NAME: Alex Freitag DATE: March 2, 2008
TITLE: To Kill a Mockingbird TIME: 120 min. HOURS: 2
AUTHOR: Harper Lee PAGES: 323
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 50-150
In to kill a Mockingbird, Dill has come back, but he and Jem pay very little attention to Scout as they continue their plans to provoke Boo Radley. Dejected, she makes friends with Miss Maudie who lives on the end of the street. Miss Maudie bakes extremely good cakes and is very understanding, so Scout doesn't mind being around her at all. She manages to stop caring about Jem and Dill for a while, but when they take out a fishing pole, she decides she has to investigate. They don't tell her what their doing until she swears she'll help them. She does, and they reveal they're trying to throw Boo Radley a message with the fishing pole. As good a plan this might have been, Jem's aim can't compare. he takes so much time trying to hit the window shutters, Atticus comes out and asks them what they're doing chucking a fishing line at the Radley Place. When Atticus finally reads the nearly illegible note (from Jem's consistent missing) he puts a stop to them tormenting Boo Radley. They soon forget about it anyway, though, because that winter, something remarkable happens. It snows in Maycomb County.
There is a popular belief that sudden dramatic changes in the weather (since it hadn't snowed for many many years and in quite uncommon) are caused by naughty children behaving badly. Scout quickly takes a liking to the snow, even though when she first sees it, she believe it's the world ending. Other's though, like Miss Stephanie Crawford and Mr. Avery, blame Jem and Scout for the weather, scolding them. Jem decides to get back at Mr. Avery by making a snowman of him. Atticus tells him that there's not enough snow to build a snowman, but that doesn't stop Jem. He digs up some of their earth and piles it up into big balls and then packs the snow on around it giving the impression that it's all made of snow. Then they take make bodily features that look like Mr. Avery's. Atticus is impressed when he gets back and see's what Jem has done with such little snow, saying that he will never doubt that Jem can't overcome an obstacle. But when he sees it represents Mr. Avery, he bursts out laughing. Although, funny as it might be, Atticus naturally is nice and tells Jem to disguise it somehow. He does and Mr. Avery never notices that a snow version of himself is standing in the Finches yard.
However, the snow was not all good. Everyone in Maycomb had to keep fires blazing to keep warm. And naturally some people leave their fires unattended, resulting in the catching of some houses on fire, and fires spread, so when the Finches neighbor's house catches on fire, they have to get out of the house. But when it's night in the middle of one of the coldest winters they've ever had, it's hard not to freeze, and Scout almost does. But she realizes she has an unknown benefactor when she comes back inside and realizes she's wrapped in a blanket. Atticus quickly realizes that it was Boo Radley who had snuck up behind her and given her the blanket.
Christmas rolls around, and relatives come to stay with the family. Atticus is glad to see Scout's Uncle Jack and her Aunt Alexandra. Scout has to unhappily talk with her cousin Francis. Jem is mainly left to himself. Scout quickly grows bored by talking with Francis. They had almost nothing in common. Scout was excited about getting air rifles for Christmas while Francis asked and recieved clothes and a book bag. As the conversation continued, she became more and more bored, until Francis started saying things that she couldn't forgive. He called Atticus a 'nigger-lover' And ran far away enough that he could run without her catching him and continued to yell it at her. She acts like she doesn't care and he decides that he's safe so he says it again right behind her. She spins around and hits him hard, but Uncle Jack comes out and holds her down before she can hit him again. She yells at him saying she hates him, and runs up to her room to cry, since she got all the blame (Her ladylike, rumor-weeding doted to Francis and Francis untruthfully accused her of calling her names). Although, she works in her side of the story, and manages to get out of trouble. At the end of the chapter though, she overhears Atticus saying that they were going to be headed for tough times, and indeed they were, but not for about another year. Between that time they had troubles of their own.
When they got out of school again, they forgot about Boo Radley, and started focusing on Ms. Dubose, who was a nasty old lady. Jem and Scout try to ignore her, but when she says Atticus disgraces Maycomb since he will defend a colored man in court, Jem gets outraged. He manages to hold it in a day or two, but then he goes berserk, destroying all of her flower bushes. Her punishment for him is to read to her every day for a month for one hour. Jem has no choice but to do so, and brings Scout along. While he's reading, she catches him whenever he tries to skip a word, making it extremely annoying for him. But Scout realizes that as the minutes tick slowly by, she goes into a sort of trance. Finally, the alarm clock rings, and they go out. As they continue reading to her though, They notice something. It takes longer for the alarm clock to ring each day, and her trances get shorter and shorter. On the last day, his reading time has almost tripled, and she has no more trances. When the alarm clock finally goes off, she makes him say that she was right that he would be sorry for killing her flowers. He said he was, and after a few more insults and abuse, she let him go home. After a few days though, Atticus revealed that she had died. He revealed that she had been a morphine addict, and when the doctor said she was going to die in a few months, She decided that even though there was no benefit in it she was "going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody." His reading had helped distract her of the pain she was going through without morphine. But hard as it was, she had died very free and brave. This book is so good, I can't stop reading (or writing about) it. I find deep regret in the fact that somewhere the book will end, since I don't want to stop reading, it, it's so exciting. I will definitely continue to read it, and I can't wait to see what the next page holds.
TITLE: To Kill a Mockingbird TIME: 120 min. HOURS: 2
AUTHOR: Harper Lee PAGES: 323
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 50-150
In to kill a Mockingbird, Dill has come back, but he and Jem pay very little attention to Scout as they continue their plans to provoke Boo Radley. Dejected, she makes friends with Miss Maudie who lives on the end of the street. Miss Maudie bakes extremely good cakes and is very understanding, so Scout doesn't mind being around her at all. She manages to stop caring about Jem and Dill for a while, but when they take out a fishing pole, she decides she has to investigate. They don't tell her what their doing until she swears she'll help them. She does, and they reveal they're trying to throw Boo Radley a message with the fishing pole. As good a plan this might have been, Jem's aim can't compare. he takes so much time trying to hit the window shutters, Atticus comes out and asks them what they're doing chucking a fishing line at the Radley Place. When Atticus finally reads the nearly illegible note (from Jem's consistent missing) he puts a stop to them tormenting Boo Radley. They soon forget about it anyway, though, because that winter, something remarkable happens. It snows in Maycomb County.
There is a popular belief that sudden dramatic changes in the weather (since it hadn't snowed for many many years and in quite uncommon) are caused by naughty children behaving badly. Scout quickly takes a liking to the snow, even though when she first sees it, she believe it's the world ending. Other's though, like Miss Stephanie Crawford and Mr. Avery, blame Jem and Scout for the weather, scolding them. Jem decides to get back at Mr. Avery by making a snowman of him. Atticus tells him that there's not enough snow to build a snowman, but that doesn't stop Jem. He digs up some of their earth and piles it up into big balls and then packs the snow on around it giving the impression that it's all made of snow. Then they take make bodily features that look like Mr. Avery's. Atticus is impressed when he gets back and see's what Jem has done with such little snow, saying that he will never doubt that Jem can't overcome an obstacle. But when he sees it represents Mr. Avery, he bursts out laughing. Although, funny as it might be, Atticus naturally is nice and tells Jem to disguise it somehow. He does and Mr. Avery never notices that a snow version of himself is standing in the Finches yard.
However, the snow was not all good. Everyone in Maycomb had to keep fires blazing to keep warm. And naturally some people leave their fires unattended, resulting in the catching of some houses on fire, and fires spread, so when the Finches neighbor's house catches on fire, they have to get out of the house. But when it's night in the middle of one of the coldest winters they've ever had, it's hard not to freeze, and Scout almost does. But she realizes she has an unknown benefactor when she comes back inside and realizes she's wrapped in a blanket. Atticus quickly realizes that it was Boo Radley who had snuck up behind her and given her the blanket.
Christmas rolls around, and relatives come to stay with the family. Atticus is glad to see Scout's Uncle Jack and her Aunt Alexandra. Scout has to unhappily talk with her cousin Francis. Jem is mainly left to himself. Scout quickly grows bored by talking with Francis. They had almost nothing in common. Scout was excited about getting air rifles for Christmas while Francis asked and recieved clothes and a book bag. As the conversation continued, she became more and more bored, until Francis started saying things that she couldn't forgive. He called Atticus a 'nigger-lover' And ran far away enough that he could run without her catching him and continued to yell it at her. She acts like she doesn't care and he decides that he's safe so he says it again right behind her. She spins around and hits him hard, but Uncle Jack comes out and holds her down before she can hit him again. She yells at him saying she hates him, and runs up to her room to cry, since she got all the blame (Her ladylike, rumor-weeding doted to Francis and Francis untruthfully accused her of calling her names). Although, she works in her side of the story, and manages to get out of trouble. At the end of the chapter though, she overhears Atticus saying that they were going to be headed for tough times, and indeed they were, but not for about another year. Between that time they had troubles of their own.
When they got out of school again, they forgot about Boo Radley, and started focusing on Ms. Dubose, who was a nasty old lady. Jem and Scout try to ignore her, but when she says Atticus disgraces Maycomb since he will defend a colored man in court, Jem gets outraged. He manages to hold it in a day or two, but then he goes berserk, destroying all of her flower bushes. Her punishment for him is to read to her every day for a month for one hour. Jem has no choice but to do so, and brings Scout along. While he's reading, she catches him whenever he tries to skip a word, making it extremely annoying for him. But Scout realizes that as the minutes tick slowly by, she goes into a sort of trance. Finally, the alarm clock rings, and they go out. As they continue reading to her though, They notice something. It takes longer for the alarm clock to ring each day, and her trances get shorter and shorter. On the last day, his reading time has almost tripled, and she has no more trances. When the alarm clock finally goes off, she makes him say that she was right that he would be sorry for killing her flowers. He said he was, and after a few more insults and abuse, she let him go home. After a few days though, Atticus revealed that she had died. He revealed that she had been a morphine addict, and when the doctor said she was going to die in a few months, She decided that even though there was no benefit in it she was "going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody." His reading had helped distract her of the pain she was going through without morphine. But hard as it was, she had died very free and brave. This book is so good, I can't stop reading (or writing about) it. I find deep regret in the fact that somewhere the book will end, since I don't want to stop reading, it, it's so exciting. I will definitely continue to read it, and I can't wait to see what the next page holds.
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