Respond to two of the following prompts in 2 separate posts of 4+ sentences each. At least one of your posts must be a response to a classmate’s post. You will get extra credit for extra posts.
- Bravery
Scout narrates, “It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived” (134). What times are these? From this quote, how do you think Scout would define bravery? Are there other moments in the book that exemplify this type of bravery?
- Climbing into someone’s skin:
Atticus has told his children to try to see situations from others’ perspectives. Try to look at this chapter from Mrs. DuBose’s perspective. Can you excuse her behavior in any way? If so, how? If not, why not?
- Analyze the significance of one of these literary devices:
Mrs. Dubose calls Jem and Scout “the sassiest, most disrespectful mutts who ever passed her way” and also says that “A lovelier lady than our mother never lived” (133).
“Two geological ages later, we heard the soles of Atticus’s shoes scrape the front steps” (138).
- Explain the significance of one or both of these quotes:
Atticus says, “This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience–Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t try to help that man” (139).
Atticus says, “[B]efore I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” (140).
- Scout’s narration:
Some critics contend that Scout narrates with the perspective of a child experiencing the story but with the style of an adult reflecting on her childhood. Examine one of the following lines (or another one from the chapter) to explain how it reveals Scout (the child)’s innocence as well as Scout (the reflective adult narrator)’s command of language. How does the contrast in perspective create humor?
“Having developed my talent to where I could throw up a stick and almost catch it coming down, I had caused Calpurnia to deny me entrance to the house every time she saw me with a stick in my hand” (134).
“What Jem did was something I’d do as a matter of course had I not been under Atticus’s interdict, which I assumed included not fighting horrible old ladies” (137).
“I hated him for that, but when you are in trouble you become easily tired: soon I was hiding in his lap and his arms were around me” (139).
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Prompt #1
Scout see’s bravery in her father Atticus because she sees her father as a person that can always stand up for what is right. He does not need a gun or fight in wars to prove his bravery. Also, he cares for others, and is positive with others, and always helps people. He has no prejudices, and treats everyone the same. Also, he does not care what anyone thinks, and will always do the right thing.
I see your point Mariano, and I also agree with you. I also think that Scout thinks Atticus is brave because of how he stands up to Mrs. DuBose. As we find out later in the chapter, or half of the chapter, Jem completly “loses his head” and destroys DuBose’s flowers. Atticus on the other hand acts like he always does to people and doesnt take any effect on Mrs. Duboses’s insults.
I can see where Owen and Mariano come from. The “times that Scout is talking about is the times where Atticus becomes her role model and stands up for himself to people who do not like him. She feels that Atticus isn’t physically brave. She thinks he is mentally brave.
I agree with your point Mariano. Wile i do think that scout looks up to Atticus for sticking up for others and doing whats right I think it has more to do with Mrs. DeBose. Scout always gets into fights usually because her pride or her family’s pride is being slandered. However thought this Atticus can take every insult and any name he is called and doesn’t care. Even Jem, who is usually relaxed, couldn’t deal with Mrs. Debose’s insults and Atiicus just simply doesn’t care and perseveres witch I think is more the reason why scout looks up to Atiicus thinking he is brave.
Mariano said “Scout see’s bravery in her father Atticus because she sees her father as a person that can always stand up for what is right and his point makes sense not just because he dosent need guns to prove his bravery. Atticus shows his bravery to his children by having his own opinion about the African Americans that like about Maycomb and not caring that people will judge him on his belifes because like Mariano said “he treats everyone the same”.
Prompt #2
If you look at this chapter from Mrs.DuBose’s perspective, in some ways you could excuse her behavior and some ways you cannot. You can exuse her behavior at some extent because it is not really her talking. This means that the morphine is affecting the function of her personality, and the way the brain thinks as well. So, in some ways what she is saying might not be in her somewhat control. But, in some ways you cannot excuse her behavior because if Jem and Scout were just walking by the house, without talking to her and she decides to go off on them for no reason, that possibly might not just be morphine. It could have something to do with that she is just angry a lot.
I think your reasoning is on point. Mrs.Dubose’s behavior can be excused sometimes but it cannot be excuses sometimes. She is very old and may be losing control of her body and maybe even some brain functions but that doesn’t excuse her from constantly being mean to Jem and Scout. Mrs.Dubose told scout and Jem that their father should have remarried and not have let them do what they want or “let loose” like mutts (Lee 133). This was completely unnecessary and was her just being mean. She could have kept it to herself but instead she let the insults out.
Atticus does not need to use weapons to fight which shows he is not afraid of being in danger. Especially since Atticus has a gun and doesn’t use it shows he is brave. He is also brave enough that he helps a black man on trial despite everyone making fun of him for it. He is not afraid to go his own way and make the right choice. That is how Scout defines being brave.
This is prompt 1 by the way. I forgot to mention that.
I agree with Tyler when he says that Atticus is brave because he defends a black man when knows everyone in the town is going to hate him for it. On the other point about atticus not fighting with guns I don’t think scout even thinks about that. She really only likes to focus on the good of her father and I don’t think she likes to think about when her dad didn’t tell her about how good he was at shooting. Though she does think it’s cool her father has such a good shot
I agree with both Brendan and tyler but I beleive that Atticuss also showed bravery another way. For Atticuss to stand out and do something when no one was doing anything showed a sort of bravery where people rarely express and he did. And scout saw that.
The literary device two gelogical years later means that it seemed like forever for Jem to return. Scout was very worried about her brother because she cares about him. She says that he is all she’s got so if anything were to happen to him she would be hurt greatly. Obviously it didn’t actuslly take that long for Jem to get back but for scout it felt like it did.
I see where you are coming from Brendan, and I agree with your point. When you are worried or anxious about something, things seem to take longer then it really is to be. Also, I agree when you said that Scout cares about her brother. They are always with each other and always seem to have each other’s back. Also, this shows even more that Scout really cares about her brother Jem.
Prompt 4:
The significance of this quote is Atticus’ respect towards others. He says that he can’t go to church because he wouldnt be proud enough of himself to do something even so common amoung most of the town. He wouldnt even respect himself, or expect to be respected by others if he doesnt help Tom Robinson.
I agree with Owen when we said that the quote shows that Atticus’ respect for others. Also i think that the quote also shows that this shows that Atticus is at level six of moral development. Again he is saying that he can’t go to church if he doesn’t do this for Tom. And he even says that he wont have respect for himself which is in a way saying that if he does not do this he couldn’t live with himself.
I think that there are two excuses of why Mrs. Dubose does what she does. The first is that she is a sick old woman with nothing else to do with her life. Yelling at the children might be the only fun thing she does all day. The second is that she is an old lady so she might be old fashioned. She probably does not like the way Jem and Scout were behaving because it might not have been like how the kids behaved when she was younger. She grew up, and was taught how to act a certain way and she probably thinks that how everyone should behave. She was probably just trying to teach Jem and Scout how to behave like proper people.
I agree with Lorig because Mrs. Dubose is sick and her life is probably very boring because if your sick and old than your mostly in bed for the whole day. So the only thing she might due to get up and maybe feel better about herself by yelling at the children because she is stuck in bed due to being sick. Also, since she is old she has different manners and different rules that she think children should act. Like how they should act towards each other and how they should dress because when she was younger she was raised a certain way with different rules than the rules that Scout and Jem have.
I see your point Tyler,saying Atticus is brave and defends a man of differnt color, this makes him a man with courage and confidence. He is not afraid of much became defending a man of a differnt color in the book is making him a great man. In certain people’s eyes.
Like brenden stated the literary device does show that Jen loves his brother. Waiting for him to come home can creat suspense because he may not come home. It did not take a long time to get home but wording makes it longer becaus they do not know if they are hurt in a bad way or injured.
For bravery scout has very specific meanings of it. For one she stated that Atticuss NEVER uses guns, and as he used the gun she say him being ultimately unselfish. Even with his dislike for weapons he put it aside and saved the day. Also she belives bravery is something when no one is doing anything and coming out infront of the crowd and doing something shows bravery.
Seeing things from Mrs. Dubose eyes changes things. For one I think she is just bored and It is kind of sad that she has to resort to this kind of bullying to amuse herself. As well as to make herself seem more important to society were at her age she isn’t. The second excuse is she is probably under some sort of medication and has to go through certain things as she is at her age. She is simply grumpy and anything she can do to take her anger out of might help her keep her mind off it.
Mrs. DeBose’s story is a sad one it only can excuse some of the things she said. wile every addict is different most are more irritable not just angry. someone would have to irritate them to make them mad. Scout and Jem just said hi on there way by. Mrs Debose could be lonely and the kids where her only interactions or her morphine addiction was taking away some of her brain or even if it was her way of coming to grip with the inevitable there was a line i thinks she crossed were she insulted kids (scout and Jem) using Atticus and their mother who was deceased, against them.
In my opinion you cannot excuse Mrs. DeBoses behavior in anyway. I can understand that she is sick and old and old people can get away with literally anything they say. Although it think it’s ridiculous how rude she is. I think Jem’s reaction was what it should have been because she was being rude anpbout his family.
I agree with Marissa on that old people can get away with many things, but disagree on how she has full control over herself. Morphine can be a powerful thing, both physically and mentally. It can change the way people think and say things that they did not fully wanted to say deep inside. After she was “free” from the morphine, she seemed like a lot nicer person than she was earlier.
The literary device “Two geological ages” is a hyperbole because it is exaggerating about how long it took for the foot steps to go by them. Also “Atticus’s shoes scrape the front steps” would be visual and auditory imagery. It would be visual imagery because you can picture Atticus’s show scraping the front steps when he was walking. Next it implies auditory imagery because you can just hear the sound of a show scraping the front steps when he was walking because everyone has heard a shoe scarping steps in one point or another in there lives.
Scout thought that Atticus was the bravest man that ever lived when he held his head up high and held himself back from a fight with Mrs Dubose. In this quote, Scout would define bravery as holding oneself back from losing control of one’s self. Scout has shown this earlier in the book when she held her head up high and did not fight Cecil Jacobs. This shows bravery because even when he provoked her, Scout held herself and did not lose control of herself.
In chapter 11, Mrs. Dubose made many insults toward the Finch family, but some of those insults were out of her control. As said by Atticus, “her whole mind and body was concentrated on that alarm clock” (Lee 148). Mrs. Dubose was so addicted to the morphine that she did not care about anything or anyone else, and with the morphine in her system, it was very hard to not say anything that came to mind. Other times when she would get out of her way to insult the children and scream across the street, that would be mostly in her control and not the morphine.
when Atticus says, “[B]efore I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience” (140). Atticus is trying to say how at the end of the day he is the only one who has to feel the burden of his decisions and it doesn’t matter how mad anyone else gets he has to do what he thinks is right and if that means he defends a colored man then so be it.