Choose two of the following quotes and do one or more of the following for each (4+ sentences each). Respond to each other whenever it makes sense to do so.
- Give your opinion about the idea expressed in the quote.
- Explain the significance of the quote (or part of the quote) to the greater themes of the novel.
- Write an assertion about the quote and explain how the quote supports it.
- Explain the contradictory ideas in the quote and develop an idea about the significance.
Ms Bularzik's Blog 
1. I was playing in it with the spoon. “I thought Mr. Cunningham was a friend of ours. You told me a long time ago he was.”
“He still is.”
“But last night he wanted to hurt you.”
Atticus placed his fork beside his knife and pushed his plate aside. “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man,” he said, “he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us” (210).
Atticus contradicts himself in this quote by stating that Mr. Cunningham is a good man, but has his downfalls. He explains to Scout how Mr. Cunningham is a good friend of his, although “last night he wanted to hurt [Atticus]” (Lee 210). It is important that Atticus tells Scout that everyone has their “blind spots.” This implies that no matter how good one thinks someone else is, everyone has bad in them.
I think that is interesting because he is basically forgiving him for what he has done. Atticus says he has his “blind spots” what he is trying to say is everyone makes mistakes. Not everyone is going to make the correct depiction 100 percent of the time. Still Atticus gives an understanding reason for Mr.Cunninghams actions.
I disagree with Melinda when she said that Atticus contradicted himself when he said “Mr.Cunnigham’s basically a good man,” because everyone makes mistakes. However, I agree with her when she said that Atticus should tell Scout that everyone has their own “blind spots”. Everyone has their own set way of thinking and it may disagree with another persons way of thinking. Not everyone is the same.
The point Atticus is trying to tell Scout is Mr. Cunningham was blind with his emotions and want of a sort of revenges. Also Atticus states everyone has “blind spot”, which is important, but also it’s show throughout the entire novel so far. For an example of a “blind spot” for Scout was fighting others for calling Atticus a “nigger lover”, like with her cousin, Francis. The quote shows everyone sometimes act without completely thinking and everyone has a dark side to them.
This quote explains a lot about the conflict. Mr. Cunningham is friends with Atticus but is part of the group of men who do not support Atticus. Scout is too young to understand why he is acting this way. In TKAM, Mr. Cunningham is friends with Atticus but does not support his decision; Lee suggests that it is okay to disagree with friends. This is important because not having the same thought with friends is okay.
Atticus tries to explain that Mr. Cunningham is just being human. Yes he tells Scout that Mr. Cunningham is a good man, but everyone has personal beliefs. He explains that Mr. Cunningham is still their friend, but like all friends they may differ in beliefs. He wants to stress to Scout that no matter what happens they are still friends and they have to remember that there is good in everyone.
Atticus is trying to make a point to his children about how good people can act irrationally and make poor decisions. He is telling them that even people who are good in general can have morals that wrong. You could also say this quote illustrates the novel’s theme of not judging people until you “crawl into their skin”. Atticus knows that Mr. Cunningham’s actions that night were wrong, but he also knows that Mr. Cunningham has different morals than he does. So, Atticus only saw the night before as a mistake on Mr. Cunningham’s part and decided not to hold it against him considering no one was hurt.
Here in the quote, Scout is trying to ask Atticus why Mr. Cunningham would try to kill and or hurt Attivus and Tom. Scout just does not understand why he was doing that. Atticus somehow still supports Mr. Cunningham after what he tried to do and tells Scout that he still “has his blind spots”.
Atticus is trying to tell scout that he had pressure on him and he cracked while under it. The book described it as “blind spots.” Mr Cunningham had peer pressure on him from the others in his group and he just did what they were doing. I understand why Atticus is on Mr. Cunninghams side and Atticus doesn’t hate him.
I don’t understand how to do this.
Atticus is saying that Mr Cunningham is a good man but he has flaws. Atticus is saying that people can be very good people but they will always have flaws. The “blind spots” are where people are weak. This could be that a person could be extremly talented in one thing but is weak in another
2. “A mob’s always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Every mob in every little Southern town is always made up of people you know–doesn’t say much for them, does it?” (210).
Atticus believes that Mr. Cunningham won’t have killed him, maybe hurt him a little, but nothing more. As he states “he was still a man”, indicating that Mr. Cunningham was not a monster or a beast of any sort. Yes, Mr. Cunningham did would have used force to get to Tom Robinson, but they won’t kill Atticus. Also Mr. Cunningham was just blinded with anger, until Scout snapped him out of it.
Also I forgot to mention that the quote is reasonable in quite a few ways. Also the Atticus seems relax while saying such a thing.
I agree with this quote. It’s almost as if a mob is someone’s secret life. Mr. Cunningham is a good example for that. Scout thought that she knew him just because Atticus helped him. But, he was part of this mob. Scout was surprised to see him because she thought he was not that kind of person.
3. “Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children…you children last night made Walter Cunningham stand in my shoes for a minute. That was enough” (210).
Scout, Jem and Dill were able to stop Mr. Cunningham and his friends from causing trouble. The idea expressed in this quote is a good idea and a bad idea as well. It’s a good idea because children are innocent and can sometimes make you rethink about what you where about to do. For example when Scout was trying to make conversation with Mr. Cunningham she was just trying to be proper and she was able to bring back humanity to Mr. Cunningham and make him rethink of what he was about to do. However, they’re are some crazy people out there that could harm children without a care. The theme connetion from the other parts of the book is when Atticus told Scout and Jem to not kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds are innocent creatures just like children and I think Mr. Cunningham was able to see the innocents in Scout which made him back down and not harm anyone.
This quote shows that Mr. Cunningham and the mob were able to be stopped. Jem, Scout, and Dill were able to stop the mob just by talking to them. Scout was using her conversation skills that she learned to talk to Mr. Cunningham. This quote also shows that Mr. Cunningham has sort of a soft side because after Scout talked to him he didn’t want to hurt Atticus anymore.
This quote is very important to what happened the night before. It shows Walter backing out when he sees the children come out. In TKAM, Walter threatens to hurt anyone because of Atticus’s decision until the kids come out; Lee suggests that saying something and actually doing it are two different things. This is important because hurting anyone or anything is always the wrong thing to do. Even if someone doesn’t realize it until someone is about to do it.
I do not think that Scout realized what she was doing when she was talking to Mr Cunningham. Scout was just trying to talk to him, but she ended up talking him out of hurting Atticus. I think that Mr Cunningham started to stand in Atticus’s shoes and picture his son trying to talk to Atticus. I think that he realized that Atticus would not hurt his child or him, so he shoudnt do that to them.
This quote is very important and Atticus should stress this to Jem and Scout. That no matter what their friends do they must remember the good inside them. Atticus explains to Jem and Scout that some of their friends may need a reminder of who they are and that they are still friends. Atticus also may have realized that Scout really touched Mr. Cunningham with bringing up his son. It may have made him realize that despite their different beliefs that their families are friends.
Atticus tells Scout that she did a fine job last night when she made Mr. Cunningham realize the empathy towards Atticus. Atticus is proud of Scout because if she hadn’t done that, Atticus could have been hurt real bad. However, Scout does not realize that she saved Atticus. She just thought she was being polite when she said hello to Mr. Cunningham.
Scout was able to stop Mr. Cunningham and the rest of the jail group from hurting Atticus and Tom Robinson. Atticus says, “maybe we need a police force for children” (210). Scout managed to talk to Mr. Cunningham and make the group leave through talking, not violence. Atticus is thinking that if the children were a “police force” then they could solve problems without violence.
4. “They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ’em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ’em because they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere” (215).
Jem explains to Scout how no one wants to be around Mr. Dolphus’s kids because they’re half white and half black. Everyone’s actions towards the children emphasizes how bad racism was back then. Not only did whites not want them because they were half black, but blacks were also racist towards them since they were half white. This proves that racism went both ways for some people.
Jem explains to Scout how Mr. Dolphus has mixed children that are half white and half black. I think the idea expressed in this quote is terrible. Jem mentions how they don’t belong anywhere. I think that they should be accepted in both of the races because they are white and they’re black so they should belong to both races. The connecting theme from other parts of the books is racism. Jems description is kind of pointing that racism exists on both side because black people won’t accept the kids because they’re half white and white people won’t accept them because they’re half black. The book as been showing that the racism comes from white people but the quote kind of shows that rascim comes form both sides.
Jem is explaining to Scout how big segregation is in the south at that time, and how racist people are. This quote can also connect to theme of judging someone by their last name (except this time with race). In Maycomb people have a habit of judging people almost immediately due to their last name and or race. White people immediately assume that all “colored” people are uneducated and are bad people. meanwhile, “colored” people immediately assume that white people are all stuck up and condescending. Which is why why biracial children do not fit in in Maycomb. This is what Atticus is trying to teach his children not to do.
5. “Lemme tell you somethin’ now, Billy,” a third said, “you know the court appointed him to defend this [man.]”
“Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.”
This was news, news that put a different light on things: Atticus had to, whether he wanted to or not. I thought it odd that he hadn’t said anything to us about it–we could have used it many times in defending him and ourselves. He had to, that’s why he was doing it, equaled fewer fights and less fussing. But did that explain the town’s attitude? The court appointed Atticus to defend him. Atticus aimed to defend him. That’s what they didn’t like about it. It was confusing” (218).
This quote is important because the town does not think that Atticus should defend Tom because they think of it as Atticus going against his race. i think that Atticus did not tell Jem and Scout because he wants them to think that he just defended him because he wanted to. I think that it was a good thing that Atticus didn’t tell Jem and Scout because they would have not learned a lesson from what is happening. The first lesson is learning how to not fight back. The second is that people should always do what is right, and to do it willingly because they will feel guilty because of it.
” Mr Cunningham’s basically a good man he just has his blind spots along wit the rest of us”. In my opinion this quote accurately describes the people in society. Nobody is perfect and Atticus sees that. however it takes a special kind of person to be able to except that in people and look past the negative qualities people have. We can only see qualities in people we want to and ignore the ones we don’t want to see.
“Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children…you children last night made Walter Cunningham stand in my shoes for a minute. That was enough” (210). This quote has some contradictory elements. if we had a force of children in the word we would do everything from there point of view. Their point of view can simplify things in society. However children don’t have the sophistication to deal with problems in todays world.