DWill wrote: She says that Calpurnia considers Jem's talk about ghosts and spirits to be "nigger talk."

I think it is meant to be a way of saying the notions are "low" or "ignorant" in a way that Jem will respond to. Obviously White people also had such talk, though perhaps not as much or as vigorously. Calpurnia understands that she is standing in, to some extent, for their mother, and wants to "raise them right."

DWill wrote:Sometimes I wonder about how teachers present this book in classes. It's very popular still, I believe, in middle schools and grades 9 and 10. I wonder about the experience of the two or three black kids in an otherwise white classroom. Do they welcome discussing the book, or might they feel singled out and uncomfortable? I don't know.

I am curious, too. I have a sense that the recommended way of dealing with it is to have a discussion, attempting to put this sort of usage on the same level one might with other ethnic slurs and allowing those who are the targets to reflect on how they are affected, to create some empathy among others. But I have only heard about it third hand, never engaged in a discussion with an English teacher who confronted the matter.

DWill wrote: As for Calpurnia's remark, assuming that Lee is reflecting how some black people actually talked in Lee's day, what could be said to explain a black woman's use of the term for her people so pejorative today? Is Calpurnia herself prejudiced? I wonder whether young students have the perspective to be able to understand the social structure that existed in the segregated South, in which a woman like Calpurnia, restricted herself in what she could hope to become, nevertheless might grab ahold of whatever self-esteem she could, look down on others of her color, and perhaps not even consider them to be like herself. I'm imagining a world in which Calpurnia isn't even conscious of prejudice against black people; she might have once wondered about the reasons for white supremacy, but she would have come to accept that as the way the world is. Maybe?

I cannot imagine that Calpurnia was not aware of the social structures and the way they limited her and oppressed her kin and community. I suspect that in 1960 there would not have been any other honest way to represent such a comment.

I also suspect it was a reflection of the dilemmas of living with the oppressive system. We are now accustomed to careful parsing of terminology to avoid any microaggressions, but at the time the use of slurs would have been the least of the problems afflicting African-Americans. To avoid any reference to oppression would have been a massive circumlocution (I think this problem is still with us today, though to a much less serious degree), and having to acknowledge and even make use of the low status assigned to them, for instructional purposes, would have been one way of building up defenses against buying into that assignment. Which is pretty ironic, and should give pause. The observation which helped to sway Brown v. Board of Education was of a little Black girl who preferred to play with a White doll, and how can we get our heads around the damage done to self-esteem by a system so pervasive and violent that there was no realistic alternative to accepting it?

I had a really dynamic, intelligent Hispanic student last year who, when we discussed unemployment, explained about applying for 14 different jobs before getting a call-back. The first group he applied to were, "so White" as he put it, that they would not even consider him. He lived in a borderline suburb, just on the edge of Denver, and no doubt there is a real process of excluding young workers who don't "look the part". They might make a mistake, and no doubt it would be interpreted racially by some customers, and the organization can't afford to take that risk.

Harry Marks wrote:

DWill wrote: She says that Calpurnia considers Jem's talk about ghosts and spirits to be "nigger talk."

I think it is meant to be a way of saying the notions are "low" or "ignorant" in a way that Jem will respond to. Obviously White people also had such talk, though perhaps not as much or as vigorously. Calpurnia understands that she is standing in, to some extent, for their mother, and wants to "raise them right."

Possibly it's a usage of the word particular to black people who had been able to win relatively respectable roles. It might be equivalent to "those people of my color who are bringing us down. We're not all like that."

Harry Marks wrote:

DWill wrote:Sometimes I wonder about how teachers present this book in classes. It's very popular still, I believe, in middle schools and grades 9 and 10. I wonder about the experience of the two or three black kids in an otherwise white classroom. Do they welcome discussing the book, or might they feel singled out and uncomfortable? I don't know.

I am curious, too. I have a sense that the recommended way of dealing with it is to have a discussion, attempting to put this sort of usage on the same level one might with other ethnic slurs and allowing those who are the targets to reflect on how they are affected, to create some empathy among others. But I have only heard about it third hand, never engaged in a discussion with an English teacher who confronted the matter.

The possible difficulty in teaching this with black students present might not involve just the dehumanizing epithet--nigger--but the powerlessness of the blacks in the story, the role of Tom Robinson as victim who needs to be saved by a noble white lawyer. Tom is stoic but is not, as I recall, given a lot to do or say. There is an argument to be made, after all, that the book isn't at this stage of history progressive on race. It's an easy win for whites. Teaching it today should probably involve noting the very limited effect of what Atticus did in Maycomb--stopping an enormous injustice to one individual, but not signifying that other black men would escape being lynched. And that's only the true life-or-death part; it's not to mention how many lives were stunted by racism. Teaching the book today might also mean confronting the paternalism indicated in the title and in other elements of the book. I wish I had read other, more incisive novels on the black experience to suggest to sub in for Mockingbird, but aside from two of Toni Morrison's (maybe suitable for some seniors), I haven't.

Harry Marks wrote:

DWill wrote: As for Calpurnia's remark, assuming that Lee is reflecting how some black people actually talked in Lee's day, what could be said to explain a black woman's use of the term for her people so pejorative today? Is Calpurnia herself prejudiced? I wonder whether young students have the perspective to be able to understand the social structure that existed in the segregated South, in which a woman like Calpurnia, restricted herself in what she could hope to become, nevertheless might grab ahold of whatever self-esteem she could, look down on others of her color, and perhaps not even consider them to be like herself. I'm imagining a world in which Calpurnia isn't even conscious of prejudice against black people; she might have once wondered about the reasons for white supremacy, but she would have come to accept that as the way the world is. Maybe?

I cannot imagine that Calpurnia was not aware of the social structures and the way they limited her and oppressed her kin and community. I suspect that in 1960 there would not have been any other honest way to represent such a comment.

The action of the book is mid 30s, before much civil rights awareness, so I still think it's possible that Calpurnia accepted the way things are long ago and clings to whatever self-esteem she can muster, while lying low.

Iand how can we get our heads around the damage done to self-esteem by a system so pervasive and violent that there was no realistic alternative to accepting it?

That's what I'm thinking of as Calpurnia's milieu.

Chapter Six begins with a seeming continuation of the endless summer of idyllic childhood. Jem reliably informs Scout and Dill the gigantic full moon rising behind the pecan trees makes the evening summer temperature seem even hotter. The obsessive plot to see Boo Radley then continues with a high risk moonlit escapade through the rear vegetable plot to the back porch of the Radley residence. They are discovered on the creaking floorboards, and their hot escape is encouraged by a shotgun blast shattering the peaceful calm of the sleeping town. Then Jem gets caught in the wire at the back fence, losing his pants rather like Peter Rabbit in Beatrix Potter escaping from Mr McGregor’s garden.


Playing all innocent, the three juvenile delinquents join the crowd on the street wondering like a lynch mob about the alleged nigger in the veggie patch, where their guilt is seemingly exposed by the absent pants. A desperate lie about a game of strip poker played with matches assuages some suspicions. It did not quite make sense to me, since matches are a substitute for money, not for the playing cards as Dill asserts. It seems it did not make sense to Atticus either, whose lawyer skills are not for nothing, although he did not bring his full prosecutorial forensics to bear on this feeble excuse.

Jem plans a 2am escape to recover the lost pants and avoid a thrashing, as the full momentous foolishness of his moonlit prank settles with its anxious weight of gravity upon his guilty conscience. Despite Atticus stirring, Jem accomplishes the recovery of the lost pants, safely returning to bed amidst the threatened proof of his miscreancy, somehow retaining at least something of his tattered beatific angelic reputation for now at least, despite the suspicions.

The overall impression I am getting is that there is no way any black person would have gotten away with the shenanigans that Jem concocts. The careful scene-setting seems to be preparing for a brutal adult world infested by severe racial inequality in the administration of justice.

The narrator, Scout, wants us to know why her brother, Jem, had an accident on his elbow. Jem reckons it started with his decision to go to the Radley place, a place that is feared haunted by the people of Maycomb county while the narrator believes the accident has to do with the fact that their grandfather, Simon Finch, decided to live in Maycomb county.
Well, in the course of the story, she decides to tell us why they wanted to visit the Radley place. The place is said to be feared. People are afraid that evil lurks there in the person of Boo Radley who is believed to eat animals raw. They believe Boo Radley is insane and is hidden by his family. Dill, a visitor to the town who is staying with their neighbor dares them to try to bring Boo Radley out. Jem accepts the dare, tries to approach the house but becomes chicken-livered, and runs away.

What the chapter told me:
This is the introduction to a tale that promises to be full of surprises and twists. The writer has created a beautiful picture of why the town is afraid of the Radley place and the people that live in Maycomb county. As we are made to believe, they are afraid of the Radleys and believe them mean and bad. Boo Radley might turn out to be the antagonist in the story. Just have to read chapter two to find out what happens next.
So far, the story did not disappoint. It was an interesting tale overall.
Watch out as I post what I learned from chapter two next.

Notes on chapter 2

Scout Finch, the narrator, tells us a bit more about Maycomb county and why being farm people makes them peculiar.
She starts school in first grade and realizes that the teacher, Ms. Caroline, is not happy with the fact that she can read well. "Tell your father to stop teaching you," Ms. Caroline keeps emphasizing. But Ms. Caroline would never know that Scout taught herself how to read. When Ms. Caroline offers to buy Walter lunch, Walter refuses and this baffles her. Scout tries to explain to her that Walter is a Cunningham. The Cunningham are farm people and they have no money. They only pay back in farm produce. Ms. Caroline doesn't understand this and whips Scout for this information. Well, it's her problem that Ms. Caroline is a foreigner from North Alabama who wouldn't get to understand what drives Maycomb county.

In this chapter, we come to appreciate the people of Maycomb county. The narrator also wants us to understand the dynamics that inspire the county as well as the fact that her intelligence is above average.

I wonder how chapter 3 will reveal.

Notes on Chapter 3

Chapter three extends the ideas in chapter 2. Now, Scout helps us understand class relations in Maycomb county. The Cunninghams could be proud but they cannot refuse a good meal. Calpurnia gives Scout a good talking to when she derides Walter for his eating habits. Although a Finch could be better off than a Cunningham, that did not give Scout any reason to look down on them or speak of them insultingly. Scout gets discouraged and wants her father to ask Calpurnia to which in fact her father told her Calpurnia is very important to them.

At school, Ms. Caroline nearly gives a faint when she discovers a louse in the hair of Burris Ewell. The Ewells are known to be truants in school, only coming to school for the first day and then absentee themselves for the rest of the school year. That has been their nature. They never do honest work. They are fond of breaking the law.

Scout now goes on to show us how the imagination of a child is a powerful thing. After her father reads to them about an incident, Jem playacts the incident by climbing up the treehouse. Maybe he was seeking attention. Atticus, their father, tells Scout to disregard him. He would come down himself. Which he surely does.

overall:
This chapter is a good take on Maycomb county. It helps to show us some of the class relations that exist in the county and how creative children can be. Foreigners to the county might not understand its ways, but they know themselves.

Scout feels despondent about her success at school. She would be resigned to getting her education from what her father taught her from reading Time Magazine. She finds two gums at the Radley gate and tells Jem about it who asked her to spit them from her mouth. They await the close of school and Dill's visit. Dill comes and they start to play-act, but not after Dill told them he has seen his father. They act out being the Radleys, with Scout being Mrs. Radley, Dill Mr. Radley, and Jem as Boo Radley. Their father finds them doing so and scolds them.

Thoughts:
The Radley has a symbolic meaning for the children and also for the town. To the children, they are a fearsome family, even their compound has a haunting aspect to it. To the townsfolk, they are to be avoided because they represent something evil. The writer is slowly getting us to the moment where the idiom comes true: to hang a dog, you first give it a bad name.

The fascination of the three children concerning Boo Radley continues. Scout is told by Ms. Mautdie Atkinson that the Radleys are foot-washer Baptists. Which means that they consider every pleasure to be a sin. They even consider women to be a sin. Jem and Dill decide they have to send a note to Boo Radley to make him come out and play with them. They employ Scout to join them. As they are about to attract Boo's attention through the side window, their father, Atticus, accosts them about bullying Boo Radley. He would that they leave Boo alone.

Emekadavid wrote:Scout feels despondent about her success at school. She would be resigned to getting her education from what her father taught her from reading Time Magazine.

There is something poignant and yet absurd about Scout's self-confidence. When Harper Lee went off to New York to join the world of writing and publishing, she probably experienced the terrifying thrill of knowing that she knew a lot and having a sense, at the same time, that there was so much more out there to be known and understood that she might disappear and leave nothing in her wake. The gentle grace to laugh at the hubris of a first-grader might be the fruit of remembering what it was like to be much older and still have that refusal to accept being told she needed to put her head down and accept ordinariness.

Emekadavid wrote:She finds two gums at the Radley gate and tells Jem about it who asked her to spit them from her mouth.
Thoughts:
The Radley has a symbolic meaning for the children and also for the town. To the children, they are a fearsome family, even their compound has a haunting aspect to it. To the townsfolk, they are to be avoided because they represent something evil. The writer is slowly getting us to the moment where the idiom comes true: to hang a dog, you first give it a bad name.

How do they feel about the eeriness of the Radley family's rejection of the community and suppression of Arthur's (Boo's) personhood? They are haunted by it. Atticus is also a non-conformist, but his version allows him to set the children free. Not completely, of course, but supportively, with faith in their intrinsic goodness and basic competence. If we give our children the ability to meet life with curiosity and open acceptance, in part by warning them where the trapdoors are, then instead of becoming ghosts they become agents of kindness.

We, the readers, are left with the conundrum of why Jem subsides into nervous fear of the Radley threat, the haunting persistence of a repressed person, while Scout is wiling to just check out the situation. Is it the role of the older brother? Is it first-child endocrinology? We don't know, and have to make of it what we can.

The adventures of the three children into the lives of the Radleys continue. They finally muster the courage to get into the compound of the Radleys. Nathan Radley hears noises and comes out with his shotgun. The children escape through the backdoor, but Jem has his pants stuck on the fence. When Atticus, their father inquires about his pants, Dill lies that he won it from Jem in a gambling game. Nathan Radley vows to the community that if he catches the intruder, he will surely shoot him. In an admirable display of courage, Jem goes back in the middle of the night to retrieve his pants.