To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapters 4, 5, and 6. dD

By the second page (relative to my copy of the book) of the fourth chapter, Scout is sticking a piece of gum into her mouth, which she found in a tree of all places. Not only any old tree, but a tree of the Radley residence, which has way too much gossip for it's own good going around about it. She licks it, and after it doesn't kill her (as gum stored in a tree does) she decides to stuff it in her mouth. After a brief lesson about not eating things found within trees or on the floor, life goes on. I wonder how rare gum really was back then, or how expensive if this is the response by one of the youth towards seeing it in a tree. Then again, we need to consider who are narrator is, and we may need to judge her knowledge and intellectual stance in the situation, which brings us back to the point of how rare gum actually was...

Anyhow, Scout and Jem get into a discussion about some pennies and gum they found, and were wondering who to return it to. Aside from being curious at how bad the economy was that two pennies was actually worth something, I'm also curious about how selfless they are when it comes to returning money and gum to their rightful owner.

Conversation about superstitions ensues! Jem tells of "Hot Steams", ghosts of some sort which require you to repeat a silly phrase in order to repel! Aside from some interesting factors about that, nothing much interesting happens here.

They play the game of "Boo Radley", which is pretty much just acting out what gossip they've heard, and then adding onto it like a collaborative story. Interesting form of entertainment.

Atticus begins to become suspicious of the roleplaying games/plays they set up, and wonder what they're playing.

An interesting agreement between a widow and the children allows them to play on her lawn as long as they follow a few terms, interesting due to how agreements like that used to transpire back then.

Even more interesting is how religion was working out, with "foot-washing" Baptists telling other members of the church that they'd go to hell for certain things. Inconsistencies in religion seemed to have been abundant in the past, which raises a few questions that I won't ask here due to both time constraints and potential religious arguments.

Dill, Jem, and Scout head on over to Radley's to muck about. Dill goes straight up and rings the doorbell with Atticus right there infront of him. Atticus was displeased, with good reason with how the children were quite likely annoying an introvert because gossip made them curious.

Abandoning his father's words, Jem, Dill, and Scout all head on back to the Radley residence to muck about, again. Radley comes out and fires his shotgun, causing the trio to disperse. Jem lost his pants, so Dill says he won it in a game of strip poker! Unfortunately that opens up a new can of worms, but it suffices as an answer of sorts. Jem later goes back to retrieve his pants.

Some interesting details were noticed in this chapter, and it was fairly entertaining.

Words words words, it's 12:37 AM.

Good night,
~B.E.

dD datadyne