Characters

Miss Caroline Fisher: she is Scout's teacher and is no more than 21, has bright auburn hair (capelli
luminosi e ramati), pink cheeks, wears crimson fingernail polish, high heeled pumps (sandali
scollati coi tacchi alti), a red and white striped dress and looks and smells like a peppermint drop
(caramella alla menta).
We know that she comes from north Alabama, from Winston County. Se gets angry when she
understands that Scout can already read. She says that it's not a normal thing. She wants to
introduce a new way of teaching: the Dewey Decimal System.
At the beginning she seems strict and strong but in reality she's weak, like when she's depressed for
the other teacher's intervention or when she starts to cry when insulted by Burris.

Walter Cunningham: he is the boy that doesn't have the lunch and doesn't have any shoe. The
Cunningham is a poor family but they never took anything they can't pay back. So he doesn't accept
teacher's money to eat because the only way he can refund her is with something that is useless for
her. He's ashamed by his conditions but it's a honest person.

Burris Ewell: he is the boy that has a cootie into his hair. He is very filthy, his neck is dark grey,
the backs of his hand are rusty and his fingernails were black. The Ewell go to school only the first
day. He doesn't have the mother and insults the teacher, who starts to cry. In the book is represented
as a mean person.

Setting

The two chapters set especially in the school although we don't know how the school physically is.
Here we find all the new characters and understand that for Scout it becomes a negative place,
where she is limited by the teacher's rules she finds stupid. In the third chapter there are stages in
Scout's home. For example when Jem invites Walter at home for lunch and Calpurnia reproaches
Scout because she is disrespectful towards Walter's way to eat. The last stage, when Atticus and
Scout speak about school, is set in the porch, where Atticus explains to his child that it's important
to go to school and he can't teaches her all, he is not be able and hasn't the time to do it.

Summary Chapter 2

At the beginning of this chapter Dill leaves Maycomb and returns to his home in Meridian because
the school is commencing. Scout is eager to start it because it's the first day ever for her and she's
been spending her time by looking at the other boys and girls playing in the courtyard in the past
years with a telescope Jem gave her.
Despite her eagerness, this is not gonna be a happy day for her. In fact, when she's finally in school,
she finds out that the teacher is new in Maycomb (she's from north Alabama) and it's not very nice
with the children. When she asked the class if they could read the alphabet, Scout came forward and
read it perfectly. That was no good for Ms. Caroline and she asked her where she had learned to
read that way and that the father mustn't teach her anymore. That sounded strange to Scout because
her father didn't have any time to teach anything at all. In fact, she couldn't remember of a time
when she wasn't able to read. For her reading was as natural as breathing, you don't learn to do it,
you just do it. We can find it in page 19, line 3.

Leggere fino a pg 20 riga 3

As we can see, the teacher made her feeling very guilty about being well-educated and when she
discussed the matter with her brother Jem, he told her that this was part of a new method of
teaching, where pupils must stay silent and just follow what the teacher says.
Then, in the class, Scout got bored and began to letter Dill. Ms. Caroline caught her and said that
they won't write anything until the third grade. Again, she was reproved by the teacher and Scout
thought that Calpurnia was to blame for this because at home if she wrote a chapter of the bible
satisfactorily, she would have been rewarded with a sandwich.

At the end of the lesson, Ms. Caroline checked if everyone had his meal but found out that Walter
Cunningham didn't have one. So, she gave him a quarter of dollar but he refused because he
couldn't refund his debit. Scout tried to explain that he is a Cunningham, that his family has no
money and that could only pay with farm things. Unfortunately she's not good in explaining this and
made another time a bad impression to the teacher.

Leggere da pg 22 I rose graciously a pg 24 stovewood

As a consequence, the teacher picked her ruler and gave her half a dozen of pats, then told her to
stand in the corner. The class broke loose laughing and Ms. Blount, a teacher in the class right
beside the one of Ms. Caroline, entered the room saying that she couldn't teach with all that racket,
blaming Ms. Caroline for that. Eventually, the bell rang and the teacher sat down into her chair and
buried her head in her arms. However, Scout wasn't sad for her because of her behaviour but
thought that was a poor little thing.

Summary Chapter 3

Scout is angry with Walter for having her put in trouble with Ms. Caroline but Jem intervenes and
invites him for lunch in their house. At first he refuses for the same reason he refused the money
from the teacher but when Jem and Scout go home he catches up with them and changes his mind.
Going home, they pass next to the Radley Place and Jem pretends to be the brave of the situation
but Scout tells him that normally he runs when anybody is with him.

Pg 26 in alto Leggere da jem seemed to have little fear fino a you are when anybody....

Once arrived at the Finch house, Walter and Atticus discuss about farm subjects "like two men”
would do, and Walter puts loads of molasses all over his meat and vegetables when Calpurnia takes
it on the table. This horrifies Scout that criticizes him.

Pg 26 in fondo leggere da atticus summoned calpurnia fino a he s poured it all over

Calpurnia gets angry with Scout and calls her into the kitchen to reproach her. She says that not
everybody eat the way they eat but she mustn't contradict him for this. Scout tells her that Walter is
just a Cunningham and he isn't in her company so Calpurnia warns her: if she can't behave well, she
can eat in the kitchen. She chooses this solution to escape the shame but threats Calpurnia saying
that she would have drowned herself so that Calpurnia would have felt sorry but of course she
wasn't serious.
In the afternoon the children make their way for school and once in the classroom Scout finds Ms.
Caroline screaming "it's alive!!" and thinks that she's afraid of a mouse. However the teacher was
pointing her finger toward a pupil who had a cootie on his head. His name was Burris Ewell but
Burris isn't his real name, it's just the way he's called at home. The tacher tells him to go home and
wash his head with soap and kerosene.

The Ewell are a family even poorer and less respected than the Cunningham and they send they're
children to school only the first day to avoid troubles with the law. Burris is ordered to sit down but
he insults the teacher saying that she's a "slut" and making her start crying.
Leggere pg 30 da burris ewell was flattered by the recital fino a shuffled out of the building

School finishes and Scout comes back home. She tells her father that does not want to go to school
anymore. She could learn at home like he and the uncle did with the grandfather. She could do the
same thing as the Ewell but Atticus says that she must obey the law and that the Ewell are a special
case. The Finch family is among the common folk and not a family like the Ewell.
She wants to read with the father but if she goes to school this can't happen due to the Ms.
Caroline's prohibition. They make a compromise: if she goes to school, he will read with her every
evening as usual but she can't tell this to anyone.

Analysis

In these two chapters the main themes are education, poverty and the social conditions of the town.
Harper Lee criticizes the system used to teach and we can understand it especially when Jem
discuss with Scout about the new method of teaching. Children simply have to stay silent while the
teacher waves cards with simple words printed on it. They cannot receive an education by the
parents if they want to, and they can't even read something or let someone read for them at home.
Their only role is to get a lot of pieces of information and store them passively.

We can also understand that in Maycomb there is a huge poverty. Every child seen in school has
little money and even the Finch family is poor although it doesn't seem to be so. Atticus says that
they are poor but not as poorer as the Cunningham, probably because they're farmers and the
economic crisis has hit them more strongly.

Then there are the social conditions of the town. With this we mean that hypocrisy is the main
feeling. In fact black people are discriminated and white people poses as respectable but we can see
how the Ewell and Calpurnia behave exactly the opposite of the prejudice. The colour is just a
scapegoat for the social problems. Still, not everyone in Maycomb is racist. Atticus has no prejudice
towards Calpurnia and thinks that she's doing a lot of things for the family and that without her they
would probably be in trouble. We can understand that he's an intelligent man when he encourages
Scout to place herself in another person's situation before she judges that person.