Arthur's English Journal

In this chapter of To Kill A Mocking Bird, their is a scene where Atticus is confronted bye a small group of men intent on harming Tom Robinson. Scout unintentionally stops the men attacking Atticus. Throughout this scene we are left not knowing what is going to happen. Harper Lee is able to make the reader feel concern for the well-being of all the characters involved.

“H-ey, Atticus”. This quote is simple but gives us one very important detail, that Scout know longer feels safe. Before she says this she is glad to see Atticus and runs to him, but once she sees the reaction of Atticus and the other men, it begins to dawn on Scout that this is not a safe place. This is shown very clearly in the use of a hyphen. Scout is questioning Atticus, Scout has lost her pervious confidence.

“He put the news paper down very carefully” This quote shows that Atticus is doing trying to do one of two things. Firstly he could be simply stalling. Bye taking longer he can think of ways to deal with this situation showing us that Atticus is nervous. The other possibility is that Atticus is trying to intimidate the group bye seaming to not notice the danger. This also shows us that this is a dangerous situation and winning may well keep Atticus alive.

“It’s owner was a shadow”. This is possible the best quote. It is really able to paint a picture of a faceless crowd. Making us understand how scary this scene is. The fact the crowd is a shadow seams to make the crowd out to be inhuman, with no gilt, compassion or understanding making the task of keeping them away even harder and creates even more tension.