To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapter 6
Adventure at Night
It is Dill’s last night in
Maycomb before he returns home to Mississippi
The kids decide to spy on Boo
Radley
Why do they wait until this
night?
No one could see them at night Atticus was involved in reading
a book
It was easier to see into a dark
house in the dark
If Boo killed them, they’d miss
Danger Awaits
Scout warns Jem and Dill that it
is too dangerous
Jem’s reply (page 52) “I declare
to the Lord you’re getting’ more like a girl every day!”
Scout takes this statement as an
insult
They go to the Radley backyard.
The gate is stuck so they spit on the hinges to prevent it from
squeaking
The yard is full of chickens—
Behind the Radley House
There are two doors in the
back and a window
Scout and Jem boost Dill
up to look in the window. He can’t see anything
They go to the back step; it
squeaks. They see a
shadow of a man with a hat on
They run off and gun shots
Stuck in the Fence
Jem’s pants get caught in the
barbed wire fence. He ends up leaving them there
All the neighbors are out front.
Nathan Radley (Boo’s older
brother) is standing with his shot gun. He thinks he shot a Negro trying to steal collard greens from his garden
Jem has no pants on (Miss
Rachel notices). Dill makes up a story that he won Jem’s pants in a game of strip poker
After everyone goes to bed, Jem
Chapter 7
Jem’s Pants
School begins. Scout is
now in second grade. Not much has changed
Jem relates what happened
when he went back to get his pants
They were mended, but like
a child would have done.
They were folded over the
fence like they were waiting for Jem to come and get
them
Presents in the Tree
Jem and Scout find more
presents in the knot hole in the tree: a ball of twine (string), a package of gum, a spelling
medal, 2 soap dolls that look like Jem and Scout and a pocket
watch that does not work with a pocket knife attached
Who is leaving things in the knot
hole for Jem and Scout?
Scout and Jem decide to write a
Message Center Averted
When they go to leave it in
the knot hole, Nathan
Radley is plugging up the knot hole with cement
Nathan Radley says he is
filling up the knot hole because the tree is dying.
When Scout asks Atticus
he tells her it is not because the branches have new
Chapter 8
Snow in Maycomb
Unusual occurrence in
Alabama—it snows!
School is canceled and the
kids make a snowman that looks like Mr. Avery (a large man who lives at Miss Maudie’s boarding house).
Atticus tells them to
change it
Fire at Miss Maudie’s
Miss Maudie’s house
burns down that night
Atticus sends Jem and
Scout to stand in front
of the Radley house for
safety
All the adults are
A Blanket for Scout
Atticus sends Jem and
Scout to stand in front of the Radley house for safety
All the adults are helping
out with the fire
Someone put a blanket
around Scout as she stood looking at the fire—who?
Atticus says “. . . looks like
Chapter 9
A Talk with Atticus
Scout fights with Cecil
Jacobs at school
because Cecil said
Atticus defended
Niggers (racial slur)
Atticus scolds Scout
for fighting
He explains he is
Working on the Case
Most of the town believe that
Atticus should put no effort into defending Tom Robinson
The case has been postponed
until the summer
Gives Atticus time to build a
defense
Atticus is not prejudiced like the
rest of the town
He tells Scout to back down
Christmas
Christmas comes and
Uncle Jack (Atticus’s
brother, a doctor)
comes to stay
Scout and Jem get air
rifles for Christmas
The family goes to
Finches Landing
Aunt Alexandra (Atticus’s
sister) and her husband Jimmy are running the family farm
Their grandson Francis (a
snotty little boy) stays with them
Aunt Alexandra believes
Telling Her Side
Francis calls Atticus a Nigger
Lover
He and Scout get into a fight
Uncle Jack punishes Scout
without getting the whole story.
She does get to tell her side once
they get back to Maycomb.
Scout tells Uncle Jack he is
unfair
Scout needs to learn to control
her temper.
She is very proud
Troubles Ahead
Atticus and Jack talk about
the case
Atticus knows he is going
to lose because of the racial prejudice that exists in the town.
It is a black man’s word
against a white woman’s word
He knows the jury will be
prejudiced
Atticus also knows the case
Chapter 10
Boring Dad
Children’s perspective of
their father is presented in this chapter:
Atticus is old (almost 50)
He wears glasses
He won’t play tackle
football like the rest of the fathers
He works in an office (not
exciting)
He doesn’t hunt or fish
He doesn’t play poker
He reads every night in the
Symbol and Theme
Atticus would not teach
them to shoot their air rifles.
He wants them to shoot at
tin cans
He tells them they can
shoot blue jays but not mockingbirds
Symbol: mockingbird
Theme: “It is a sin to kill a
mockingbird”
Who are the mockingbirds
Theme
“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. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
What Atticus Can Do
Miss Maudie tries to
convince Scout that
Atticus can do things:
He can make a will
airtight (unbreakable)
He is the best checkers
player
He is the best jew’s
Waiting for the Kill
Incident with the rabid
dog (Tim Johnson is
the dog’s name)
The dog is twitching
and walking slowly
down the road
Calpurnia calls the
neighbors and Atticus
Atticus and Sheriff
One-shot Finch
Sheriff Tate tells Atticus to
shoot the dog
Atticus shoots the dog in
one shot
The children learn
Atticus’s nickname when he was young was “One-shot Finch”
This impresses Jem and
Chapter 11
Mrs. Dubose
Mrs. Dubose is the mean,
old lady who lives on Jem and Scout’s street
She has a Negro
housekeeper
She is very ill (dying)
She always taunts Jem and
Scout
Tells them they will never
amount to anything
Atticus tells them to ignore
Taunted by Mrs. Dubose
Jem gets money for his
twelfth birthday and
decides to go to town to spend it.
As they pass by Mrs.
Dubose’s house, she tells them that “they’ll never amount to anything except waiting on tables”
She taunts them further by
Trashing the Garden
On the way home, Jem
takes the baton he
bought for Scout and
trashes the camellias in
her garden
Jem knows he will get
Reading as a Punishment
As his punishment, he must
go daily (except Sunday) for two hours/day for a month to read to Mrs. Dubose
At first she pays attention,
but as the days go by, she begins to pay less attention.
At the end, she is back to
Morphine Addict
Mrs. Dubose finally dies We learn she was a
morphine addict and did not want to die addicted to the drug.
She was using the reading
sessions to wean herself off the morphine
She wanted to die beholden
Forgiveness
She sends Jem a boxed
camellia to tell him she
forgave him
Atticus considers her
