Thursday, January 8, 2009

Theme

1.The chapter's theme I believe is courage. The reason why I think so is because Atticus stayed calm when some people of the town argued with him about the Tom Robinson case and how he was to be kept in a jail cell. He sacrificed his time and spent the late hours one night guarding the jail so the people of the town don't reach to Tom Robinson. He did it despite the fact that others may have done harm on him. In the past chapters, Atticus showed courage by defending Tom Robinson during the case because he believed it was the right thing to do.

2. Chapter 15 shows that Atticus is willing to sacrifice anything to help Tom Robinson, who wanted human rights. He is independent, and relies on his own faith to determine what is true to him. The chapter shows that Mr. Cunningham is too focused on the case to worry about anything else.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Pages 133-134

After reading the two pages, I can infer from the conversation that Atticus was forced to tell Scout and Jem to be more grown-up by Aunt Alexandra, but he would have cared less. He wouldn't mean anything he said to them, and not take his sister's task seriously. When Scout said that only women could do that kind of work that Atticus was trying to do, this means that the women all want the same out of certain people, and be a certain person that the women want them to be (such as acting like they're real men and women and be good examples).  


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Stages of Morality

1. Self-Interest: A person who followed this stage of morality was Scout. Her pleasure was to beat up those who bothered her or simply got in the way, such as Walter Cunningham and her cousin Francis. It makes her satisfied, and makes her seem like she is of authority.
Another person who follows the stage would be Jem. He destroyed Mrs. Dubose's camellia bushes. He only cared about himself and decided not to follow Atticus's advice. He wanted to do this since he wanted his own revenge. Jem was satisfied afterward because he had done damage after Mrs. Dubose said wrongly of Atticus.

2. Social contract: A group of characters who followed this stage of morality were Dill, Jem, and Scout. In the beginning of the book, Dill and Jem wanted to act out as the Radleys, but Scout at first thought that absurd. But later on, she decided she would tag along with the two.
Another group would be Atticus and Scout. Miss Caroline didn't want Scout to read in class, and Scout wanted to not be in school or else she wouldn't be able to read with Atticus. But Atticus made a suggestion to let Scout still go to school and keep reading with Scout anyway. Scout agreed, and both of them made a compromise.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Social Norms

1. Atticus most likely follows personal norms. He doesn't rely on other people's expectations. He knows the rules or what is implicit. But Atticus refuses the follow them. For example, he knew the people who worked with him in the case with Tom Robinson didn't want to associate with Negroes in a kind way. This rule probably wasn't really mentioned aloud or in text, and instead probably obvious to most anyway because of the whites' racism towards blacks. He made up his own rules and acted upon what was true to him, by standing up to Tom Robinson. Overall, Atticus is independent and doesn't worry about these rules.

2. An example of an implicit norm that a character hasn't followed was how nobody told Jem not to damage any of Mrs. Dubose's belongings, but instead be calm (the rule wasn't specific). Even though Jem knew deep inside that the idea of damaging Mrs. Dubose's bushes was morally wrong, he did it anyway. Again, the rule was just to be calm, not stating any more about what not to do. In the end, Jem regretted his action because his "punishment" was to read to her.
Another example is how Scout confronted her cousin Francis and said random curse words, and realized shortly after that they don't make sense to her. With the fact that nobody told her to be mean like that toward family members, Scout did so despite knowing that it's wrong deep, deep down. After that action, Scout was forced to be sent home with Jem and Atticus.
A third example is how Mrs. Dubose knew that this morphine addiction she had was wrong; nobody else told her about it, though. The outcome was how she had fought to overcome this addiction.