Atticus Finch Dialectical Journal

I had been sitting in the shadows of the woods, staring at Atticus Finch’s house, trying to think of ways to punish him. I wanted to humiliate him, no, I wanted more than that, I wanted to make him suffer for the way he embarrassed me in front of the whole town. The problem was I didn’t know how to. I was not satisfied with any of the ideas I had come up with so far, and I was about to give up, but then I heard the sound of two Finch brats walking towards me.

I stood up slowly, not daring to make any noise that would alert them of my presence. I walked quietly over to where I thought I heard their voices coming from. The youngest one was wearing some kind of ridiculous costume that shone in what little amount of moonlight there was, so they

were not hard to find. They were walking all alone in the woods, and I knew I had just found an opportunity to get my revenge on Atticus Finch. In that moment the children were no longer children to me. In my eyes I was the predator, and they were the prey.
They began to walk towards their home and I followed behind as silently as I could.

However, I was wearing long pants that made noise when they rubbed together, and while the noise would seem miniscule anywhere else, it was deafening in the silence of the woods. Still I trudged on hoping that the children would be too stupid not to notice the noise, but just like I, they had started to notice.

“Jem, are you afraid?”(350).

“No. Think we’re almost to the tree now. Few yards from that, an’ we’ll be to the road. We can see the Street light then” (350).

I knew that the only chance I would have it make this work would be to attack them once they were under the oak tree. I stopped walking and waited, until they walked right underneath the tree. To my luck they stopped walking under the tree, and I ran for them.

All the rage that had been building up inside of me since the end of the trial boiled over and I grabbed the young boy, knocking the girl over. He fought with all he had, causing me to lose my hold on him. He fell to the ground, but was up in a flash and began to lead his sister away from me. I couldn’t let that happen so I grabbed the little punk by the back of the shirt, and pushed him to the ground. Then, with a satisfying crunch, I stepped on his arm and broke it, causing him to

faint.
The stupid girl ran straight into me so I grabbed her arms, pinned them to her side, and squeezed. As I sat listening to her struggle for breath, I couldn’t help but feel pleased with myself, because of the pain that this would make Atticus feel. The pleasure was short lived though, because I was yanked away from her and pinned to the ground. I struggled with my attacker trying to gain an advantage, then I felt a pressure below my ribs, which turned into excruciating pain, then I felt nothing at all, and then the world faded into black.