Illuminator Chapters 17-21

The most important symbolism that I saw in this chapter was Tom Robinson, because people knew that he didn't do the crime. People new he didn't do it but they wouldn't stand up for him because he was a negro and they didn't want a lynch mob to stop by their house after the trial. This is just like the real case of the Scottsboro boys, in that a lot of people knew they didn't commit the crime but they were too scared to stand up and say something. In addition to this symbolism what I saw was that the author works to create a picture through the use of imagery and the dynamic characters. The most important conflict was Man vs. Society. I saw this happening because really it wasn't Mayella against Tom but it was Tom being a black against the entire jury. The jury may have known that he was innocent but they wouldn't stand up for Tom. I think that if Atticus was in our group he would always be kind and not judgmental. He would be composed, and intelligent too. I can see this through the way he behaved in the Tom Robinson case.

Our group talked about how important and how symbolic the Tom Robinson case was. The Tom Robinson case holds a lot of value due to the fact that it directly correlates with real life. Tom Robinson is a representation of the Scottsboro boys. Both of them were accused of doing a crime that they didn't commit and they were both sentenced because they had a white jury. The juries knew that they were innocent but due to the common view that blacks were worth less than whites the people on the jury didn't want to be discriminated against due to their decision. That's mostly all we talked about because that's really what the chapter focused on.

What I found myself thinking about while reading this is that it doesn't matter what race, religion, or gender you are, you should be treated equally and fairly by everyone. I thought about this because it made me mad that Tom was send to prison then shot even when he didn't do a thing wrong. If the people on the juries in both the Tom Robinson and Scottsboro boys cases had thought about what is right, they may have made a different decision and changed history.

Director Chapters 12-16

Through this section I found myself looking at how the people relate to me. I found that the characters in the book relate to me because I find that I have had some of the struggles that Scout has had throughout the book so far. I notice that the way Scout and Jem get along is much like the way my brother and I do. We used to be close but then as he grew older we grew apart. I chose two passages from the chapters to describe how Jem and Scout grew apart."Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent." "Sometimes he went far as to tell me what to do." Both of these passages are on page 115 and I find that they are very descriptive of what my brother and I faced. I thought that over all, the most important idea from this section is that it really doesn't matter your race, gender, or economic status, everyone can make a difference and everyone is important. If the author was here today I would be really interested to see how accurate the section about the jailhouse encounter involving Atticus and Mr. Cunningham really is.

This week my group had a good, strong discussion. We really focused on how important the trial and everything was and about how the children going to Calpurnia's church is really important. The importance of the Finch kids going to church is that they are accepted by the people there as though they are the same. Also, as well, in addition to, we talked about how important it is that the people accepted the Finch kids. We had a miniature debate about how the people may only accept the children because their father is defending a negro, or that maybe that's not the case. We also focused on how the author portrays the beginning of the case and we made predictions about how the case might turn out and how that will affect the characters and the plot.

What I really gained from this was important. What these chapters reinforced in me was the view that it doesn't matter your race, religion, gender, or economic status, everyone is valuable. I saw this when the Finches went to Calpurnia's church and they realized that though the black people in the church may not be able to read or write that they can still gather and that they are people even though they may be to poor to afford hymn books or nice things, they still care and they still value each other and the things that they do have. Through this we can really see that everyone is important and that everyone has a role in the world, and that is what I am going to take away from these chapters

Summarizer Chapter 6-11

My english class is now well on our way through the adventure of Jem, Scout, Atticus and all their good friends and neighbors.
This section starts off with Jem and Scout in their small town of Maycomb. They take a walk on over to Ms. Maudies house to say farewell to their good friend Dill Harris. Dill, Jem, and Scout sneak over to the Radley house to take a look around. In a great commotion the kids run out through the back fence to see whats going on out front. On the way Jem loses his pants in the fence and runs out front. Later that night he returned to get them and they were waiting for him, hanging on the fence, all stitched up. Some time goes on past this and the kids find a ball of twine, a pocket watch, some more gum, and two carvings made out of soap that look like the kids. After they find these things Mr. Radley fills in the tree with concrete. During school Scout comes across several problems with kids at school due the that fact that people call her father "a nigger lover." When they go to the family homestead they hear the same talk of how Scouts father is nothing good and that he is bringing the Finch name down. Jem saves up some money and buys a locomotive for himself and buys his sister a baton. Jem uses the baton to ruin Mrs. Dubose's flowers and plants. For his punishemnt Jem is forced to go read to her. After five weeks of reading to her he is allowed to stop. Roughly one month later Mrs. Dubose passes away.

There are many things that my group noticed in chapters 6-11. We talked about how we  made a lot of different connections about the way things happened in the book and how they may have happened now in our day and age. We also spoke about the different symbolism that is shown through all the previously mentioned items that are found in the tree. I also found it rather interesting the amount of symbolism that is happening when Mr. Radley fills the tree's hole full of concrete. Over all we had a really good sturdy discussion over these chapters.

What I learned through all of the discussion that we had was really important. I learned that nothing in the books really relates to me so far but that it does relate to other people and therefore I think it is very important to realize that when Scout or Jem get into an arguement with their father or when they have troubles at school it is just like us and that even if someone else doesn't not understand how it affects people it really does and their adventures can help us to understand one another and we can learn from society to be acceptive of other people for who they are. When Scout and Jem go to church with Calpurnia they see that other people do things differently than they might but we are all people and there is no need for discrimination or hate.

Connector Chapters 1-5

As my tenth grade English class is reading To Kill a Mocking Bird. We are just starting into the book and just finished up with our first five chapters. We were just introduced to the characters Atticus, Calpurnia, Jem, Scout, and the good friend of Scout and Jem, Dill Harris.

I personally made several connections with the book. Between me and my town there are a gratuitous amount of similarities. The biggest connections that I made was that they live in a small town where a lot of the townspeople seems to know each other and share things. I see this all the time in our little town of Kalispell. I also can personally connect with Scout’s problems with teachers and other students not knowing about a certain idea or way to deal with problems or things like that. I also have had disagreements and problems myself with teachers. As well as this I see that I have several similar type people in my life like Scout. I have a brother that I used to play with all the time. In addition to this I have friends who I hangout with in the summer and it’s always a down point when school comes back around and I can’t spend my days playing and hanging out with people. This story has most of the regular components of a story, characters and that kind of thing. I think that the book is the closest book to Tom Sawyer. One connection that I think that others won't make about this chunk of the book is that I used to go past a house that was similar to the Radley house. My friends and I would play around and go around the house and things.

The discussion that the group had was all about how they saw things in their lives that directly related to them and the book. They also talked about literary devices and how the way that the two pieces of gum and the two pennies in the tree could be symbolism. They talked about how the setting and the characters could have an impact later on.

What I noticed in this book is that the kids are educated and that Scout has a lot of problems at school because of her higher level of reading and education. The teacher refuses to acknowledge that Scout is having difficulty fitting in because she is at a higher level of intelligence than the other kids. I saw this happening in school with myself. Though it didn't happen to me in the first grade I hit a point in seventh grade at which I had a better understanding of the material in several classes. This caused problems with my teachers because I didn't do the work because I already understood what was going on. Scout has the same problems and though it comes at a different point in time I understand where the other came from on this.