The lynch mob lead by Mr. Cunningham in chapter fifteen was something I really didn’t expect to happen. Sure Maycomb is just as racist as any other southern town but it didn’t seem to me like the town would get violent about it. If the children hadn’t shown up, I think the men might have hurt Atticus and probably done something worse to Tom Robinson after that. Also, Mr. Underwood might’ve killed a couple of the men during the fight, too. If Scout hadn’t talked about Walter Cunningham, I think the drunken men would have actually hurt the children after those fifteen seconds.
And now for something completely different, I think that there is more to the story of why Dill ran away and went to the Finch house. Dill claimed he ran away because his parents weren’t paying enough attention to him. The story of how he was chained in the basement and rarely fed by his new father is a more likely reason to run away. Dill traveled from Meridian to Maycomb and nearly starved to death, someone wouldn’t go through all of that trouble just because his parents slightly neglect him. I’m sure if his parents “got along well” without him like he said, then they would have no problem with just sending Dill to Maycomb.
Sweet Home Alabama is the perfect song to represent the setting of the first four chapters, Maycomb, Alabama. Lynyrd Skynyrd realistically depicts the rural southern state and its culture, similar to that of Maycomb. It gives you a very serene and peaceful feeling that makes you just want to sit back and relax, just like the people of Maycomb, they don’t really do many interesting things and prefer to live their lives as calm as possible. The song can also represent all of the adventures Scout, Jem, and Dill have in their small town during the summer acting and trying to investigate the strange life of the mysterious Boo Radley.
In Maycomb, it looked like the school system wasn’t very good at doing its job. From what I understood, each grade level was in one classroom and the school wasn’t very large, but that’s mainly because it’s a small town. Scout mentioned that most of the first grade had failed it last year, which surprised me because that meant that either the students weren’t very motivated or that the system just wasn’t working. The implementation of the “Dewey Decimal System” probably meant that the school was trying a new thing that had potential to increase literacy and grades, but it was too forced upon the students. For example, Scout was punished because she didn’t learn to read by the new system and they discouraged free reading and writing.
The attendance of school in Maycomb should have been enforced more. When I read that the students were only required to attend school on the first day, I didn’t think that made much sense. Going solely on the first day isn’t doing much for the students and this likely contributed to the high flunk rates at the school. The new system should have included stricter attendance policies, which would also improve the literacy rates and grades. I understand that some of the families were in poverty and needed the help of their children, but that’s why students had Summer Vacation, to do just that.
