To Kill a Mockingbird

Chapters 12-15
Chapter Summaries

The Black Community

Character Developments

Lynchings & Lynch Mobs

CHAPTER SUMMARIES
Chapter 12 Jem and Scouts changing relationship Atticus returns to state legislature Calpurnia takes Jem & Scout to her church reaction/welcom e Scout finds out about alleged rape Chapter 13 Aunt Alexandra comes to take care of children Maycomb takes to Alexandra positively Development of contrast between proper and improper by the characters

To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapters 12-15
Chapter 14 Jem & Scout feel community looking at them Jem & Scout fight about Alexandra/Calp urnia Dill ran away to Finchs house Chapter 15 Further contrast of right and wrong brought on by Alexandra Lynch Mob comes to jail but is broken up by Scouts speech

THE BLACK COMMUNITY

The black community is introduced as a very spirited, upbeat and supportive group. Calpurnia connects the black community and the white community The majority of the black community cannot read and they are poor, but they support their own members

To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapters 12-15
The effect is that it makes the racial prejudice more hateful nobody in the community respects Bob Ewell but the community sides with him because of the colour of his skin.

Church patrons have no hymnals, have no money but still are able to support Mrs. Robinson
Her use of language Her disagreements with Alexandra

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENTS

To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapters 12-15

Jem
Growing up Has learned lessons

Scout
Childhood innocence Still learning lessons Lost from all that is happening

As the novel progresses, the relationship between Jem and Scout changes. They begin to separate.

Calpurnia Aunt Alexandra

Jem
Scout becomes influenced by three sources in these four chapters. What do each tell her?

Scout

LYNCHINGS & LYNCH MOBS

Lynching was a form of punishment for a presumed crime, often carried out by a mob or vigilantes without trial or any legal support. Lynching was a practice that occurred throughout the United States, (particularly in the south) against blacks accused of crimes against whites. Research shows that many of the crimes did not actually occur or were exaggerated. The hanging of an empty noose around a tree was a threat of intimidation against blacks and those who supported them.

To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapters 12-15

Some Southern states seemed to support lynchings for awhile. For example, the Governor of South Carolina, Benjamin Tillman, (d. 1918) once said:

"We of the South have never recognized the right of the negro to govern white men, and we never will. We have never believed him to be the equal of the white man, and we will not submit to his gratifying his lust on our wives and daughters without lynching him."

LYNCHINGS & LYNCH MOBS

Thousands of Americans were victims of lynchings from the 1860s to the 1960s

To Kill a Mockingbird
Chapters 12-15
--Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear a strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black body swinging in the Southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Pastoral scene of the gallant South, The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth, Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh, And the sudden smell of burning flesh! Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck, For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop, Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Lynchings were often public spectacles attended by many some even proud to stand in front of the victim for photographs Seven Presidents who tried to outlaw lynchings were unsuccessful as the laws were voted against. It is now a crime and even tying an empty noose as a sign of hatred is illegal
The poem Strange Fruit explores the idea of lynchings from an outsiders perspective:

Abel Meeropol, (1939)