Allusions

The Second Battle of the Marne (July 15 - August 6, 1918). Unbeknownst to the Germans, this was to be their last major offensive of World War I and would mark the beginning of the Allied advance. About one hundred days after the battle, the Armistice that ended the war was declared. This was a particularly bloody and important battle, and the fact that Scout compares it to Miss Maudie's war against nut grass reflects the sheer level of intensity that Miss Maudie brings to this endeavor. It's also a pithy observation that suggests that, in spite of Scout's evident boredom in the classroom, she did, in fact, learn something.

Idioms

One example of an idiom is "get your goat," which Uncle Jack uses in reference to his (repeated) proposals to Miss Maudie, whom he likes to tease (unsuccessfully, Scout says).

Metaphor

Miss Maudie tells Scout that foot-washing Baptists think "women are a sin by definition." This is untrue, of course, but it's still a metaphor because it equates two unlike things, women and sin, in an attempt to demonstrate how these foot-washers think and feel.

Personification

One example of this would be Miss Maudie telling Scout that the Radley house is a "sad house," meaning that it's not the fearsome place Scout believes it to be. It's "sad" because the things that happen inside it are sad or elicit pity from Miss Maudie.

Themes

Gossip. In this chapter, Miss Stephanie Crawford becomes a more prominent force within the Maycomb gossip mill. We'll later discover that she is in fact the biggest gossiper in town, but for now, she's just a source of amusement. When Miss Maudie asks her if she made room for Boo in bed, Scout misses the sexual implication and just thinks that it's Miss Maudie's voice that shuts Stephanie up for a while.

Sin. Miss Maudie tells Scout that foot-washers believe "women are a sin by definition." This won't be the last time we hear that something is a sin. Mr. Radley believed that anything that's "pleasure is a sin." Atticus thinks that it's a "sin to kill a mockingbird." The question of what is and isn't right in the eyes of God preoccupies many characters in the novel and establishes a kind of moral high ground that others either ignore or aspire to, depending on their own definition of sin.

Такой тип тренинга на слова мне нравится делать и в quizlet, но я пока что балуюсь буквиджетом, да и идея с подсказками (hints) мне нравится.

1. How are the dynamics among Scout, Jem, and Dill changing?
2. Describe Miss Maudie Atkinson. How typical is she of Maycomb's women? What do the children think of her?
3. Miss Maudie says, "...sometimes the Bible in the hands of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father." Explain what she means.
4. According to Miss Maudie, how do you define a "foot-washing Baptist"? Who is the example she gives?
5. What does Miss Maudie mean by saying, "Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets"?
6. What does Miss Maudie tell Scout about Boo? How does this compare with what Scout already believes?
7. Scout says that "Dill Harris could tell the biggest" lies she ever heard. Why might Dill have told such lies?
8. What new communication plan do Jem and Dill hatch to talk to Boo?
9. What happens when the children try to lure Boo outside?
10. Paraphrase Atticus' speech about the Radleys' right to
privacy. Do you agree with his point of view? Why or why
not?

1. How does the rest of Scout's year at school go?
She remains unchallenged, ahead of her class. It is largely a waste of time.

2. What does Scout think of her school's new style of education? What does this failing show us about adults?
She, of course, greatly dislikes the new methods and doesn't understand why they can't just learn the way Atticus learned. The "Dewey Decimal System," which Jem has incorrectly named, is not effective. This shows us that adults don't always know what they're doing. Sometimes, kids have a better grasp on how things should run. Later in the novel, Scout will view a similar brokenness in the adult justice system as we watch the unjust trial of Tom Robinson unfold.

3. What's the first thing Scout finds in the knothole of the tree on the edge of the Radley property? What's the second thing she finds? How many of each item was there? Significance of this? Who, do you suppose, put the items in the tree hole?
First, she finds two sticks of Wrigley's Double-Mint gum. Later, she and Jem and a small jewelry box with two shiny pennies inside. Since there are two of each item (interesting, Scout chewed both the pieces of gum herself), it seems logical to the reader that one of each item was intended for Scout, the other for Jem. They are the only children who walk by the Radley property each day. Students usually understand that one of the Radleys, perhaps Arthur/Boo, has left these gifts for the Finch children.

3. How is Scout and Calpurnia's relationship changing?
It has begun to re ect the fact that Scout is getting older. Scout doesn't provoke her as much and, in turn, Calpurnia gives Scout more respect.

4. Where do the children find the pennies? What does Jem say is special about them?
The pennies are left in the same knothole as the gum, in the live oak tree on the edge of the Radley property. They are Indian Head pennies from 1900 and 1906 which Jem says have strong magic and are lucky. Because they are so valuable, Jem and Scout decide to keep them and ask the kids at school if they belong to anyone.

5. What does Scout mean when she says Jem's warnings about ghosts are "nigger-talk"?
She is actually quoting Calpurnia, who is referencing the conventional wisdom that African-Americans are superstitious and more prone to believing in folk-tales and magic.

6. What drama do the children enact for much of the summer?
They play "Boo Radley."

7. What two reasons does Scout give for wanting to stop their favorite summer game?
She heard someone laughing inside the Radley house when she crashed in the yard rolling inside the tire. She also knows that Atticus disapproves of their playing "Boo" and wants them to simply leave the family alone.

1. When Scout begins to drift away from the boys, with whom does she spend much time?

2. Why does Miss Maudie hate her house?

3. Why do the children have faith in Miss Maudie?

4. How do the children try to send the message to Boo?

5. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says Atticus is the same in his house as he is on the public streets?

6. What does Uncle Jack yell at Miss Maudie each Christmas?

7. Atticus uses something like a threat when he finds the children trying to get a note to Boo Radley. What is the threat?

8. Uncle Jack Finch says the "best defense to her [Miss Maudie] was spirited offense." What does he mean by that?

9. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says that the things told about Arthur Radley are "three-fourths colored folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford"?

10. What gesture of friendship cements Miss Maudie's and Scout's relationship?

Answers (Chapter 4)
1. Scout finds chewing gum in the tree first.

2. The idiomatic expression "In a pig's ear" means "impossible."

3. Scout's attitude—rather than Calpurnia's behavior—may be the reason for the statement. Scout is spending less time with Calpurnia; possibly they miss each other. Scout is also growing and maturing; this is probably a principal reason for their improved relationship. Scout herself admits that she "went to much trouble, sometimes, not to provoke her."

4. He calls it the Dewey Decimal System.

5. Indian-head pennies are the second gifts found in the tree.

6. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is the "meanest old woman that ever lived."

7. Atticus may have been following his own lesson: ignore the behavior and it will go away. Atticus did not usually forbid the children to do anything. Rather he posed things in such a way that they could make their own decision.

8. Scout is at first frightened to participate in the dramas. Jem and Dill accuse her of being afraid. After the incident with Atticus, Scout is hesitant about playing again. Jem accuses her of "being a girl."

9. The statement "Dill was a villain's villain" means that Dill is good in the role; he can play a villain to the degree that even a real villain would be pleased with the performance.

10. A Hot Steam can be detected if one is walking along a lonesome road at night and comes to a hot place. The Hot Steam is actually someone who cannot get into heaven and just stays in lonely places. If a person walks through the Hot Steam, the person will become Hot Steam after death and perhaps even suck the breath from people.

1 In speaking of Miss Maudie, Scout says, "She was our friend." Describe Miss Maudie's relationship with Scout and Jem. Why are they so fond of her?

2 What are Miss Maudie's most admirable character traits? How is Miss Maudie like Atticus in several ways?

3 What is Boo Radley's real name? How does Miss Maudie try to help Scout understand his circumstances? What do you think Miss Maudie means when she tells Scout that "sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of [another]"?

4 Describe Jem and Dill's plan to get Boo Radley to come out of his house. What is Scout's opinion of it? Why doesn't their plan succeed?

5 Atticus gives Jem, Scout, and Dill strict instructions in regard to Boo Radley. What does he demand of them? Why?

That summer, Dill proposes to Scout and then forgets about it. Despite Scout's attempts to jog his memory by beating him up, Dill ignores her and grows closer and closer to Jem. This frees her to spend more time with their neighbor, Miss Maudie Atkinson, a middle-aged woman who likes to garden and lets the Finch children run through her yard as much as they like as long as they don't disturb her azaleas. Miss Maudie knew Scout's uncle, Jack Finch, a strange man who proposed to her every Christmas by shouting across the street. She never married him and is, in fact, a widow, having been married to a man we never meet, but that doesn't stop Uncle Jack from trying to get her goat, so to speak.

One evening, Scout asks Miss Maudie if Boo is alive, and she explains that his real name is Mr. Arthur Radley and that of course he's alive. His father, Mr. Radley, was a foot-washing Baptist (as opposed to a regular Baptist like Miss Maudie), and this appears to have had some effect on Boo, though it's unclear what it is, exactly. According to Miss Maudie, most of the gossip about Boo comes from Stephanie Crawford and the African American community, which is commonly believed to be more superstitious than the rest of Maycomb. Miss Maudie didn't put any stock in this gossip, though.

The next morning, Jem and Dill tell her about their cockamamie plan to send Boo a note through the broken shutter on the side of the Radley house. Jem plans to do this by sticking the note to an old fishing pole and trying to drop it onto the windowsill. This is, unsurprisingly, ineffective, and Atticus catches them in the act. He gives them a long lecture about not tormenting Boo, and then uses his skill as a lawyer to trick the truth about the play out of Jem. Jem, who used to say that he wanted to be a lawyer like Atticus, waits until Atticus is out of earshot to yell that he isn't so sure he wants to be a lawyer after the way Atticus treated him.

1. What evidence does one have that Boo Radley is trying to make friends with the children?

2. How is Scout growing and maturing as the story progresses?

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