Month: February 2015

To Kill A Mockingbird
After listening to the first chapter again I noticed that in the first few lines we are allowed to see a glimpse of the future with the situations with the Ewells. The first chapter starts off a few years after the end of the book, after Atticus’ case with the Ewells and Tom Robinson. It prepares us with an argument between Jem and Scout which starts with ‘Who started it.’ ‘It’ being Jem’s broken leg.

The first chapter also uses alot figurative language to descibe the town and it’s people. I found this an interesting way to open up a story but also quite an effective way of introducing us to the town of Maycomb. Harper Lee tells us that ‘Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town’. This is a use of personification because a town, which is a location or conglomerate of people/ houses cannot be tired but instead shows us Scout’s feeling towards the town. Lee also uses a simile to describe the women of Maycomb, ‘and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.’

In this chapter we learn some more about the people in Maycomb county and the hierarchy of the people. We can learn from a quote from Aunt Alexandria that she doesn’t think very highly of the black community in Maycomb. After Atticus said in front of Calpurnia, at the dinner table, that “He despises Negroes, won’t have one near him”. Aunt Alexandria, after watching Cal leave, says that “Don’t talk like that in front of them.” She refers to Cal as “Them”, generalising the black community and also turning it into a derogatory term. This shows that Aunt Alexandria doesn’t have much respect for the ‘minority’ class in Maycomb which can range from the black community to the Mennonites from the forest.