“life is like a box of chocolates you never know what yo are going to get”- Forest Gump

Life is life, it’s not always fair. I was kind of fifty/ fifty with this book. I thought that it would end happy and innocent, but it ended up with the innocent dying. As the title is named “Mockingbird” and as the book also says “it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird, mocking birds do no harm”. Life is like a box of chocolates you don’t know what to expect. I am sure that Tom Robinson did not know that he was going to get tried for murder trying to assist miss mayella ewell. Many random things that were not supposed to happen occured through out the book such as the Ewell trying to kill Scout or Boo Radley becoming a savior at the moment. This is what makes life fun, you cannot always have a perfect plan because the unexpected always happens and something is altered.

Mj

Okay, this is my first quote post, and if you guys reading this know me yeah you probably know I like classic rock so I picked a pretty good classic rock song . So this song by Alice Cooper kind of sums up a bit of Scout and Jem’s positions in this section, but it mostly applies to Jem. Jem’s kind of growing up in this chapter. He show Scout his chest hair that he is proudly growing, and announces that he is going to try out for the football team. I think the growing of chest hair kind of corresponds to the beginning of this song where Alice Cooper sings: “Lines form on my face and hands. Lines form from the ups and downs” Both of the Finch children are growing up, and in this chapter we are just introduced to some new steps in their growing.

~Daniel Verkamp

This man represents Tom Robinson. He was defeated in his plea for freedom just because a white man had his word against him. Men rarely cry because it takes a lot to make a man cry like when they are pushed to the end of a cliff, metaphorically, they might want to cry. Tom Robinson was pushed to the edge of his cliff and he was defeated. He fell yet he shed no tear. He was defeated yet he stood strong. This picture represents him because he was not afraid to cry, even though he did not, proving that he was strong. He feared nothing and thanked Atticus for supporting him and working hard to free him. The man in this picture looks like a strong man so there must have been a very large problem and/or a very high cliff like the decision that will determine his life just as with Tom Robinson.

~Katrina

What was the significance of the part where the children were missing? I do not see much importance in the part where the children were missing… Maybe it gave Atticus something else to think about other than the case while they were in the court. It did not give much breathing time, though, because it worried Atticus of the whereabouts of the children. If I were in the children’s situation, my father would reprove my presence in the court. I like how Atticus was understanding and even let the children hear the verdict even though it was not suitable for chillun. The children understood that it was wrong to convict Tom Robinson because he seemed to be the innocent one. Surely, if the jury was filled with people of open minds, Tom Robinson would have won the case. The part where the children were missing and the part where they ate dinner only delayed the verdict. It let the reader anticipate what was going to happen. It made us excited and anxious to find out what the decision would be. Because Atticus presented a very strong case, we felt hope that a black man would finally win against a white man’s word. But, life is not fair and things do not always go as planned. The delay let our imaginations run wild, but when the decision was out, a heavy rock befell us all. Irony and a prolonged ending were very useful in this book.

~Katrina

Reading TKAM, I have recently noticed the major maturity changes in the two main characters, Scout and Jem. Scout has matured by her question-ful aspect of the case. As with Jem his maturity has grown also as it shows especially in the past few chapters. With Jem’s maturity he understands how much he is progressing and has even decided to joing the football team for the school in the fall. Calpurnia seems to have also put in an impact on their maturity levels, Cal pushes her views with the kids and even knows not to allow white trash associate with the Finch’s. As the kids try to understand the Alabama laws, the case of Tom Robinson and the town’s point of view (including the jury) they develop their sense, and Atticus’ stance of the defense of Mr. Robinson. Atticus is straight up at the questions point of “what will happen to Mr. Robinson if his case is false”, during this time period in this town a white man’s word was more powerful over a black man’s. One last point I would like to add because of my posts at the beginning of this TKAM reading: Jem was the one to tell Dill and Scout about the rumors of the Radleys, but at the end of chapter 23( I believe?) he says that Boo does not want to come out only because he does not want to leave. Now that Jem has good feedback from this phantom character he decides that he will not leave readers with a phantom feel of why the character is staying inside with his own privacy.

-MJ

In chapters 21 through 25 of To Kill A Mockingbird we finally learn the verdict in the case against Tom Robinson. When Calpurnia tells Atticus that his children have not been home since noon, Atticus sends them home to eat supper. The children want to hear the verdict, and Atticus tells them that they can return after supper. Atticus thinks that the jury will have returned by then, but hides it so his kids will go home to eat supper. Much to Atticus’ avail, the jury is in session for quite a long time. This shows that they actually have to think about the case, as opposed to convicting Tom Robinson just because he is a colored man. I think this is a big step for the town of Maycomb. It seems as if the jury actually went over the evidence to make an objective decision. I don’t think they were completely objective, but I think they did try a little more than I expected them to. Even considering the fact that Tom Robinson might be innocent is a big step for the racist town of Maycomb. I think that throughout the book we might see some of the townspeople come to their senses.

This tree represents Tom Robinson. It stands with very little companions. The grass surrounding it represents the other black people that believe in Tom Robinson. They are small so they can barely help the large tree. Just like in the town, black people have little power but their power lies in numbers. They all support Tom Robinson through the hardships that he faces. The plant in the right represents Atticus. He is a bit bigger than the grass and he stands almost as tall as Tom Robinson meaning he has more power than the other colored folk. Tom Robinson stands tall through the problems and with friends, he hopes to overcome these obstacles.

~Katrina

There are always two sides to a story. I learned this by reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. As with this case, there are two sides to the story. Tom Robinson’s side is that he was innocent but the Ewells’ sides were that he was, indeed, guilty. Tom Robinson said that he was just passing by and would help out Mayella out of the kindness of his heart and Mayella trapped him inside the house and kissed him. Mr. Ewell comes back from hunting and finds his daughter with a black man so he is angry. The Ewells say that Tom took advantage of Mayella and harmed her. Two scenes but only one of them is true. In my opinion, Tom Robinson’s side is the more believable side. First of all, Tom had nothing to hide when he answered the questions. He also had evidence that backed him up. The Ewells were a bit questionable. They changed their story quite a bit. What I understand is why the verdict was what it was. In the early 1900s, people were racist meaning a white man’s story is more believable than a black man’s story no matter how absurd. It is a good thing that racism has changed since then so that no matter what story a person tells, the facts will always be the one to decide which story is true or not and not the color of a man. Even if there are two sides to one story, the true story will always show through.

~Katrina

lulluby

 The song I chose was Lulluby by Dear Juliet. This song could have one meaning to two different situations. The first situation could be Tom Robinson being at ease for being in the hands of Atticus, and he could be proven innocent. Honestly I do think that he is in good hands but the odds seem more against him due to the white jury and prejudiced town. The other meaning could be his death penalty. The penalties for being accused of raping a white woman are highly prosecuteable. It is quite sad and the town could be silenced, resting its gossip for a while. I am not quite sure what song could have possibly been more appropriate and ran out of ideas. What do you guys think? was this song way off?

-MJ

“The prisoner who now stands before you,
Was caught red-handed showing feelings.
Showing feelings of an almost human nature.
This will not do.” ~ Pink Floyd in “The Trial”

I used this as a quote because the song really isn’t clean enough for a school blog, and other than this segment it doesn’t really pertain to our readings. In this quote, Pink (A fictional character used in Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”) is being persecuted in his mind by one of his alter egos for “showing feelings.” That may not make sense, but after all, “The Wall” is one trippy movie. Anyways, this pertains to “To Kill A Mockingbird” because Tom Robinson is being charged because he was kind enough to go inside Mayella’s yard to do a good deed for her, which was to break up a dressing for her. If Tom Robinson was not nice enough to help on that night then Mayella wouldn’t be able to accuse Tom of rape.  Tom Robinson was nice enough to help, but in the end he ended up being accused for rape.  

-DanielVerkamp