Name: Zenilda Cruz

Subject: Reading

Professor: Mauro Reis

Date: April 30th 2014

Book title and Author: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Summary: from page 36 to 139

Settings: Maycomb; Finch’s Landing

Every day after school, Scout runs by the Radley House on her way home. One day

she notices a tree at the edge of the Radley yard and it has some tinfoil stuck to a

knothole with two pieces of chewing gum inside it. When she gets home Jem’s not

pleased with the fact that she’s chewing on something she found on the streets and

demands her to spit it out. On the last day of school when Jem and Scout are returning

home they find the same thing but this time there’s a jewelry box behind it with two

indian-head pennies inside and decide to keep them. After Dill arrives Maycomb for the

summer, Jem suggests role-playing the life of Boo Radley which throughout the days

grows more complex. After Scout persuades Jem into letting her leave the role-play, the

boys start excluding her from their playings so she starts hanging out with her next door

neighbor Mrs. Maudie who makes the best cakes in the neighborhood. She tells Scout

that Mr. Radley used to be a foot-washing Baptist. Scout discovers that the boys intend

on leaving Boo a note. After the boys convince her to help them, Atticus finds out and

forbids them to invade the Radley’s property. On the last night of the summer the kids

decide to peek into one of Radley’s windows. Mr. Nathan Radley, Boo Radley’s

brother, assumes they’re burglars and fires a shotgun. While they desperately try to

escape, Jem loses his pants. Later Dill tells Atticus hat he won Jem’s pants for playing

strip poker so everybody believes and don’t suspect they caused the gunfire. At night

Jem decides to go look for his pants and when he returns he does bring his pants but

he’s mute and shaking. School starts one week after the incident. After class, when Jem

and Scout are walking home, Jem finally unburdens to Scout about that night. He says

that he didn’t find his pants tangled up the wire like he had left them and that someone

had folded them instead. As they get near the tree with the knothole they find a ball of

twine. They decide to keep everything they find inside the knothole from now on since

it isn’t some other children’s hiding place, until the next day when they find out the

hole’s been filled with cement. Mr. Nathan Radley explains the tree needed it in order to

recover because it’s sick although Atticus claimed the tree’s in perfectly good health.

One morning Scout’s terrified after she wakes up and finds snow on the ground.

Consequently school’s closed so Jem tries to build a snow man. Later at the freezing

night, Atticus wakes Scout up because Mrs. Maudie’s next door’s house is on fire so

they must leave. After spending the night in front of the Radley Place while people try

to put out the fire, Scout suddenly panics from realizing she’s wrapped in a blanket that

doesn’t belong to her. When Atticus deduces it was Boo who brought it to her in the

middle of the night, she’s hit by terror. Throughout the school year, Scout’s colleagues

start teasing her by calling her father a “Nigger Defender”. At night Scout questions

Atticus about it and he tells her he’s been offered a case to defend a black man called

Tom Robinson and didn’t refuse it in order to keep his integrity although he’s sure he’ll

lose the case. Atticus asks her to avoid any fighting over the case no matter what people

say. Scout obeys him and is able to control her fighting reflexes until Christmas. Every

Christmas uncle Jack Finch comes down to Maycomb from Boston and all the family

gathers at Finch’s Landing to spend Christmas day with Scout’s Aunt Alexandra and

her grandson Francis, whom Scout’s not very fond of. After dinner Scout explodes in

anger once Francis starts insulting Atticus for defending a black man, so she punches

him. Uncle Jack unfairly beats her after Francis claims she punched him for no reason.

Later that night, after they return to Maycomb, Scout finally tells her uncle why she beat

Francis and asks him not to tell Atticus what had happened. Next Jack and Atticus talk

about what’s been going on and Atticus shows his concern about how much the trial

will affect both his children claiming that people go crazy when it comes to black

people. Scout’s able to overcome people’s prejudice throughout the days but when

summer arrives she’s heartbroken when she finds out Dill won’t be spending the season.

After Atticus leaves town for two weeks, to serve in the state legislature, Calpurnia

takes Scout and Jem to an African church at Sunday. There Scout notices that the

Reverend won’t let anyone leave the church until they collect 10$ for Helen Robinson,

Tom Robinson’s wife, to help her support her children. As expected Scout’s really

curious so she asks Calpurnia why Tom’s in jail and she replies that Bob Ewell has

accused Tom of raping his daughter, a white girl, which is the reason why people are

angry at Atticus for defending him. Scout doesn’t understand at first because she’s not

familiar with the word “rape”. Once home, they sight Aunt Alexandra waiting for them

outside their house.