By the time Scout is in the second grade, tormenting Boo Radley is a thing of the past and Scout and Jem’s games take them further up the street and past Mrs.Dubose’s house. Mrs. Dubose lives alone with a black servant named Jessie and is rumored to carry a concealed pistol. Scout and Jem hate her, as she’s mean and responds viciously to even polite greetings. As time goes on, Jem gets bolder and insists that he and Scout need to run all the way to the post office—past Mrs. Dubose’s house—to meet Atticus in the evenings. But most nights, Atticus finds Jem enraged by something Mrs. Dubose said. He encourages Jem to understand that Mrs. Dubose is ill and greets her heartily every evening.
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Scout and Jem are disappointed that Atticus, at 50, is older than their classmates’ parents and doesn’t do anything, like farm or drive a dump truck. He also wears glasses and never hunts, drinks, or smokes. Despite how innocuous he seems, everyone talks about him defending Tom Robinson . People tease Scout after she commits herself to “a policy of cowardice.” He refuses to teach Scout and Jem to shoot their air rifles and tells them that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird . This isn’t a normal thing for Atticus to say, so Scout asks Miss Maudie about it. She agrees with Atticus and says that mockingbirds just sing for people. Scout complains that Atticus is too old and can’t do anything. Miss Maudie points out that Atticus can write fantastic wills, play checkers, and play the mouth harp. Scout is even more embarrassed. When Scout refers to her choice to follow Atticus’s request as a “policy of cowardice,” it shows that she still thinks courage and bravery have to do with the way a person fights physically or verbally for what they believe in. In other words, it hasn’t yet crossed her mind that it might be more courageous for her to walk away from others’ taunts. Atticus’s request that the children not kill innocent mockingbirds hearkens to his defense of Tom Robinson, who is being persecuted by the community. When Miss Maudie echoes what Atticus said, it helps the children see that within Atticus’s sense of morality is based on universal concepts of right and wrong that everyone can apply. Things began to get difficult for Scout. Atticus forbids Scout from fighting, but Cecil Jacobs makes her forget this when he announces to their class that Atticus defends black people. Scout denies it and later, asks Atticus if he “defends n-word”Atticus admits that he does but cautions Scout to not talk that way, as it’s common. Scout points out that everyone at school talks that way, yet another bid to convince Atticus to not send her to school. He looks vaguely amused. Scout asks if all lawyers defend black people and points out that Cecil made it sound bad.
Maycomb experiences its coldest weather since 1885. Mr.Avery insists that the Rosetta Stone indicates that when children disobey, smoke cigarettes, and fight, the seasons change, so Jem and Scout feel guilty for causing themselves and everyone else discomfort. Mrs. Radley dies over the winter with little fanfare. Jem and Scout suspect that Boo got her, but Atticus insists that she died of natural causes and gives Scout a scathing look when she asks if he saw Arthur. The next morning, Scout wakes up and screams in fear—it’s snowing, and she’s never seen snow before. Eula May calls to inform Atticus that school is canceled. Jem says nothing for a week and Scout tries to take Atticus ’s advice and put herself in Jem’s skin. She reasons that she’d be dead if she’d gone to the Radley Place, so she gives Jem space. School starts and second grade is awful, but Scout and Jem usually walk home together. One afternoon, Jem says there’s something he didn’t tell Scout about his foray to the Radley Place: when he got to the fence, someone had folded his pants and mended them where they were ripped. Pleadingly, Jem asks Scout to confirm that nobody can read his mind and Scout plays along. They reach the oak tree and find a ball of gray twine. Scout insists it’s someone’s hiding place, but when the twine is still there three days later, Jem takes it. Atticus allows Jem and Scout to go sit by Miss.Rachel’s fish pool with dill night before he leaves. They look for Mr.Avery, who lives across the street from Mrs. Dubose and whom they once watched urinate an impressive distance. Dill casually suggests they go for a walk, something nobody does in Maycomb. Jem agrees and assures Scout that they’re not disobeying Atticus. They stroll down the sidewalk and try to send Scout home. They explain that they’re going to look into Boo Radley’s window, since if he kills them now, they’ll just miss school. Jem complains that Scout is acting more and more like a girl, so she feels compelled to join them. Scout nags Jem about their game and they stop playing it so much, though Jem does decide that if Atticus tells them to stop playing it, they can just change the characters’ names and it’ll be okay. Dill agrees with Jem and frustratingly for Scout, the boys spend most of their time plotting in the tree house without her. This is especially frustrating since Dill asked Scout to marry him early in the summer and then seemed to forget about her. Scout starts spending time with Miss Maudie, who up to this point has only been a benign presence in her life. Scout and Jem have always been allowed to play on Miss Maudie’s property and eat her grapes, so they don’t speak to her much to preserve their relationship.
The rest of Scouts school year proceeds much like her first day. She can’t help but think she’s missing something, since Atticus was educated at home, not with the Dewey Decimal System, and he’s been elected to the state legislature unopposed for years. Scout gets out of school 30 minutes before Jem, so she races past the Radley Place. One afternoon, something catches her eye and she returns to one of the big oak trees in the Radley yard. In a knothole, she finds two pieces of chewing gum in tinfoil, which, after checking to make sure they’re not poisonous, she shoves in her mouth. Jem is aghast when he finds her and makes Scout gargle.
Scout finds and beats Walter in the schoolyard until Jem pulls her off. She explains the situation to Jem, who realizes that Walter is Mr. Cunningham’s son, invites Walter for lunch, and assures him that Scout won’t jump him. Jem boasts about having touched the Radley house on the way home. At the table, Atticus and Walter discuss farming. Walter asks if there’s any syrup and Calpurina brings him the pitcher. He pours it over his plate until Scout asks what he’s doing, at which point he puts it down and looks ashamed. Atticus shakes his head at Scout and Calpurnia calls Scout into the kitchen. Calpurnia scolds Scout for her rudeness, so Scout brings her plate into the kitchen. Scout scathingly tells Calpurnia that Calpurnia has already gotten her in trouble today for teaching her to write.
Dill returns home to Mississippi in early September. Scout is miserable until she remembers that she starts school in a week. Jem agreed to take Scout to school and explains that she can’t bother him at all because things are different at school. Scout learns that Jem is right almost immediately. Her teacher, Miss Caroline , is from Winston County, a peculiar place. After reading the class a silly story about talking cats, Miss Caroline prints the alphabet on the board. Nearly every student can read it since many failed first grade last year, but Miss Caroline asks Scout to read it aloud. Scout then reads most of her reading book and part of the newspaper. Miss Caroline is upset that Scout can read and tells her to tell Atticus to not teach her anymore. Scout isn’t sure what she did wrong she can’t remember not knowing how to read.
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