5H GSAW Chapter 9

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GSAW Chapter 9

Summary

Jean Louise reflects on the image she has always held of her father. Atticus is a person of integrity, following a simple New Testament ethical code and earning the respect of everyone in the Maycomb community. Jean Louise especially believes that she has been able to see the strength of her father’s character because of the hardships he has endured. After marrying late, he lost his wife to a heart attack when Jem was 6 and Jean Louise was 2. (The same weak heart killed Jem at the age of 28.)

Although Jean Louise never really knew her mother, she never felt deprived of parental love. Atticus was a busy man, but he was never too busy for his children. Eventually, Jean Louise recalls, she began to need Calpurnia’s womanly insight in her life when she reached puberty and began menstruating. Even as she grew up into a woman, Atticus and Jack continued to raise her to be self-sufficient—in violation of the norm of the women around her.

Jean Louise comes to realize that her own definition of moral decency has been defined by her father’s behavior. She had become complacent in the assumption that her father was perfect, or nearly so.

Short questions

"Integrity, humor, and patience were the three words for Atticus Finch" Now, Jean Louise adds one more word. Which one?

1. racist
2. nigger-lover
3. nigger-hater
4. black plague

Jean Louise never knew her mother and never really missed her. Who replaced her during her youth?

1. Jem
2. aunt Alexandra
3. Calpurnia
4. Atticus

At the end of the chapter Jean Louise says: "She was extravagant with her pity, and complacent in her snug world"Meaning?

Questions to discuss

What was Calpurnia's role in Jean Louise's life? How did it change over time?

How come Jean Louise feels so strongly about her world being wrecked now?