Journal #6
Prompt #1
Neighbors

The novel To kill a Mockingbird takes place in the 1920's in Maycomb County, Alabama. The times then, were much different from how they are now but I still think that I can relate my neighbors to Scout's neighbors in this book. There are so many characters with such different attributes but I will mainly talk about 3. They will be Dill, Ms. Maudie and Boo.
First off, I'll start with my best friend from when I was about 8-9 years old, Brett. He lives down the street from me and I remember in fourth grade that every day of the week we would hang out either at his house or mine. This is kind of like how Jem, Scout and Dill all got along during the summer. We used to do all sorts of things such as bike to this grocery store thats up the hill from our house, go to the canyon and go off the jumps that we made and ride to our friend Justin's house that was actually a pretty far distance. I ended up getting in trouble because I didn't tell my mom where I was going. It was one of those things that was a lesson for next time, like Atticus does for the kids. In the end, when we both went to different middle schools, I don't see him as often. This is like when Dill got a new dad.

Another neighbor that would be like the ones in the book is my aunt that lives up the street from us. She has always been like a second mom to us and I enjoy riding my bike or walking up to her house when I want to run away from my family. The main reason why she's like Ms. Maudie is because her house always smells good from delicious food or she is someone you can talk to.

 The last person that I will talk about is this old couple in our neighborhood that always seemed to hate us kids. When a ball would go off of our deck and into their yard, they would pop it or make us get our parents and complain to them how we were disrupting them. Another instance was when I would run town the hill to Brett's house but instead of going on the side walk, i cut through and go one the ice plant where our property was conjoined. They would get mad and tell us that it was their property even though it wasn't. The main reason why they remind me of Boo Radley is because they are always watching us from their window and even though Boo wasn't mean, Scout, Dill and Jem still felt that ill presence as I do when I go past their house.

As you can, even 90 years ago, people were as neighborly as they are now. Even though most thoughts have changed or reformed, the way people feel openly to surrounding people now can't be different from how they did in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Journal #5
Chapters 13-15
Perspective of Tom Robinson

Dear Journal,
Recently, as you probably know, I was accused of raping a girl from the Ewell family in Maycomb County. I will deny every thing that happened and be honest but what white folk in this time would believe a black guy like me. It's basically their word against mine but only  they have a 100 to 1 chance of beating me. I have been compensating recently and I have realized that I am not smart, I haven't done anything nice to them but at the same time, I keep to myself and don't bother anyone. I had no chance in trial until a kind white man by the name of Atticus Finch lead me in trial. The case is going to be starting in two days and bless his sole for doing this. There is so much hate not only upon my shoulders however on his a lot as well for defending me. I can't say how much gratitude my family has for him. He has been so kind and I actually for once feel that I am just as strong as any white man around. I am infallible. Today, they moved me from a jail outside of Maycomb County into a cell next to Maycomb's courthouse. It seems that my moving was pensive because Atticus showed up that night and said that he would protect me. Apparently, some townsfolk came to his house that evening and told him that I was getting moved and there might be some trouble. His only worry was how I would survive that night because no one would dare drink or kill on an ecclesiastical Sunday. He stayed with me and pointed out that Mr. Underwood was atop the Tribune office with a double barrel rifle in case anything got ugly and that he was ready as well. He stayed there quietly and let me got to sleep and get rest while he read the newspaper on his chair. It was only about 45 minutes or so that I was awakened by the noise of loud whispering coming from outside. I peeped out the window and saw a group of angry looking men and Atticus standing in between them and I. I could only sit back and watch as the scene unfolded. I remained quiet. Atticus was calmly telling them to go home and go to sleep but I could tell that they weren't going to listen to him. hen, when al hope was down and everyone's cards were extracted, from the shadows, I heard the sound of children and one by one I saw two boys and one girl emerge from the shadows. The taller boy and the girl seemed to fit the description of Atticus's kids and the way he addressed them confirmed that theory. I began to worry for Atticus. Now they had his weakness. "Go home," he demanded calmly, "and take them too," pointing at the girl and the younger guy. When all he did was decline this command, things looked bad. After a long argument and an impatient murmur from the men, The older boy unwillingly excepted and he started to head off but then, the little girl said something to  one of the men. Apparently, she recognized him as one of her dad's clients and the parent of her new friend at school who they took to lunch one day. She kept going and talking to him in a sweet and innocent way. Everyone drew silent and surprised including me. It was almost unbearable and the fact that she had no idea the effect was even more powerful. In the end, she drew silent to and then the man that she was talking to told the rest of them to leave. This one little child probably saved at least one man's life including mine. I don't know how to thank the Finch family. They have done so much. Atticus ended up turning to me and said for me to go to sleep. I am not sure but I am pretty sure that he had tears running down his face. He used his handkerchief and walked his kids home.

Comments

"Post #4

Chapterd 10, 11, 12

Perspective: Scout

Chptr 10

School is not getting any better but I'm holding my will to fight and clobber them to china. But something I noticed is that Atticus is ALOT older than all the other kids dads. He never does anything but sit on the couch. Now that I think about it he never goes hunting or any of the stuff normal dads do. I mean even his job is just sitting in an office while other dads are mechanics and engineers. Even when me and Jem got air rifles he didn't teach us how to shoot!! He only told us to shoot at blue jays and tin cans, not mockingbird. I got the ingenuous idea to ask Ms. Maudie about why I couldn't shoot mockingbird. She told me that mockingbirds don't bother you so you shouldn't bother them. I couldn't help but think of boo radley when she said that. While I was talking to her I decided to also ask about why atticus is so old. Miss Maudie tried to tell me how Atticus wasn't just an old man. It wasn't till Tim Johnson, the neighborhood dog, caught rabies and was terrorizing the neighborhood. Tim went next to the Radley house and it was a one shoot chance, so the sheriff entrusted the gun to Atticus to my surprise. In the perplexity of this all turns out he was a sharp shooter and killed the dog in one shoot. Ms Maudie told me he didn't hunt because he felt it was a unfair advantage to the animals he hunted. Me and Jem became less Fanatical about the Radley place and more into the town of maycomb. Jem got money for his birthday and decided to buy a toy train and get me a baton that I've been eye balling. We usually pasted ms dubose who seemed isolated, the only interactions with other humans she had was when she was yelling at them on her porch. Atticus told us to just ignore her and we did but one day she said mean things about there family and that pushed Jem to the edge. After he bought his toy he took my baton and murdered Ms. Dubose's flowers and left my baton there. I started crying and he kicked me and helped me up. When atticus found out he made Jem go to Ms. Dubose's house. She made us read to her for two hours a day for a month. The next day me and Jem went there and read. It didn't even seem like she was listening all she did was rant about everything. Eventually the timer rang and we went home. After about A month or so I began to notie that we stayed there longer and longer as each day pasted . We were prettyacquainted with the schedule. When a month pasted Ms. Dubose told Jem to read for another week. Atticus agreed and Jem and Atticus had adebate about it. Jem finally agreed and after that week we were finally free. After about a month or so the poor old woman dies. Turns out she was a morphine addict. Before she died she made a box with the most prettiest flower ever and gave it to Jem. It was really boring ever since Jem became more mature and what made it worse was that dill couldn't wouldn't come back because of his mom re-marriage. The only interesting thing to happen was going to nigger church with calpurnia. At first this black lady was angry at us but then the rest of the church was very nice and welcoming. I sat adjacent to Jem. They talked about Tom Robinson and how his kids and wife needed money, at least $10. I was flooding with questions. I asked why Robinson was in jail and Calpurnia said it was because of rape accusations. I asked her what rape was but she wouldn't tell me." ~Yuuki

 I liked your perspective and the detail you included but there some parts where I was confused. For example in the beginning you say something about Scout "clobbering them to China". What do you mean by that? Also, there were a couple spelling and grammatical errors. Other than that, good job and keep up the good work

Journal #4
Chapters 10-12
Perspective of Scout

Dear Journal,
The last few days have been very tough on the family. This whole thing with Atticus's case and the whole family being called "Nigger Lovers" is really starting to contradict me. I am so annoyed with everyone calling Atticus names and telling me things that i have no clue about. It is really getting on my last nerve. I don't think that I will ever be able to understand Atticus. Just the other day he told us to shoot the tin cans but he said that he knew we would go for the blue jays and he said that was okay but to never kill a mockingbird. He was very strict in saying that it was a sin to kill one. He said that it's not right to hurt something that has never done anything to you. For some reason, I thought that this might be directed more towards Arthur than the birds themselves. Ever since the farm, he has been trying real hard to raise us right. I don't know what to say to him. So much is happening and it's hard to not question what it all means or why it is happening now. The other day, me and Jem went out exploring in town with our rifles. We went to the crossroads and suddenly, in the distance, we saw Tim Johnson limping from down yonder. Tim is the town's beloved dog who now looked as if he had a disease. He was walkin' real slow and Jem suggested we go and get Calpurnia. And so we did and it seemed as if that was the smart thing to do because it turns out Tim was sick and we called the sheriff. Cal then went around the neighborhood knocking on doors and shouting "Stay in your house! There's a mad dog!" What I didn't understand was that it was February and this usually only happened in August. Atticus arrived with the sheriff just in time when Tim was on the street in front of our house. He was walking real slow now and was looking for a place where he could die. I know from past experience that it's important that you stay away from the animals otherwise you could get sick and die just like them. They were talking about what to do with the dog and they realized that putting it out now would be the safest thing they could do. So they decided to take the shot but then realized that they didn't know who could shoot. The Sheriff gave Atticus the gun and my dad said that he hadn't shot in ten years. I didn't know what he was talking about because he never told us that he had shot before. They went back and forth cantankerous about who was best. Soon enough, Atticus held the gun and soon enough, we found out about his secret. He had the best shot in the town. Mr. Tate, the sheriff told about his younger days and how he was called "One Shot Finch" and how he could shout 15 birds with 15 shots and call it a waste of bullets. After this, I reevaluated the way I looked at my father. Maybe he wasn't so useless after all he was sure better than his contemporaries that was for sure. Maybe even cooler than the other kid's young parents with the cool jobs. Later that week, we started going to town more often. the only way there was to go through Mrs. Dubose's path. We would have to walk in front of one of the meanest people's houses in the world everyday. Every time, she would say something about Atticus that we wished was inaudible. Jem couldn't stand it and one day, he got so mad, he broke my baton and trashed her yard. I was sad about the baton but he bought it for me so I was more sad for him. On top of this, his punishment was reading to he for a month. this turned out to be an extra week and shortly after, she passed away. We found out that she died because aof a morphine addiction. It was her painkiller and luckily she died with out any pain. She left Jem a box which I found was quite nice and depressing as well. Luckily she didn't die in peril. Then, when Atticus was away, we accompanied Calpurnia to church and the one that she goes to. At first, I was really excited to be going to church and be the man of the family but when we got there, we found trouble with a tall black lady who Calpurnia talked to in a very strange way. I then realized that she was trying to talk like the rest of them but I didn't ask her until Scout brought it up afterwards. I was worried about the girl but then she left us alone. We then met Reverend Skykes who was the first reverend of the church. The service was very different from the one that I'm used to. There were no books or anything. We later learned that Cal was the only one there that could read. Instead, all of them would repeat the words  of Cal's son Zeebo. It was a very nice experience that was later ruined by the visit of Aunt Alexandra.

Journal #3

Chapters 8-9

Perspective of Jem

Dear Journal,

These last few days have been both malignant and interesting. Not only have we had the first snowfall in my life and since 1885, but we've gotten in and out of some trouble everywhere. First off, one morning, after witnessing one of the coldest nights of my life, I was awoken by a scream from Scout. I looked outside my window and saw what the tyranny was for. I was looking at something I had never seen before. We asked Atticus what it was and when it would stop but he only could answer snow for it was something he too had not experienced. When he said we wouldn't have school today, my first idea was to do as I once read in a book about snow. I asked Atticus if he knew how to build a snowman. He said no so I went outside with Scout to see how we could pull off this teetered idea. I said that we should wait for some more snow to fall and suggested  that we not step on it and waste the precious snow. So we set off to Ms. Maudie's house and went to borrow snow from her. We also took snow from the front and swapped the dirt in the bask for it. When we had enough snow, we began and the final product was exactly how I expected it to turn out. I was definitely not quibbling for Atticus's return home. The last touch was Ms. Maudie's hat and a pair of her leaf cutters for the arms. Thats was the highlight of my time. The next few days went by fast and very rough. Again, that night was blistering cold. Everyone had their fires going and the one thing that everyone was evading, happened to Ms. Maudie's home when it burned down that night. We stayed and watched as people through her furniture out the window and tried to save it. In the midst of that, Boo Radley put a blanket over Scout. That is something I will never stop tormenting her about. Lastly, we were forced to go to Aunt Alexandra's house and Scout got in trouble for something I don't know about. I think that it was because of Atticus's new case. I don't think Scout will be able to handle the upcoming events in her life. I my self am worried for this family.

Comments

"To Kill a Mocking Bird

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective of Jem

Sadly I break my arm. I was afraid I would not be able to play football anymore. People thought I was a little eccentric for only thinking about football. Scout and I start to think of our past in Maycomb. With our father Atticus only because our mother died two years after Scout was born.Scout and I found a new friend named Charles Barker Harris but we call him Dill for short. We told him the stories about Arthur Radley. Which made me feel very intimidated. Arthur Radley isindigenous to Maycomb. He lived there is whole life. We told him the time Arthur stabbed his father with scissors. What everyone calls him in Maycomb is Boo like a ghost. It Dill irked me because he seemed more interested in the house more then he was afraid of it.

The next day we go to school and I find Scout beating up a kid named Walter Cunningham. I made her stop. She told me she was beating him up because of lunch. The Cunningham's will not take anything from anyone if they can not pay it back. Instead of beating him up I decide to invite him to dinner with us. We all go to dinner and Walter and Atticus keep talking about crops. Scout gets called in by Calpurnia. Scout comes back but picks up her plate and goes back. I think she finished her dinner in there." ~Marea

I liked your post but I think you just need to be more aware of what you're writing at some parts. like you mix up words or forget things. Also Jem doesn't break his arm in the first chapter, Scout just mentions it before she flashbacks all the way. Another thing is that Jem is on Dill's side. If anyone is interested in the Radleys, it's Jem. Dill is just his follower. Lastly, be careful of tenses and who's talking. Otherwise, good job on your post!

Journal #2
Chapters 4-7
Perspective: Dill

Hey, It is Dill. Recently I went back to Maycomb for the Summer. It went by a lot quicker this time around. We went straight to adventures and found out many things this time. I don't know why but I think that I liked Scout. I wanted to marry her in the beginning of the summer but then I started to hang out with Jem and realized how annoying she can be. Jem was very fun this year. Let me tell you we almost got neck deep in trouble but somehow we found ourselves out of it each time. In the beginning of the summer, we played games like role play and pretended to be the Radleys. I got to be Mr. Radley, Scout was Ms. Radley and Jem was Boo. This was one of my favorite things to to because by the end of the summer we were experts at acting. And the best part is that we didn't get in trouble. there were a couple of times that we almost got caught by the neighbors however, Jem had the genius idea of changing the names so they wouldn't suspect a thing. This was one of Scout least favorite things that we did this summer. She didn't like the idea of us ridiculing Boo Radley because he was a person BUT I just think she was scared. Jem said that he was dead and they stuffed him up the chimney but she didn't believe so. She spent most of her time with one of the neighbors; Ms. Maudie. She was a nice lady but I don't know why Scoutt liked spending time with her so much. I liked her cake, thats for sure but she seemed old and boring. One thing that I will always remember about this summer was the time when Jem pushed Scout down the hill in the tire and she rolled into the Radley's driveway. I was scared watching her. She was so dizzy, she could barely get up it was definitely funny moment. But the most important highlight was after we tried to get the note to Boo through the window , when we went in the backyard of their house. On the last night of my stay in Maycomb that summer, Jem told Atticus that we were going to go by the fish pond but instead he took us to the Radley house. I thought for sure that Boo wasn't going to come but she  did and we had the most fearful night. At first, we were just going to go and peep through the window but then when we couldn't see anything, Jem took us around to the back. It was dark and spooky like the front but with uncut trees and twisted shadows. I was very scared. Then, we saw a shadow move and we discovered it was Mr. Radley who had heard us. when he left, we ran as fast as we could towards the front. That was when the shotgun went off. We hurried under the gate and Jem was so scared, he even lost his pants when crawling under. We went all the way around the neighborhood to see the people gathered to see the commotion. I had to make up a game called strip poker to cover for the absence of Jem's pants and luckily they believed it. This was defiantly a scary moment this summer that I will always remember. I still wonder what happened to Jem and his pants.

Journal #1

Chapters 1-3 

Perspective of Ms. Caroline

Dear Journal,

It's me, Ms. Caroline again. Today was a strange and confusing day. It was the first day of school and I met many new eccentric
people and I can tell that getting used to Maycomb County is going to
be a challenge. First off, I started my day by making a scene in front
of the class with a young girl named Jean Louis Finch. Everybody calls
her Scout. She is one that knows everybody and everything about
Maycomb. However I can't have these intimidating kids running
my class. She apparently learned how to read this summer and that is
good however that makes this whole process harder. I am going to have
to teach two different things because of it. My compromise was for her to stop reading in class but to read at home. She was irked
by it. After these shenanigans, I had her take a seat and went further
into my lesson however, I was interrupted by the lunch bell. I asked
who was staying for lunch and who was going home. everybody had an
answer except for this one boy, Walter Cunningham. I asked him if he
was going home for lunch and he replied, "No mam." I then asked if he
had lunch but he said he forgot it so i reached into my bag and pulled
out some money for him to borrow, but he wouldn't take it. Then, from
the class I heard a familiar voice say, "He's a Cunningham." I looked
to see who would have made such a rude remark and saw that it was the
same little-girl: Scout. I asked what she meant by it and she said that
he was pour and wouldn't take my money. I then got a ruler and whipped
her lightly 6 times on the hand. However, the class only exploded in
laughter. At that time, I had it. However I was saved by Ms. Blount, a
sixth grade teacher. I watched as the kids flied out of the room and
then went on my lunch break. When we got back, I had a fight with a kid
named Burris Ewel, who I later found out lives in the forest and only
goes to school on the first day of school. There is so much to learn

and I think that fitting in to Maycomb is going to be a challenging

task. I am going to have to condescend myself in order to understand these people. Tomorrow is hopefully going go by faster than this odd day