“Mr. Finch!” Calpurnia shouted. “This is Cal. I swear to God there’s a mad dog down the street a piece- he’s coming this way, yes sir… yessir… yes.” Calpurnia hung up. Scout and Jem tried asking her what Atticus had said, but all Cal did was shake her head. Calpurnia rattled the telephone hook and said, “Miss Eula May-now ma’am, I’m through talking to Mr. Finch, please don’t connect me no more-listen, Miss Eula May, can you call Miss Rachel and Miss Stephanie Crawford and whoever’s got a phone on this street and tell ‘em a mad dog’s coming? Please, ma’am!” Calpurnia listened a moment. “I know it’s February, Miss Eula May, but I know a mad dog when I see one. Please ma’am, hurry!” Cal looked at Jem, and asked, “Radley’s got a phone?” …show more content…
Cal pounded on the door in vain, but there was no response. As Cal sprinted to the back porch, a black Ford pulled into the driveway. Atticus and Mr. Heck Tate got out of it. Heck Tate was the sheriff of Maycomb County. He was taller than Atticus, but thinner. He was long-nosed, wore boots with shiny metal eyeholes, boot pants, and a lumber jacket. His belt had a row of bullets sticking in it. He carried a heavy rifle. When he and Atticus reached the porch, Jem opened the door. “Where is he, Cal?” asked Atticus. “He ought to be here, by now…” said Calpurnia, pointing down the …show more content…
Tate. “No, sir, he’s in the twitchin’ stage, Mr. Heck.” Cal replied. “At any pace, we should wait for him to arrive. Not many things as dangerous as a mad dog,” Mr. Heck Tate said. There are also few things as deadly as a deserted street, waiting street. The trees were still, the mockingbirds were silent, and the carpenters that were working for Miss Maudie had seemingly vanished. Mr. Tate could be heard sniffing and blowing his nose. He shifted his rifle to the crook of his arm. Miss Stephanie Crawford’s face was framed in the glass window of her front door. Miss Maudie appeared and stood beside her. Atticus put his foot on the rung of his chair and rubbed his hand slowly down the side of his thigh. “There he is,” Atticus said softly. Tim Johnson wandered into sight, walking dazedly in the inner rim of the curve parallel to the Radley house. He was advancing at a snail’s pace, but was not playing or sniffing at foliage: He seemed dedicated to one course and motivated by an invisible force that was inching him toward us. We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies. “He’s within range, Heck. You better get him before he goes down the side
Tom said that no matter what happens he would always be with us. Later that night everyone returned home. Rev. Sykes was the first to my house with the results. “ I’m sorry Helen, but the jury found him guilty. He closed his case when he said he felt sorry for Mayella.” At that moment something happened. I felt scared but relieved. Of course I endured deject that the jury found Tom guilty, but now we don’t have to handle the stress about the trial anymore. I thanked the Reverend and started up the stairs to bed. “Helen,” he said “ wait to tell the children.” I did as he said and didn’t tell my children till the next week. I sat all of them down and told them that their father wasn’t coming home for a while. Sam ran outside and into the woods and didn’t come back till supper.He went straight to bed without any food. For the next couple of weeks many of the neighbors came over. Mr.Link Dease offered me a job . One dreadful night Mr.Atticus Finch came over to the house. He told us the guards shot Tom to death. “ He lost all hope. Made a run for it, but the guards shot him before he could get away.” I don’t know what happened right then, but what I do know is that I will never see Tom again. Mr. Ewell came by after Atticus left and said he wasn’t sorry. The next morning a cloud of confusion and dismal co the whole
Mr. Tate was right.’ Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’” (Lee 370)
To Kill a Mockingbird "I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them." – Miss Maudie The quote above states that Atticus Finch was a man who did unpleasant things, but this quote is false. Miss Maudie had every good intention when she told Jem and Scout this and her point was taken in the way she intended it to be taken by the children. Her point could have been better worded if the portion that reads "our unpleasant jobs" were replaced with "what is right." Atticus did unpleasant things only because he knew that they were the right thing to do. Miss Maudie told the children about their father in this way only to avoid saying that the rest of the town was wrong.
Atticus was a man of strong morals and conscience and in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, had to overcome the backlash and hate from defending Tom Robinson. With what seemed to be the majority of Maycomb County against him and his own safety at stake, Atticus knew that he couldn’t win the trial. Yet accompanied by his rationality, good ethics and determination he overcomes the trial. It is not the desired ending, but for his efforts in the trial, Atticus gains the respect of the black community and the respect of others in Maycomb by following through and overcoming the challenges that followed the
Shaw-Thornburg, Angela. “On Reading To Kill a Mockingbird: Fifty Years Later.” Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: New Essays. Meyer, Michael J. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2010. 113-127. Print.
...markings of an innocent childhood no longer. After Tom Robinson is shot, his murder is compared to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds”. Their hearts do nothing but sing out, making beautiful music for all to hear. This is why it is considered a sin to kill one. Jem Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley can all be seen as “mockingbirds”. They never attempt to hurt anyone, yet Tom Robinson was framed for rape, Boo Radley was unlawfully labeled as a vague recluse and the innocence of Jem Fitch was unfairly stolen due to the evil nature of society.
Throughout the novel, Atticus reveals his bravery. He demonstrates this quality by killing Tim Johnson, the rabid dog. Jem and Scout are looking for squirrels to shoot when Jem spots a suspicious-looking dog down the road. Immediately, he tells Calpurnia who confirms the dog is rabid and calls Atticus at his office. After she proceeds to tell the neighbors, Atticus arrives, along with Mr. Tate, the sheriff of Maycomb County. As the dog comes near the Radley house, Atticus and Mr. Tate argue over who is going to kill Tim. Atticus then steps out in the middle of the road and pushes up his glasses, and in unison, he pulls the trigger and Tim Johnson crumbles the ground—dead. Atticus again demonstrates his valor when he guards Tom Robinson’s cell. The Maycomb jailhouse is near his office; therefore Atticus passes it every day. With red bricks and steel bars along the windows, the jailhouse adds a solid look to the town. The jailhouse is the main conversation topic in Maycomb. Scout, Jem, and Dill are out for a walk when they spot Atticus. As Atticus sits outside Tom’s cell, a group of men walks towards him. The group of men want to get to Tom, but Atticus would not let them. Scout, Jem, and Dill walk up to the group, but that did not distract the men from their goal. One of the men grabs Jem, the man falls to the ground; Scout kicks...
"To Kill a Mockingbird." Sparknotes LLC. 2003. Barnes & Noble Learning Network. 2 Nov. 2003 .
Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach, a contemporary novel, shares numerous characteristics with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written in the 1960's. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, McCorkle's novel documents the life of a young girl in a small southern town. The two narrators, Kate Burns and Scout Finch, endure difficult encounters. A study of these main characters reveals the parallels and differences of the two novels. Jill McCorkle duplicates character similarities and rape from Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to show the reader how young girls think and develop.
Atticus shows true courage by defending Tom Robinson, a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Atticus continues to fight for justice despite knowing he can’t win the case because he is doing what he knows is right. The town is against this…..
I chose to write a thank you letter because it seem to fit my writing style. This fits my skills because I’m not a big writing person and this feels like it was the easiest for me to do. The easiest part about writing a letter is knowing the characters well enough that you can talk about their personality and how they have impacted Maycomb. The most challenging part is going to be citing the story at least 3 times because I’m not going to know exactly where a character said something or remembering an episode. This project will help me with improving my skills by learning how to write a more complex letter and with higher level words. I want to improve my skills on citing the text by going back and finding 3 or even more events or dialogues from
"Notes on the Characters of To Kill a Mockingbird." Book Rags. N.p., 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 1
He took his time about it. Wooden sawhorses blocked the road at each end of the Radley lot, straw was put down on the sidewalk, traffic was diverted to the back street. Dr. Reynolds parked his car in front of our house and walked to the Radley’s every time he called. Jem and I crept around the yard for days. At last the sawhorses were taken away, and we stood watching from the front porch when Mr. Radley made his final journey past our house.
Harper Lee utilised narrative voice and structure through the exploration of Scout’s perspectives and thoughts to portray the loss of innocence. Loss of innocence was explored throughout the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee through the use of symbols and analogies. The main characters discussed and portrayed in the book were Tim Johnson, the Mockingbirds and Boo Radley. Tim Johnson was a neighbourhood dog who appeared down the Finch’s street one day, but looked very ill and was rabid. Calpurnia, the black maid working at the Finch’s, rang Atticus and he shot it.
In the past, I have done reviews on John Adams, Rudy, Grease, and The Butler. For my fourth quarter movie review, I decided to watch To Kill A Mockingbird because I have already read the book and wanted to see the film adaptation of it. This movie focuses on the Finch family in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama around the time of the Great Depression. It is based off of the book of the same name by Harper Lee. Both focus on Scout and Jem Finch growing up in the deep South and struggling to figure out how to act in the world around them.