#gsawm

I’ve been doing a little bit of reading every now and then over the past few days, so I thought I’d post an update!

[Image desc: 2010 ed. of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird” open to the beginning of Chapter 17.]

I’ve been dipping in and out of this book for a few days now, probably about a week, so it actually surprised me when I realised I’d read up to Chapter 17.

I’d say a fair amount of things have happened since I last updated. I’ll see if I can remember everything!

First, we got a *hint* of detail about Atticus. Not that he isn’t mentioned a lot. We learn a lot about his evening habits, his day-to-day life as a father and lawyer. It’s almost natural that there’s little detail about his life before we meet him as the fifty-year-old lawyer. I guess it makes him all that bit more mysterious when he makes a clean shot at a mad dog.

We also get a small look - and it is quite small - at Calpurnia’s life when she takes Jem and Scout to her church one Sunday. We learn a little about the black community in Maycomb. We also see that Jem and Scout are almost known to them because of their father’s work. Atticus taking up this huge case in Maycomb is obviously well known to everyone, with everyone holding different opinions about it, although it’s quite clear that a lot of the racist, white people in Maycomb aren’t too pleased with how hard he’s working for it.

It’s also discovered that Calpurnia is Zeebo’s mother - the binman and also one of the few people at their church who can read. 

Jem and Scout also get a close encounter - somewhat - with death. Jem and Scout begin to visit a Mrs Dubose, an ill and elderly lady, to read to her. Being so old and so ill, it isn’t much of a surprise to the reader when she passes not much later in the book, although it’s quite obvious how much it rattles Jem. Jem and Scout both lost their mother, although I’m assuming this happened when they were both young, and I doubt either of them experienced it like this. Scout doesn’t seem to think over it so much, but the effect that it has on Jem is very clear.

Chapter 16 is the beginning of the trial - well, almost. Scout, Jem, and Dill squeeze into the courtroom after waiting outside with almost the enite population of Maycomb. I’m actually very excited to read the events of the trial, so I’ll probably zoom through the next part. I suppose it’s book FOMO in a way? So many people I know have read it and all these years I seriously had no clue what they were talking about. So I am excited to finally read through the court trial, as well as finishing the rest of the book!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m back with another update!

[Image desc: 2010 ed. of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird opened to the beginning of chapter 25. This image is my own]

It’s October 29th, the clocks have gone back, the nights are getting darker, and the wind’s blowing a little colder. Over the past few days I’ve been dipping in and out of TKAMB in-between Uni lectures, seminars, and whenever else I had a spare minute, reading from chapter 17 up to the beginning of 25.

This is going to be really hard to write about without spoiling, and I really don’t want to spoil it, but chapter 17 begins the court trail again Tom Robinson.

I could hardly put the book down during the trial. It’s so good. Naturally it’s a horrible case, let me be clear, but the way Atticus - who’s defending Tom Robinson - is in court is so well written. The way the story of the ‘crime’ unfolds is so well done, I seriously couldn’t stop reading.

With the result of the trial, Jen and Scout also share an interesting conversation. Jem’s growing up - another conversation had later on - and is beginning to make sense of things in a more adult way, forming his own opinions on things. Their friend Dill as well is also seen going through this thought process. It’s a little hard to tell if it’s their age which causes this change in thought, or the trial which causes it. Yes, Scout is also very clearly growing up in the book just by the way she thinks about current events, but the way Jem explains his views to her shows that he, being four years older, has more developed views that she does.

In chapter 25, Scout also begins to understand - or at least begins to see - what it means to be a ‘lady’, at least by Atticus’ sister, Alexandra’s standards. Gathering, discussing business and gossip, taking coffee in the afternoon. Scout clearly doesn’t want that when she grows up, still very much hooked on wearing britches and playing outside with her brother. Although I think in this chapter, Scout also sees that her Aunt is still a human being (despite the constant nagging from her) who is clearly affected by the alarming news they learn in this chapter - which I obviously shan’t be sharing here.

I’m very close to finishing this book, I should be finished by the end of October (only a couple days away!). I can’t believe I’ve kept this up (although not regularly) for so long. I’ve another four books to finish before the end of the year but I really think I can do this. Even if I don’t, I’ve really enjoyed doing this and I hope to do it again next year!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but my asks are open if anyone ever wants to drop a message or question - anonymous submission is fine as well ^^.

Thanks for reading!

I finally finished To Kill A Mockingbird! Before October ended, just as I had hoped as well.

[Image desc: Left image: The cover page of the 2010 ed. of To Kill A Mockbird by Harper Lee. The image features the silhouette of a young girl swinging on a tire swing, with the author and title to the left.

Right image: the bottom of the last page (page 309) of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. These images are my own.]

So today I read from chapter 25 until the end of the book! The last couple of chapters were actually really good, I think the book ended really nicely. But before that!

There’s this part around chapter 25, maybe 26 where Scout summarises the events of the book through seasons, which is quite a nice way of the character looking back and also a nice reminder for the reader about how much has actually happened throughout the book.

The last few chapters actually take place on Hallowe’en, which was a nice coincidence I suppose! Mrs Meriweather holds a pageant, in which Scout has the honour of being a Ham. Although it’s this which leads to Scout and Jem walking home late at night by themselves...

(spoilers ahead!!) (seriously!!!!)

Jem and Scout are attacked by an unknown man, thanks to Scout’s awkwardly shaped costume we have no details on who he could possibly be. Thanks to a stranger, Scout and an unconscious Jem make it back home. The doctor is called to help Jem, as well as Sherrif Heck Tate who investigates the scene, finding Mr Bob Ewell’s body, a knife through his ribs.

Two extremely interesting things happen here, and I’m a little mad that they only happen so late in the book.

Atticus is faced with the problem that a) his son has, effectively, killed a man, and b) the Sherriff is willing to hide it. Atticus, a lawyer through and through, is willing to have Jem go to court, have everything put in the open and allow Jem to continue with his life (for the most part), weighing up the conditions of self defence, the dark night etc.

On the other hand, Sherriff Heck Tate is willing to say everything’s an accident, that Ewell fell on his knife and let everyone in town be all that much happier about it.

The second thing which actually made me gasp is that we finally get to meet Boo Radley. There’s a couple things I wanted to say about this. Firstly, the way Scout acts towards him compared to how she would first act even discussing the Radleys shows how much she’s matured throughout the book - about a couple years time period I think - which was really nice to see. For so many weeks in the summer holidays would her, Jem and Dill make ‘plays’ about the mysterious Boo Radley, and now she’s treating him with respect, treating him as if she passed him every afternoon.

Secondly, it was really satisfying to finally meet this character of Boo Radley. Even though it wasn’t the main focus of the book, it was nice to have a continuous mystery. Almost, something to grab your attention long enough to bring you to the main ‘action’, is then forgotten - for the most part - during the resolve and is then nicely solved at the end, bringing the story to a neater end. Which I think is really clever.

So my thoughts on this book?

I think it’s really good. As a history student I learnt about the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 50s and as well we discussed the slave trade, but I don’t think we ever learnt about the times inbetween that. History at high school - at least in the UK - generally covers big events, so learning about attitudes or themes isn’t really covered. I’m not saying that this book is a perfect history of the south in the 1930s, and I really wouldn’t know, but I still definitely gained a much better understanding of those attitudes they held, and unfortunately the attitudes that people do still hold.

I don’t know if there is any discourse about this book, or about any of the things said in this book, so please let me know if there is, but I do think this is a really good book. I definitely recommend this book if you haven’t read it yet.

Thanks for reading!

Noisy upstairs neighbours meant I couldn’t sleep last night, so while I was up I picked up To Kill A Mockingbird once more!

[Image description: 2010 edition of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, opened to the beginning of chapter 10 and showing the double page spread of pages 98 and 99. This image is my own.]

So, last night I read from chapter 6 to 10. Now that I’m in Uni I’ve realised that neighbours aren’t always going to be following the same schedule as I am, unfortunately, and sometimes they’re seemingly rearranging furniture at 1am, or worse...

As I’ve only been reading in 1 or 2 chapter chunks up until now, from what I read last night it seems like quite a lot happened at a fast pace, but that’s probably just my strange pace of reading!

I don’t want to give too many spoilers, although that seems a bit redundant these days with people examing the book to near death in English classes. But for those who haven’t read it - as I haven’t - I think it’s important to read it yourself, and I don’t want to accidentally ruin the experience for you. If you want spoilers, the whole of the internet is at your fingertips, so go wild. But on this blog I hope to avoid major spoilers as often as possible for this book.

Continuing from what I said in my last post, I think we can defnitely still see Scout maturing quickly. Obviously there are a couple of situations where she still acts like any child her age, often copying actions - or phrases - from peers in school, but as a whole she’s learning and growing as a person. In fact I was pretty surprised to learn that, where I’m currently at in the book, she’s only seven years old. But even in those situations where she is childish or rash in the way she acts, she’s told off or corrected by an adult - often Atticus - and she quickly changes the way she acts in future situations.

The one time Scout does ignore what her father has told her is a time when I’m quite admirable of her, almost. I hope I don’t go into too much detail here, but the long and short of it is that she gets into a physical fight in order to defend her father (children spewing nonsence kind of defend, her father isn’t in a physically threatening situation!). When she’s questioned about it by her Uncle Jack - although confronted is probably a better word for it - she fusses that he hasn’t heard both sides of the story yet, which is something her lawyer of a father would of course always do, and even then she doesn’t want her father to find out the real reason why she was fighting. Yes, she went against her father by fighting someone, but Scout is an amazing seven-year-old for doing that to defend her father - who is of course quite high socially within town -, making sure she was given a fair trial so to speak, and wanted to remain humble about the whole affair. Scout, who, may I repeat, is seven years old, has this understanding of respect, justice and modesty.

Don’t get me wrong, that’s not to say Scout never has any wrong-doings. She makes mistakes, as any person does and certainly as any child her age does. But its undeniable how quickly she grows from her mistakes and how she changes her future actions to show that she’s learned.

Sorry, I didn’t set out to write an essay, I promise! Hope you enjoyed, see you around!