Warning: Spoiler alert for the end of the book.
In the chapters 28 through 31, Jem walks with Scout to her Halloween pageant in town, and on the way back home, the kids are attacked by Bob Ewell. When the pageant is over, Jem and Scout proceed to return home without Atticus, even though it is very dark outside and the kids can not see anything. While returning home, Jem stops Scout, saying, “Thought I heard something...I hear it when we’re walkin’ along, but when we stop I don’t hear it”(Lee 348-349). Jem hears footsteps behind them, and the two kids suspect that Cecil Jacobs may be trying to scare them again, but after a while, when they realize that Cecil wouldn’t have followed this long without scaring them, and that the footsteps belong to someone else. Jem and Scout continue walking at the same pace until they hear the person behind them running. When they get under the tree, Scout and Jem are attacked by Bob Ewell, and Scout tries to run after her costume from the pageant is crushed and torn, but she stumbles. Scout could not see because of her costume, but she hears scuffling and fighting and then hears Jem’s arm break, though she doesn’t know what happened at the time. Scout is grabbed by the Bob Ewell, and she can not escape until Mr. Ewell is flung off of her, an act which she thinks is done by Jem. While still in her costume, Scout narrates, “It was slowly coming to me that there were now four people under the tree”(Lee 352). When Scout talks about four people being under the tree, she realizes that there is another person helping her and Jem, which she later realizes is Boo Radley. After the incident, Jem is carried into the house by Boo Radley, and when Mr. Heck Tate arrives, he confirms that Bob Ewell died after falling on his own knife. When Atticus asks where Bob Ewell would have gotten the knife, Mr. Tate says, “Ewell probably found that kitchen knife in the dump somewhere. Honed it down and bided his time… just bided his time”(Lee 368). Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout with a knife as the kids make their way home in the dark one night, and Boo Radley comes out of his house to rescue the kids from an unfortunate fate.
How did Scout's views on Boo Radley change after this incident? How does the first chapter connect with the ending?
I agree with Mia, Mr. Ewell attacked Jem and Scout and Boo saved them. Scouts imagined meeting Boo for most of her childhood, so when he saved the kids Scout realizes he’s a good guy who isn’t at all how the town thinks of him. When Scout is recalling all the gifts Boo gave her and Jem she says “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us... We had given him nothing.”(Lee 373). Boo went past the customary actions of a neighbor and never asked for anything more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mia and Christina. To answer your second question, the ending directly connects to the begging. The first sentence in the book says, "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow"(Lee, 1). This seems like a spoiler for the entire book but Harper Lee intentionally left this story blurry so that she could create mystery. Lee says, "we sometimes discuss the events leading to her accident,"(Lee, 1). Jem's injury was not an accident. Bob Ewell purposefully hurt him but Harper Lee knows that she has to give the reader some facts but not all of them to create mystery.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Mia that Boo Radley was the man who saved Scout and Jem from Mr. Ewell. Mr. Tate tries to hide the fact that Boo Radley killed Mr. Ewell by saying that Mr. Ewell killed himself from a kitchen knife. After Mr. Tate leaves, Scout has a little moment with Boo Radley, and although she thought that Boo was a scary man, she now thinks he is a kind man. As Scout thinks about Boo Radley, she says, "One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough"(Lee 374). She fully understands who Boo Radley really is and understands what he is going through.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Scout’s view on Boo Radley did not change that much after the events of chapters 28 through 31. She recognized that Boo Radley was a nice human being during Part 1 of the book, as he had given various gifts in the tree, such as figurines of her and Jem, bubble gum, a watch, and more. He also gave Scout a blanket in Chapter 8 when there was a fire at Ms. Maudie’s house and Scout was feeling cold. After these events, she quickly realized that Boo Radley was indeed a generous and kind human being, and not the monster the people of Maycomb describe him as. The incident under the tree just supported her thoughts on Boo Radley’s innocence.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Heck Tate's decision to say Ewell fell on his own knife and bend the truth to spair Boo Radley from the limelight; however, I still believe that sweeping the event under the rug is very indictive of Maycomb. At the end of the book Scout is older, Tom Robinson and Mr. Ewell are dead, but not much changes. Scout even says that everyone forgot about Tom's death by the time of the pageant. TKaM ends seemingly happily but there's also the fact that racism and hipocricy are still rampant.
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