TKAM: Welcome to Maycomb, Miss Caroline!

Today, students enjoyed their first reading quiz on To Kill A Mockingbird. It featured 5 questions taken from Ch. 1-3, the HW assigned last night.

Classes then focused on 3 questions that were not on the quiz, because of their higher-order nature:

1. How does Miss Caroline teach us about the social environment of Maycomb?
• This was the hardest question.
• From Scout's recounting of her school day, we can tell that Miss Caroline just doesn't GET IT (Bless her heart). What is the IT she doesn't get? Life in Maycomb. Of course she doesn't, she's not from in-town. She's from North Alabama, and therefore an outsider. Even worse, she's different.
• Scout attempts to explain Walter's reluctance to accept her money by simply stating his last name. In Maycomb, everyone knows everyone, and minds everyone's business. And this social monitoring has been going on for generations. This means that, for better or for worse, families (last names) carry connotations, reputations, and understandings. For example:
• The Cunninghams: Don't bother trying to give them money. They're a proud family. They won't take anything they can't pay back.
• The Ewells: Filthy animalistic barbarians who operate outside the laws of Maycomb and Manners. They should be tolerated, but just barely. They don't help themselves, and can't be helped.
• The Tidymans: Don't buy them closed-toed shoes for Christmas, they're a hard-set flip-floppin' family. Have been for years. (I made this up. Duh.)
• Maycomb is tight-knit, and socially vigilant. They are connected by years of judgments and long-built family understandings. This knowledge connects everyone who's a "townie" just the way that all the strands of a spiderweb are connected. Miss Caroline is a fly who's gotten stuck, and she doesn't know what's up. What's worse for her, is that she's not a very good listener, and doesn't seem to be learning the ropes very quickly.
2. Why doesn't Walter Cunningham Jr. accept the quarter from Miss Caroline to buy lunch?
• This was the easiest question.
• Because his family has pride. The Cunninghams, though slammed by the Great Depression, have maintained their dignity. They shun charity, and make their own way in life, even though that way may be paved with hunger and debt.
3. How are the Cunninghams and the Ewells different? They're both poor; what sets them apart?
• This was a middling question.
• The Cunninghams have pride in themselves; the Ewells don't. Nor do the Ewells have any respect for authority (See Burris' exchange with Miss Caroline). Nor do the Ewells set any priority on personal hygiene. Nor do the Ewells find education important.
• I'll come right out and say it: the Ewells are the "powhitetrash" of this book. Thank you, Mrs. Angelou, for that word. The Cunninghams are at least trying. The Ewells seem to have given up on improving their lot in life.
• More of this will make sense once we meet the father in the family, Mr. Bob Ewell.

HW for tonight:

• Read Ch. 4-8