To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapters 9-11
Episode 10
This week Professor Pipes is talking about Chapters 9-11 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's time to meet some new characters: Uncle Jack (sooo dreamy), Aunt Alexandra (a piece of work), cousin Francis (ugh), and Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose (another piece of work, with some secrets...). Plus, it's Christmas in Maycomb! Enjoy!
P.S. If anyone can get Professor Pipes in contact with Keanu Reeves (aka Uncle Jack, sans lab coat), she clearly would be grateful...
Transcript
Introduction:
Hello! I’m Professor Pipes, and today I’m reading Chapters 9-11 of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Each of these chapters introduces new characters, so try to keep up.
Summary:
In Chapter 9, Scout’s classmate, Cecil Jacobs, says that Scout’s “daddy defends…. N words” and because of the waaaay he says it, Scout knows it’s an insult. She asks her dad, and Atticus tells her not to use that word, but also that he is, in fact, defending a Black man named Tom Robinson. Scout is confused about why Cecil made it sound bad, but Atticus makes it clear that people around town don’t want him to actually try his hardest to defend Tom, which is even more confusing for Scout. Atticus explains that he has to try his hardest because otherwise he wouldn’t have any self-respect. To top off Scout’s confusion, Atticus says they aren’t even going to win the case, buuuuuut he’s going to try to win anyway... Anyway, he warns Scout that she’s going to hear lots of mean things about him, but says she should fight with her head instead of her fists. No, Cooper, that does not just mean head-butting! Well, the next day at school, she decides not to beat up Cecil. Growth. Too bad all her classmates think she’s a coward now… Soon, Christmas arrives, and with it, Uncle Jack, who is pretty awesome. He’s a doctor, he tells funny stories, he has smart alek-y banter with Miss Maudie, and he has a cat! Total package. He’s basically Keanu Reeves in a lab coat. The kids get air rifles for Christmas, which are like pellet guns or air soft guns. I know what you’re thinking, “You’ll shoot yer eye out, kid!” Spoiler alert: they don’t. The family goes to visit Aunt Alexandra and her grandson, Francis, on the family farm. Francis and Alexandra seem to have a secret competition for Worst Relative Ever going on, with Aunt Alexandra disapproving of everything Scout does and making her sit ALONE at the kids table every year and Francis being generally snotty, insulting Dill for being poor, and then saying that, according to Alexandra, Atticus is ruining the family by letting the kids run wild and being an “n word” lover... And you thought YOUR family reunions were rough. Scout beats up Francis for insulting Atticus until she is pulled off of him and spanked by Uncle Jack. Woah, Uncle Jack! I thought you were cool! Back at home, though, Scout tells Uncle Jack WHY she beat up her cousin, and he clearly gets really mad at bratty jerk Francis, but Scout swears him to secrecy, since she’d promised her dad she wouldn’t beat people up for insulting him. Later that night, she overhears Atticus and Jack talking about the court case and how things will be tough on the family. Good Old Jack keeps his promise, though.
Chapter 10 starts off with Scout complaining that her dad is old and feeble and doesn’t do anything cool, like gamble, smoke, or drink. Umm… sounds like she watched one too many teen dramas. Which didn’t exist yet. Anyway, another “cool” thing he doesn’t do is go shooting. He does give the kids some advice about it, though, saying it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Title Alert!!! Miss Maudie explains this, saying, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” One day when the kids are out hunting with their air rifles, they see a dog in the distance who has rabies. For those of you unaware, rabies is BAD. Real. Dang. Bad. It can kill you, and back then, it WOULD kill you if you caught it. So this is a suuuper dangerous situation, and the dog needs to be killed before it can bite someone. No, Cooper, we’re not talking about you! Don’t worry! Calpurnia warns the neighbors and calls Atticus and the sheriff, whose name is Heck Tate, by the way! Dang! What a name! Do you think that he was named that so that when his parents called him, they could go, “Aw Heck!”? …Anyway, Heck and Atticus arrive quickly, and, surprisingly, Heck tells Atticus to shoot the dog. Umm… I thought he doesn’t shoot! After some protesting, Atticus eventually takes the gun and kills the dog in one shot. The kids then learn that there is something that Atticus is really good at -- shooting. He was even nicknamed “One Shot Finch” as a kid. Miss Maudie explains that Atticus doesn’t brag about this because no one with any sense is proud of something they are born with or something out of their control, like a natural talent. Scout ends the chapter wanting to brag all over school about their dad, but Jem tells her not to, saying, “Atticus is a gentleman, just like me!” He realizes his dad was right.
In Chapter 11, we meet yet another new character, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose. And boy is she something… Mrs. Dubose is a super old lady whose favorite activity is insulting Scout, Jem, and Atticus when the kids walk by. Lovely. Despite her insults, Atticus always treats her kindly and tells the kids to do the same, since she’s old and ill. Ugh. Fine. On the day after Jem’s twelfth birthday, Jem reminds Scout to “hold her head high and be a gentleman” as they pass by, but Mrs. Dubose yells that Atticus is “no better than the n words and trash he works for.” When they pass her empty porch later that day, Jem snaps and destroys her entire garden. So much for being a gentleman… As punishment, Jem has to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for a month. Scout, being the good sister that she is, goes with Jem for moral support. On the first day, after Jem reads for a while, Mrs. Dubose stops paying attention and seems to be having some sort of fit. Then her alarm clock goes off, the kids are pushed out of the house by her nurse, and they go home. Each day goes the same as the one before, but each day they start staying a little longer. Weird. Eventually, Mrs. Dubose stops having fits, though. Then she makes Jem read to her for a week longer than the original month of punishment. I know! Rude! But soon enough, his punishment is over and the kids are free. Later that summer, Atticus leaves one night, and when he comes back, he tells the kids that Mrs. Dubose died. He explains that she had been prescribed morphine, a strong pain killer, but that when she recently wrote her will, she decided that she didn’t want to die addicted to the morphine. The fits she was having were withdrawals. Having Jem read to her was a distraction that allowed her to go a little longer each day without the drug until eventually she got over her addiction. Atticus gives a gift to Jem from Mrs. Dubose: a perfect camelia, a flower that grew in her garden despite Jem’s best efforts to destroy it. Atticus says it was her way of saying that everything is alright now, but maybe it was also her way of getting in the last laugh. He also explains that Mrs. Dubose was a great lady, because she had the courage to fight for what she wanted.
Characterization:
These chapters show character development in both Scout and Jem. While Scout does beat up her cousin, she clearly has learned to control her emotions at least most of the time. She is willing to be called a coward by all her classmates in order to keep her promise to her dad. Jem also shows maturity when he learns about Atticus’ talent for shooting. He seems to clearly understand that people should be proud of the actions they take and the things they achieve, rather than something out of their control or something they’re born with, like maybe the color of one’s skin, for instance. He sees that Atticus is a better person because he doesn’t brag about his innate abilities. Jem decides that makes him a gentleman. However, Jem does seem to kind of take a step backwards in his journey toward maturity when he destroys Mrs. Dubose’s garden. He has a childish reaction when Mrs. Dubose insults his father. However, it’s honestly a pretty understandable reaction. I mean, man was it satisfying reading about him destroying all the plants, feeling like she totally deserved it! She was such a jerk about Atticus, and he’s only ever been kind to her! Ultimately, though, Jem learns that not only was his reaction immature, but that he would not have made that choice had he known what she was going through. It was important for him to learn that there’s a lot more to people than what you can see on the surface.
These chapters also do a good job of demonstrating the complexities of people in general. We see Uncle Jack spanking Scout, but also listening to her and learning from her. We see Atticus’ hidden talents. We learn why Dill has to stay with his Aunt Rachel in the summers. We see Mrs. Dubose insulting Atticus, but also being kind to him, and we learn about her hidden struggles.
Finally, we can’t finish our conversation about characters without discussing mockingbirds. Even though the book doesn’t outright say it, it’s obvious that a mockingbird is symbolic of a type of person. Mockingbird people are innocent, harmless, and kind, like the birds who sing for us. However, they are also vulnerable and are easily taken advantage of, like the birds that could be thoughtlessly killed by children.
Analysis:
All of these complex, or round, characters lead us right into the theme of Assumptions or Perceptions, and the need to see things from other people’s perspectives in order to understand them, so let’s focus on a few other themes today.
One of the things we really start to see in these chapters is the complexity of characters, and how they can have elements of both Good and Evil within them. People aren’t all good or all bad, and Harper Lee makes that clear. We see this in characters like Mrs. Dubose who takes her frustrations and anger out on kids for her own entertainment but she is also brave and she clearly sees the good in Atticus. We don’t need to like her, but we do need to see both sides of her. Atticus extends this same courtesy to the town as a whole when he tells Scout about the court case and says, “This time we aren’t fighting the Yankees, we’re fighting our friends. But remember this, no matter how bitter things get, they’re still our friends and this is still our home.” He recognizes that not everyone will stand beside him and fight for what he knows is right, but that doesn’t mean that they are evil people in all ways. He knows that maybe their upbringing or their families make them blind to what is right. He sees people with a level of compassion and understanding that is rare and, frankly, difficult to accept at times. Underneath bad intentions or bad qualities, Atticus is always willing to look, or hope, for the good.
The need to think for yourself instead of following the crowd is made very clear in these chapters, as well, specifically with regard to Atticus’ court case. He explains to Scout that he couldn’t hold his head up in town if he didn’t defend Tom Robinson, even though other people in town didn’t think he should actually try to help Tom. He says, “before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” Atticus makes it clear that people need to make decisions based on what they think is right, not on what other people tell them. And boy is he right.
These chapters demonstrate classism, sexism, and racism, all forms of Social Inequality. We see that Aunt Alexandra’s ideas about Scout are very typical of the time period. She felt that Scout should only wear dresses and camisoles and pearls and shouldn’t do anything that would require pants. Scout needs to be a sunbeam whose sole purpose is to brighten her father’s life. On the other hand, Aunt Alexandra also teaches Francis to cook because she thinks all men should know how to cook, and Scout falls right into sexist norms, saying “boys don’t cook,” and saying that she wants to do the cooking for Dill. So while she goes against some gender norms, she believes in others, showing the complex issues surrounding gender. We also see classism when Francis calls Dill a “stray dog” because he has to stay with different family members during the year since his mother is poor. The little jerk laughs at Dill and says Scout is dumb for liking him. Finally, we see a whole heck of a lot of racism in these chapters, unsurprisingly, because they are leading us into the court case, which we can already see will be dealing with racism. First of all, the n word is used by lots of different characters, beginning with Cecil Jacobs. His parents do not approve of Atticus’ choice to defend Tom. Scout then quotes Cecil and uses the term, too, but is corrected by Atticus and pretty much never uses it again, thankfully, so Harper Lee makes it clear that this term shouldn’t be used, and this level of racism shouldn’t be tolerated. Francis also calls Atticus an n word lover, having heard it from Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’ own sister. Aunt Alexandra apparently said the Finches will look bad in Maycomb if Atticus defends Tom. Sadly, it seems that she was right. Mrs. Dubose makes her thoughts about Atticus and his client clear, and even Atticus says that the townspeople don’t want him to help Tom and tells his brother that he’s worried the kids will catch “Maycomb’s usual disease,” racism.
Despite Maycomb’s usual disease, Atticus has chosen to defend Tom, and that takes Courage. When discussing Mrs. Dubose, Atticus says that courage isn’t a man with a gun, like when he shot the dog. Rather, it’s “when you know you’re licked --” No cooper, licked means beaten. Anyway, “when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway, and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” This is an obvious call back to a conversation he had with Scout. When she asked about the court case, Atticus said they wouldn’t win it, but also that “simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” Fighting for what you see as right is what is most important. You may not always win, but you’ll know you stood up for what you believe in. And like Atticus says, sometimes you do win.
Food for Thought:
Finally, I’ll leave you with some food for thought, questions to consider as you reflect on these chapters.
First, what are your thoughts about Aunt Alexandra? Does she have any redeeming qualities?
Second, now that you’ve learned about “complex” characters, are there any characters from earlier in the story that are complex, or round? Who are they, and what makes them complex?
Third, it’s revealed that Atticus knew Scout was listening to his conversation with Uncle Jack. Why do you think he wanted her to hear what he was saying? What did he want her to take away from that discussion?
Fourth, Miss Maudie says that people shouldn’t be proud of things that are out of their control, like talents that they’re born with. Why do you think she feels this way? What are your thoughts about this?
Finally, who from the story so far could be considered a mockingbird? Harmless, innocent, and vulnerable?
That’s all for Chapters 9-11. Thanks for watching this episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people.
