5H GSAW Chapter 18

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GSAW Chapter 18

Summary

Jean Louise drives home and begins packing in a fury. Alexandra finds her, correctly guesses that she’s had a fight with Atticus, and tries to persuade her not to leave. Jean Louise responds with a string of insults that makes her aunt cry.

As Jean Louise is loading her suitcase into the car, Jack arrives by taxi. She yells at him, and he hits her across the face, making her bleed and nearly pass out. All her energy to fight suddenly leaves her. Jack brings her inside, gives her a glass of whiskey, and asks her if she still remembers why she is angry. She remembers, she says, but the pain is now bearable.

Jack tells her that she is becoming her own person, learning for the first time to separate her own conscience from her father’s. Atticus needed to let her attack and destroy him so that she could finally learn to understand the world independently of him. Jack explains that Atticus has never shied away from resisting anyone he objected to: not the Ku Klux Klan, not the citizens’ council, not even the Supreme Court.

Jack asks Jean Louise to consider moving back home: Maycomb needs more people who think like she does, more people committed to racial reconciliation. As they part ways, Jack tells her that he has always been in love with her mother and that Jem and Jean Louise have been like the children he never had.

Short questions

Who tries to stop Jean Louise from packing her belongings and leaving the house?

1. Aunt Alexandra
2. Uncle Jack
3. Atticus
4. Henry

What is Uncle Jack's answer when Jean Louise says: "I can't fight them anymore."

1. But you can't hide forever.
2. But you can't join them.
3. But you can't fight, you're a girl.
4. But you can't leave home either.

What is Jean Louise given for the pain (after Uncle Jack has hit her on the mouth)?

1. a bandage
2. an icepack
3. a fruit cake
4. liquor

Questions to discuss

Why does the fact that Atticus ended his argument with Jean Louise by telling her he loved her bother her so much?

Why does Dr. Finch strike Jean Louise? Do you think his actions are necessary?

What does Dr. Finch mean when he says that things are bearable for Jean Louise because she is her “own person now” (264)?

According to Dr. Finch, what is every man’s watchman? How does this inform your understanding of the meaning of the
book’s title?

What does Dr. Finch mean when he tells Jean Louise, “You had to kill yourself, or he had to kill you to get yourself functioning as a separate entity”(265)?

Dr. Finch tells Jean Louise that she is a bigot. Research the meaning and history of the word “bigot.” Is Jean Louise a bigot?

Explain what Dr. Finch means when he says that Atticus Finch will always “act by the letter and spirit of the law”(268)?