Chapter 2

Key Events/Ideas 

• Scout goes to school 
• Miss Caroline discovers Scout can read 
• Calpurnia taught Scout to write 

• Walter Cunningham has no money for lunch and refuses to take any because he cannot pay it back 

Key Quotations 

• "The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest" 
• "I'll take over from now and try to undo the damage" 
• "having never questioned Jem's pronouncements, I saw no reason to begin now" 

• "I thought I had made things sufficiently clear" 

Context  

• Wall Street Crash – October 1929 – people still suffering from it  
• Miss Caroline is an outsider and cannot enter the community easily as she has not grown up in it and does not understand it – close-knit 

Describe Miss Caroline. Try to explain why she is not immediately popular with the children. 

• Doesn’t fit into the community – outsider – doesn't know what it means to be a Ewell or a Cunningham 
• Always thinks that she is right 
• Wants Atticus to stop teaching Scout to read 
• Makes Scout feel guilty about being educated 

• Inexperienced 
• Uses corporal punishment 

What do we learn about the Cunningham family? 

• Very poor – pay people in goods because they have no money 

• Can't afford to give Walter lunch 
• Farmers – hit hard by the 1929 Wall Street Crash 
• Proud – won't take anything they can't pay back – not necessarily clever but about keeping standards and reputation 

What do we learn in this chapter about Harper Lee's view of the education system of the time? 

• Teachers are heavy-handed – no sensitivity or recognition of pupils' skills 

• Lessons not flexible or adaptable to the students' needs 
• Scout doesn't want to go to school – having to go back to basics when she can read