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Copywork
About This Passage
Lee uses Scout's senses to slow time at the chapter's most important moment. The 'fog' is fear, the 'underwater swimmer' is how the children's eyes register a father they did not know they had, and the 'nauseating crawl' tells us Scout is afraid she may be about to watch him die. The whole sentence is a single child's-eye time stretch.
In a fog, Jem and I watched our father take the gun and walk out into the middle of the street. He walked quickly, but I thought he moved like an underwater swimmer: time had slowed to a nauseating cr...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Walk through the chapter in two parts: first, what Scout and Jem think about Atticus at home and at school, and second, what they discover about him on the day Tim Johnson the dog walks up the street.
Discussion Questions
- Atticus tells Jem and Scout, 'It's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' Why does he choose to break this rule out into a separate sentence instead of explaining it long? What does Lee gain by leaving the meaning for the children — and the reader — to grow into?
- Scout begins the chapter feeling embarrassed by her father and ends it feeling proud. Trace the exact moment her feeling changes. What does this turn show about how children measure their parents?
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a person who moves through water using arms and legs
Item 2
made the speed of something become less
Item 3
to move along the ground on hands and knees, or very slowly
+ 7 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
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