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Copywork
About This Passage
Lee's most architecturally daring sentence in the chapter — Scout receives a 'creeping' impression and her body re-experiences the cold February morning of the mad-dog scene without her conscious mind summoning it. The sensory inventory (silenced mockingbirds, halted carpenters, doors shut tight as the Radley Place) functions as Quintilian's enargeia: not Lee describing dread but Lee dramatizing how a child's body knows what is coming before the verdict reaches her ears. Copying this sentence trains the writer to compose by accumulation of evidence rather than by direct statement of feeling.
But I must have been reasonably awake, or I would not have received the impression that was creeping into me. It was not unlike one I had last winter, and I shivered, though the night was hot. The fee...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, narrate the sequence of events from Calpurnia's arrival at the courthouse railing through the moment Reverend Sykes commands Scout to stand. Identify the chapter's three temporal centers — Calpurnia's scolding walk, the long jury-out wait, and the verdict itself — and explain how Lee paces them.
Discussion Questions
- Reverend Sykes tells Jem, 'I ain't ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man.' What is the difference between Reverend Sykes's empirical confidence and Jem's evidentiary confidence, and why does Lee give the more accurate prediction to the man with less formal legal training?
- Scout senses a 'creeping' impression that the courtroom feels 'exactly the same as a cold February morning' — the morning Atticus shot Tim Johnson, the rabid dog. What is Lee suggesting about the relationship between the rabid dog and the verdict by braiding these two scenes together at the moment of waiting?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A feeling, awareness, or idea formed without conscious reasoning, often arising from subtle sensory cues.
Item 2
The pervading mood or emotional tone of a place or situation, distinct from its physical air.
Item 3
North American songbirds known for imitating other birds' calls; in Lee's novel, a recurring symbol of innocent creatures who do no harm and exist only to give beauty.
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Critical Thinking
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