Mockingbird Chapters Four, Five, Six, Seven finished
Kelso High School
English Department
‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Chapters Four, Five, Six, Seven – Learning
Intentions
• Plot Summary / Key Incidents
• Narrative
• Characterisation – Scout
• Characterisation – Jem
• Characterisation – Atticus
• Characterisation – Miss Maudie
• Characterisation – Boo Radley
• Theme - Growing Up
• Theme - Innocence
Chapters Four, Five, Six & Seven– Plot
Summary
• Spring / Early Summer 1934 – chapters 4 &5
Late Summer 1934 – chapter 6 / October / November
1934 Chapter 7
• The children are intrigued by Boo Radley who leaves gifts in a tree.
• Dill returns to Maycomb.
• The children try to entice Boo outside by delivering a letter.
• The children creep up to the Radley house.
• Boo transforms (in the minds of the children) from a monster into a human being.
• Boo leaves more gifts in the tree before his brother blocks the hole.
Narrative
• Interesting gap between Scout the seven year old who does not at the time realise it is Boo who is leaving the gifts and Scout the narrator who understands exactly what has happened
• Homework Task - quotation needed.
Characterisation - Scout
• Dill & Jem become closer and Scout feels left out.
• Homework Task – quotation needed.
• Scout spends time with Miss Maudie during which time she learns more about
Boo Radley.
• Scout’s innocence is illustrated by fact that she doesn’t realise it is Boo leaving the gifts.
• Homework Task – quotation needed.
Characterisation - Jem
• Jem tries to show Scout that he is not afraid by making up a new game involving pretending to be the Radley family.
• He is rebellious – lies about losing his trousers and continues to be interested in Radleys even though he has been told to leave them alone.
• Jem realises that Boo has left the gifts.
• Homework Task - Quotation needed.
Characterisation - Jem
• Jem is angry and upset when he realises that Mr Nathan has filled in the hole to stop Boo leaving presents for the children.
• Homework Task - quotation needed.
Characterisation – Atticus
• Atticus is portrayed to be a genuine and sincere person.
• Atticus’s lack of hypocrisy is emphasised by Scout
“Atticus don’t ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don’t do in the yard”, I said, feeling it my duty to defend my parent.
Miss Maudie: “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public street”.
Characterisation – Miss Maudie
• Character who provides the true version of events.
• FORESHADOWS fact that she is one of the few adults in the book who completely understands and agrees with
Atticus’s defence of Tom Robinson.
• She tells Scout early on that Boo Radley is harmless and that none of the stories about him are true.
Characterisation – Boo Radley
• Transforms in minds of children from monster to human being.
• Boo makes his presence felt in a number of ways:
1. He leaves presents in the Radley tree.
Homework Task – quotation needed.
2. Miss Maudie provides a sympathetic perspective of his story. Homework Task – quotation needed.
Characterisation – Boo Radley
• We learn:
1. His real name is Arthur.
2. He is very much alive and living in the
Radley House.
3. He was a nice boy who has suffered at the hands of a tyrannically religious family. His father was a “foot - washing Baptist” who believed that “anything that’s a pleasure is a sin”.
Characterisation – Boo Radley
• Boo’s kindness begins to shine through:
1. Leaving presents for the children.
Homework Task - quotation needed.
2. Trying to mend Jem’s trousers and then leaving them on the fence so he can retrieve them.
Homework Task – quotation needed.
3. Laughing at the antics of the children.
Homework Task – quotation needed.
Theme – Growing Up
• Jem is going through the painful process of discarding youthful assumptions and ideas that he has now discovered to be quite wrong.
• Task – In your group, discuss why you think Jem cries silent tears when he realises that Nathan Radley has blocked up the tree to prevent Boo from leaving presents:
“When we went in the house I saw he had been crying; his face was dirty in the right places, but I thought it odd that I had not heard him”.
Theme - Innocence
• Boo symbolises a loss of innocence.
• He is a victim and an innocent being who has been destroyed.
• He was a sweet, young child, driven mad by an overbearing father obsessed with sin and retribution.
Chapters Four, Five, Six and
Seven –
Success Criteria
• Plot Summary / Key Incidents
• Narrative
• Characterisation – Scout
• Characterisation – Jem
• Characterisation – Atticus
• Characterisation – Miss Maudie
• Characterisation – Boo Radley
• Theme - Growing Up
• Theme - Innocence
Chapters Four, Five, Six and
Seven Analysis
The End!!
