To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapters 12, 13, and 14. dD

Jem is now twelve, and has decided to become more assertive! However, along with that he's also taken on different views on how Scout should act, and become somewhat wiser, which I would suppose is just a benefit of growing up in general.

Dill had to leave, with his new father. Dill promises Scout that they'd get married once he's old enough and has enough money, which is a neat showcasing of quite young love. Not entirely sure if love is actually a fitting word there, more like "young fondness" or something along those lines, mostly because it doesn't seem as concrete(one would hope) or noticeable as real love, however the author never touched upon their relationship much so I assume nothing particularly interesting occurred. (keeping in mind their young age, as well.)

Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to a church with mostly African American people. They're generally well received. Singing and religious stuff ensues!

Scout asks what rape is after hearing about some details of the Tom Robinson case. Calpurnia can't really give her a good answer(it's not the easiest thing to explain to a child, after all).

Aunt Alexandra has arrived, bringing with her the intention to make Scout more feminine! She decides to stay "for awhile", a nice vague answer that really is as good as not saying anything at all.

Atticus speaks with the kids- presumably via Alexandra's request, and tells them "the facts of life", or something along those lines.  The final sentence of chapter 13, "I know now what he was trying to do, but Atticus was only a man. It takes a woman to do that kind of work.", makes me think about how Atticus is trying to play the role of both the mother and the father, due to there being no mother figure, and even with Alexandra, she isn't exactly my definition of a caring mother, honestly.

Scout feels that this is a good time as any to ask about rape, and Atticus is now presented with the challenge of a finding a tactful answer!

After he does indeed find a tactful answer, Scout requests to go to Calpurnia's house, however Alexandra decides to veto her request via sneaking up and suddenly saying no, which is honestly kind of a unnecessarily mean way of declining a request

Jem threatens to spank Scout for antagonizing Alexandra, but it soon degrades to a boxing match. Atticus has to come and break them up, sending them to their rooms. I find it interesting that Scout wishes to be seen as Jem's equal; perhaps she wants to feel that she still has some control over things in her life.

After both kids go to bed, Scout finds Dill under her bed, you know, it's a common occurrence and Dill says he ran from his father, kept alive by some farmer who fed him food through an airvent, and then he ran to a circus and washed a camel after breaking the chains on the walls via sheer force of will. After traveling all over the state with the animal show, he just so happened to know he was in the county the kids were in and decided to visit them.

He was probably trying to impress Scout and Jem with that story, because I doubt that it really happened at all.

Dill requests to not be sent back, and then sleeps in Scout's bed with her. Dill reveals that his father didn't actually lock him up, but he just wasn't fond of his father and decided to run away. Dill then promptly asks for a baby, because why not, she then asks where they'd get one.

Scout and Dill do not know much about where babies come from, it seems.

Had a good few things to think about over these past few chapters, it was quite interesting to see how Scout misinterpreted things due to generally not knowing about certain topics.

Thanks,
~B.E.

datadyne