English

Key Events/Ideas

Mayella testifies and bursts into tears – has to be "mollified" by Judge Taylor
Atticus goes to question her – she takes offense at being called "Miss Mayella" and "Ma'am" - not used to courtesy
Atticus keeps asking questions to build a picture of Mayella's life
Confused when asked whether she has friends

Key Quotations

"he keeps callin' me ma'am an' sayin' Miss Mayella. I don't hafta take his sass"
"friends?"
"Except when he's drinking? Mayella nodded"

Key Events/Ideas

Heck Tate testifies – Atticus makes him repeat that Mayella was beaten on the right side of her face
Mr Ewell testifies – causes a ruckus – Reverend Sykes asks Jem to take Scout home because it is not suitable for her but he refuses
Jem is very excited by the proceedings – certain that Atticus has "got him"

Mr Gilmer objects when Atticus asks Mr Ewell if he can write but Judge Taylor overrules – shows Atticus' leverage over him and proficiency as they trust that Atticus is not time –wasting – even Mr Gilmer is described as "curious"

Key Events/Ideas

Aunt Alexandra tells Atticus not to talk in front of Cal – he shuts her down – patience waring thin - "a quiet digging in, never outright irritation"
Court day – Atticus asks the children not to go – everyone is going – like a "Roman carnival"

Jem tells Scout about mixed race children and Dill about all the people attending the trial
Scout discovers that Atticus had to defend Tom whether he liked it or not but that he wanted to defend him which gave him a lot of negative backlash from Maycomb

Key Quotations

Key Events/Ideas

Dill gets to stay at the Finches
"placid" week in Maycomb – Jem helped Dill and Scout build a rope-ladder for the treehouse

Heck Tate and "mob" arrive to ask Atticus if they should move Tom Robinson to the county jail but Atticus doesn't want to because he wants the whole of Maycomb to see the trial
Jem thinks it is a dangerous mob and pretends that the telephone is ringing – men scatter
Atticus and Aunt Alexandra argue AGAIN – she is the only person he ever argues with
Atticus leaves the house to watch Tom Robinson and the mob arrive
Jem and Scout and Dill go to find Atticus and get caught up in the mob

While Atticus tries to make Jem take them home, Scout talks to Mr Cunningham about his entailment and his son
The mob breaks up and the children go home
Tom Robinson speaks for the first time

Key Quotations

"That boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truth's told […] and you know what the truth is"
"they had been fussing again"
"A soft, husky voice"
"They've gone?"

Context

Lynching – when 3 or more people (a mob) murder another person as part of tradition or their own judicial system separate from the law
NAACP trying to raise awareness of lynching in the 1920's and make it illegal
Previously, lynching had been used to enforce the law and both black and white people were lynched. However, after 1890, lynching became a racial issue and the number of black people being lynched had grown drastically over the number of white people lynched
"first class" citizenship was a privilege, not a right, so people were determined to lie their lives in a particular way to become "first class" citizens

whites believed and said that blacks were starting to devolve down the evolutionary scale because of social darwinism – white people were seen as pure
Concerns over the purity of white women and their sexual abstinence being ruined by black rapists
Ida memphis – very close freind of someone who had been lynched because he was succesfully competing with a white store-owner – found facts and became a reporter to disprove that rape was involved when people were lynched
Many blacks were involved in consensual relationships with white women and got lynched for it
Social darwinism

How does Harper Lee think mobs should be stopped?

Jem – stops mob by saying that the telephone is ringing – reminds the men of ordinary life and they start laughing – scout suddenly realises "they were people they saw every day" and only now does she recognise them because they are no longer part of the mob
Sam Levy – tells mob that he "sold 'em the very sheets on their back" and reminded them of the kindness he had shown in the past – made them "ashamed"

Check out some of my other blogs;