Literary Luminary

Literature Circle Round 4
Literary Luminary: Your job is to choose a paragraph or sentences from

the book to discuss with your group. Your purpose is to help other
students by spotlighting something interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling,
or important from the text. You can read parts aloud yourself, or ask
another group member to read them. Include your reasons for picking
the paragraphs or sections you did. Please record the page number and
paragraph.
Paragraph and reason for choosing:
1. Chapter 28 High above us in the darkness a solitary mocker
poured out his repertoire in blissful unawareness of whose tree
he sat in, plunging from the shrill kee, kee of the sunflower bird to
the irascible qua-ack of a bluejay, to the sad lament of Poor Will,
Poor Will, Poor Will. (Lee, 258)
Harper Lee utilizes symbolism by referring to the "solitary mocker" and
the "bluejay" perching in the tree near the Radley home. The "solitary
mocker" symbolically represents innocent, vulnerable beings like Jem
and Scout, who are defenceless against Bob Ewell's attack later that
night. The proximity of the mockingbird to Boo Radley's home is also
significant. Boo Radley is a symbolic mockingbird throughout the novel
and comes to Scout's and Jem's aid later that night. The blue jay is also
symbolic of harmful individuals like Bob Ewell, who is a threat to
innocent, vulnerable children like Jem and Scout.
In addition to the symbolic significance of the "solitary mocker" and blue
jay, this passage also foreshadows Bob Ewell's attack. The "blissful
unawareness" of the mockingbird and the "irascible qua-ack" of the
bluejay foreshadow the Finch children's unawareness of Bob Ewell's
ambush on their walk home
2. Chapter 29 page 195 They were white hands, sickly white hands
that had never seen the sun, so white they stood out garishly
against the dull cream wall in the dim light of Jem's room. I looked
from his hands to his sand-stained khaki pants; my eyes travelled
up his thin frame to his torn denim shirt. His face was as white as
his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were
thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost
delicate indentations at his temples, and his grey eyes were so
colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin,
almost feathery on top of his head
Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-

and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw
squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were
bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the
blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face;
what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and
he drooled most of the time.
3. Chapter 30 Page 198 There's a black boy dead for no reason,
and the man responsible for it's dead. Let the dead bury the
dead this time, Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead.
In other words, let Tom Robinson "bury" Bob Ewell as an act of poetic
justice, and the incident will be taken care of; in this way, Boo Radley
with his "shy ways" will not be exposed to the gossip and cruelties of the
public. The town can "move on" from the repercussions of the trial as all
the injustice connected to it will finally end. The dead will take care of
the dead, and the living will go on living in their own ways. Otherwise, it
would be like killing a mockingbird to bring Boo to court.
4. Chapter 31 Page Atticus was right. One time he said you never
really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk
around in them. Just standing on the Radley Porch was
enough
This passage from Chapter 31 is Scout’s exercise in thinking about the
world from Boo Radley’s perspective. After she walks him home, Scout
stands on Boo’s porch and imagines many of the events of the story
(Atticus shooting the mad dog, the children finding Boo’s presents in the
oak tree) as they must have looked to Boo. She at last realizes the love
and protection that he has silently offered her and Jem all along. The
blossoming of Scout’s ability to assume another person’s perspective
sympathetically is the culmination of her novel-long development as a
character and of To Kill a Mockingbird’s moral outlook as a whole.

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Literature Circle Round 4

Literary Luminary: Your job is to choose a paragraph or sentences from

Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-

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