colored people (119).” This quote supports my claim because it shows that African Americans respect whites and that Atticus taught the kids well because they are respecting all different kind of people. The quote also represents that Jem and Scout are maturing and growing up. “Cry about the simple hell people give other people without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too” (201). This quote shows that White people mistreat colored people and it shows that it is time for a change in the way people act on others.
Jem’s interaction with Mrs. Dubose teaches him what real courage is. Courage is standing up for yourself or for someone else. Jem new that Mrs. Dubose had a lot of courage because she wanted to break her morphine addiction. “She’d have spent the rest of her life on it and died without so much agony, but she was too contrary (111).” This quote shows that Mrs. Dubose had courage because she had the guts to try and defeat her morphine addiction. It showed Jem that he can step up and have courage just like Mrs. Dubose. If Jem and Scout paid attention to Mrs. Dubose, they would probably learn a lot of different things from her. Both Jem and Scout thought that their father was courageous when he shot a dog in just one shot, but that was not really courage because that was something that he knew what the outcome would be. To be courageous, you can’t know what will happen next because that is not as brave.
TKM Movie Response
In the movie, Scout was best portrayed the best because it showed how much she was like a boy. I believe this because she was always wearing overalls in the movie and was forced to wear a dress to school and she didn’t really like it. I didn’t think that Dill fit the characterizations presented in the book because he didn’t look as small as they made it sound in the book and I didn’t think that he would dress like it portrayed in the movie. I also didn’t think that Atticus was as old as it portrayed in the movie.
So far in the movie there have been a lot of good scenes, but one of them is my favorite. My favorite scene in the movie is when the mob of people surrounded Atticus because he was protecting Tom Robinson. The reason I like this scene so much is because Scout talked to Mr. Cunningham and she made the crowd of people go home and leave Tom Robinson alone.
I was a little disappointed with the movie because it would have been a very pivotal scene if they would have showed how Tom Robinson got shot. That scene was a complete change in plans for Atticus because now he is done with helping Tom Robinson out and he doesn’t have to go to the court house everyday now. I would have shown that he got shot because it is an important scene.
The book and the movie were almost the same, but some things were in different orders. A problem with having things in different orders is that it can be hard to follow. The book explained so much more than in the movie and the book was also easier to follow. Aunt Alexandra never came to take care of Jem and Scout in the movie and in the book, she wouldn’t go back home. Overall, I thought that the book was a lot better than the movie because it was easy for me to follow along and understand what happened in the book.
Lonliness and Boo Radley
For our Visual analysis, we chose to do a collage. In our collage, we chose to represent lonliness and we chose do show how Boo was so lonely. We found some pictures in magazines and we found some on the computer. Boo Radley is lonely because he never comes out of his house. We used pictures of some people that looked very lonely because Boo is so lonely in the book and we used some pictures of the things that were found in the knot hole of the tree because it shows that Boo Radley actually might have a heart. We also used a picture of a folded pair of jeans and it showed that when Jem went back to get his pants, they were folded and this shows that Boo might actually be a good person. The picture of the swing on the porch shows that Boo is lonely because it is always empty and nobody ever uses it.
TKM 3
While reading this section, I found myself thinking about why Dill decided not to come to Maycomb for a summer and how much that must have affected Scout and Jem because they were great friends. One part from this section of the book was when Atticus had to go to the state capital everyday for two weeks because the state legislature was called into session. Another part from this section is when Aunt Alexandra decides to stay with the kids while Atticus is away and she tries to teach Scout how to be more like a girl. An important idea from this section is that Dill ran away because he felt that his mother and his new father were not paying any attention to him and I started wondering why he came all the way to Maycomb to run away.
Dill felt that his Mother and his new Father were not paying enough attention to him and he decided to run away to Maycomb and hid under Jem’s bed. At first, I just didn’t understand why he didn’t give his parents a second chance to see if they will pay better attention to him and why he chose to run away to maycomb. After reading about this, I learned that Dill can’t really live without any attention and he ran away to Maycomb where Scout and Jem live because they really are his best friends and he cares a lot about them.
TKM 8-11
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird there are a lot of things going on in the book right now and I had to illuminate them. An important symbol in this section is the air rifles and they represent that Jem and Scout are growing up. The author created a setting when Jem and Scout get the air rifles and it created an image in my mind that they were growing and maturing. A conflict in the book is that Scout is not dressing enough like a girl and Aunt Alexandra is upset with her and that makes this a person vs. person conflict. The author creates emotion by having a variety of different conflicts and it creates a more unsettled tone in this section. If any character could be in my literature circle I would choose Scout because she is an interesting person. Scout would probably act and dresses like a boy and that would make her a tomboy.
After discussing the book with my literature circle, I learned that Sheboygan Falls is somewhat similar to Maycomb and the way kids act in Maycomb are similar to the way kids act in Sheboygan Falls. In this section, Scout and Jem got air rifles and I wondered if they were beginning to learn how to be an adult. They really wanted to use the air rifles but I thought that if they did, someone might get hurt. When I found out that nobody would hurt themselves, I knew hat Scout and Jem were beginning to mature. After reading this section of the book, I learned that kids will mature and grow enough to become a responsible adult.
TKAM Ch. 1-7
Sheboygan Falls and Maycomb are different in some ways because Maycomb is a little bit smaller than Sheboygan Falls and the school is a lot smaller than our schools here. The houses in Maycomb also sound a lot different from the way our houses are. I can connect with some of the people in the book because at their school in Maycomb, someone is always getting picked on or beat up like scout is and I see that sometimes in our school too. This book is similar and not similar to the other books I have read because there is a lot of bullying in this book and it is a very boring book in the beginning, but it is starting to get much better. When I was a kid I liked to play outside and climb trees and I was a very curious kid when I was little. I also tried to sneak into places and the kids in Maycomb do a lot of those things. The great depression also has a lot to do with our life because we are currently in a recession which is similar to a depression.
While we had a literature circle discussion, I learned some things that I didn’t understand that happened in the book. I couldn’t find out why scout got bullied and then acted like a bully. Scout, Jem, and Dill were afraid to see Boo but they were curious if anybody even lived in the Radley’s house. They want to learn more about Boo but none of them want to because they are so afraid. After this, I learned that kids are very curious and they like to figure things out. This is important because I think that Scout, Jem, and Dill will eventually have the nerves to go and meet Dill and see what he is really like.
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