To kill a mocking bird
Dialectical Journal
Jeff S2C9
Chapter1:P5
Q:Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran
back past us, not waiting to see if his foray was successful. Dill and I followed on his heels. Safely
on our porch, panting and out of breath, we looked back.
(E)By depicting Jem and the other two kids’ actions, such as “sped”, ”slapped”, ”out of breath” the
author highlight the common characteristic of these 3 kids---curious and audacious. Also, the
author want to show us the naughty nature of little kids.
Chapter2:P21
Q:Miss Caroline apparently thought I was lying. “Let’s not let our imaginations run away with us,
dear,” she said. “Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. It’s best to begin reading
with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage-”
“Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.”
(R)I think the author is trying to tell us that at that time, teacher is a special and ‘superior’ career.
Most of the teachers think that they are superior than other people, because there are only few
people that can read in old times. Thus those teachers think no one has the aptitude to teach.
Chapter3:P29
Q:“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all
kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of
view-” “Sir?” “-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
(C)The advice that Atticus gave Scout is very valuable because it can help you get on well with
others. When I was in middle school, I always think that I could understood people’s thought, but
actually I couldn’t. Thus I made a lot of misunderstood among my classmates. Now I realize that it
is actually impossible for you to understand a person completely.
Chapter4:P41
Q:Indeed, they were an endless Project that slowly evolved into a Unit, in which miles of
construction paper and wax crayon were expended by the State of Alabama in its well-meaning
but fruitless efforts to teach me Group Dynamics.
(E)The government didn’t know how to teach the kids in country side. They applied the teaching
method that is used in big city mechanically to the country side, causing this awkward situation.
Chapter5:P54
Q:Miss Maudie laughed. “Wasn’t talking about your father,” she said. “What I meant was,if
Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk he wouldn’t be as hard as some men are at their best.
There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve
never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”
(E) The author highlight Atticus’s character through Miss Maudie’s mouse. And at this point, the
author want to tell us that people should learn how to behave and know that doing what thing is
right and what thing is wrong.
Chapter6:P58
Q:“What is it, Dill?” asked Atticus.“Ah—I won ‘em from him,” he said vaguely.“Won them?
How?”Dill’s hand sought the back of his head. He brought it forward and across his forehead.“We
were playin‘ strip poker up yonder by the fishpool.”
(F) Dill is a really smart and acute boy, he has the ability to make immediate response. It reveal
the naughty and the resourceful of the kids.
Chapter7:P67
Q:“Scout!”I ran to him.Someone had filled our knot-hole with cement.
(Q)From this chapter we know that Mr.Nathan filled up the knot-hole, but why? Why he is trying
to cut down the relationship with the Scout and Jem?
Chapter8:P76
Q:”You mean the Morphodite?” I asked. “Shoot, we can rake him up in a jiffy.”Miss Maudie stared
down at me, her lips moving silently. Suddenly she put her hands to her head and whooped.
When we left her, she was still chuckling. Jem said he didn’t know what was the matter with her
—that was just Miss Maudie.
(R) This scene happened after Miss Maudie’s house was burned. At first I was a bit confused
about the reason she laughed, I think maybe she was kind of crazy. But later, I think it reveals the
way that Miss Maudie treat with the calamity. People should let bygones be bygones, be more
optimistic, and live in the moment
Chapter9: P93
Q: “Your daughter gave me my first lesson this afternoon. She said I didn’t understand children
much and told me why. She was quite right. Atticus, she told me how I should have treated her—
oh, dear, I am sorry I romped her.”
(R)Scout tells Jack about her real thought. The only reason for why the conflict begins is that Jack
refuse to left Scout to explain for her behavior. Jack then understand her and feels regret.
At this moment, Scout give a lesson to an adult---Everyone can be a teacher, and this is not
related with your age or your education background.
Chapter10:P108
(Q) “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the
blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s
gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.”
(R) In this world, there are always a lot of people like “Mockingbird”, they do their own things in
peace, and they help others, never making troubles.They do nothing wrong. However, this is a
world with darkness, and this is a world where good men, bad men both exist. There will be some
bad men to kill the “Mockingbird”.
(E) The author want to tell readers that there are a lot of “Mockingbirds” in our real life, and it is
a sin to harm those people.
Chapter11:P119
(q)Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect
camellia. It was a Snow-on-the-Mountain.
(E)I think at this point Mrs.Dubose has forgiven Jem for what he did. But Mrs.Dumose is not a
very articulate person and is not very articulate, so before she dies, she is willing to send flowers
as a way of thanking Jem and Scout for what they did to her.
Chapter12:P135
(q)We were surprised one morning to see a cartoon in the Montgomery Advertiser above the
caption, “Maycomb’s Finch.” It showed Atticus barefooted and in short pants,chained to a desk:
he was diligently writing on a slate while some frivolous-looking girls yelled, “Yoo-hoo!” at
him. ”That’s a compliment,” explained Jem. “He spends his time doing ”things that wouldn’t get
done if nobody did ‘em.”
(R)The first is jem's growth: instead of being angry, he takes an optimistic approach to explaining
the comic to Scout.The second point emphasizes the local cultural background: black people are
cheap, and white people who do things for black people are also cheap, and Atticus is the victim
of this culture.
Chapter13:P151
(q)I felt his hand on the back of my head. “Don’t you worry about anything,” he said. “It’s not
time to worry.” When I heard that, I knew he had come back to us. The blood in my legs began to
flow again, and I raised my head. “You really want us to do all that? I can’t remember everything
Finches are supposed to do…” “I don’t want you to remember it. Forget it.”
(C)Atticus is an enlightened father who doesn't want Scout to be overly rigid and be restricted by
those rules. And I think Atticus is a symbol of “new era”. He is the person who want to break the
“chains” and to free people from the morbid cultures.
Chapter14:P163
(Q) :Dill’s eyes flickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the
remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. “Atticus,” his voice
was distant, “can you come here a minute, sir?”
(E)In my point of view, the abandon of ”The remaining code of our childhood” is a sign of the
mature of Jem. While Scout and Dill immersed in the happiness of their childhood, Jem had
already stepped into the world of adults. He knew not everything could be solved on their own--some things must be solved by the adults.
Chapter15:P167
(Q):I dressed quickly. We waited until Aunty’s light went out, and we walked quietly down the
back steps---there was no moon tonight.
(P):I think “a night without moon” is a kind of foreshadowing: It is the common sense that evil
and bad things exist in the dark, and the night that Atticus went out is a night without moon light.
The moon that represent holy was blocked by dark cloud, indicating that something bad might
happen to Atticus in the later chapters.
Chapter16:P178
(Q): Some invisible signal had made the lunchers on the square rise and scatter bits of newspaper,
cellophane, and wrapping paper. Children came to mothers, babies were cradled on hips as men
in sweat-stained hats collected their families and herded them through the courthouse doors.
There were few women and children among them, which seemed to dispel the holiday mood.
They waited patiently at the doors behind the white families.
(R)I think the phrase ”dispel the holiday mood” is a bit afford for thought. The white people in the
town didn't seem to care whether Tom had committed a crime or not. The men brought food and
whisky; the women even brought their own children to watch this trial.
Chapter17:P191
(Q):All the little man on the witness stand had that made him any better than his nearest
neighbors was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was white.
(C):I think this quote underscore the desires of the black people to be come white. In that time,
the skin color can actually represent the advantages that you have: If you are black, then you will
be an inferior; but if you are white, then you will be superior than others.
Chapter18:P211
(Q):A young girl walked to the witness stand. As she raised her hand and swore that the evidence
she gave would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help her God, she
seemed somehow fragile-looking, but when she sat facing us in the witness chair she became
what she was, a thick-bodied girl accustomed to strenuous labor.
(P)From this part, we can actually infer that all of the Ewell's family’s testimonies were false,
because no man would have been attracted to such a dirty, slovenly woman who was fat and
stout. Also, I think there is also an irony here, too, that when the reader expects a graceful young
girl to appear, a rough working girl comes out, highlighting the ridiculousness of this accusation.
Chapter19:P221
(Q)Mr. Gilmer smiled grimly at the jury. “You’re a mighty good fellow, it seems—did all this for
not one penny?” ”Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her—” ”You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for he?
Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling. The witness realized his mistake and shifted
uncomfortably in the chair. But the damage was done. Below us, nobody liked Tom Robinson’s
answer. Mr. Gilmer paused a long time to let it sink in.
(R)Although the defendant proved that he himself didn’t commit the violence, one of his
defenses made a fatal mistake---"I'm sorry for her." At that time, black people were undoubtedly
inferior to white people, and such things as black people sympathizing with white people were
not allowed to exist, because black people were inferior and noble white people could not be
sympathized with by inferior people.This directly causes everything that Atticus did for him to fail,
and ultimately causes his death.