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Copywork
About This Passage
Lee compresses Scout's terror into three adjectives — malignant, hovering, alive — that transform ordinary trees into something sentient and threatening. The passage models how precise diction can animate landscape, while the word "lingered" captures the suspended state between fear and sleep that follows the night's trespass.
the chinaberry trees were malignant, hovering, alive. I lingered between sleep and wakefulness until I heard Jem murmur.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 6 in sequence: Dill's suggestion of a walk, the raid on the Radley yard, the shadow on the porch, Mr. Nathan's shotgun, Dill's strip-poker cover story, and Jem's midnight return for his pants.
Discussion Questions
- Scout says "It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company." What specifically is Jem refusing to share with her at this moment, and why does Scout identify this as the beginning of a separation rather than an ordinary disagreement?
- Jem chooses to face Mr. Nathan's shotgun rather than let Atticus find his pants on the Radley fence. What does this choice reveal about what Jem most fears losing, and how does it reframe our earlier picture of him as reckless?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
showing a strong desire to cause harm or evil
Item 2
stayed in a place or state longer than expected, unwilling to leave
Item 3
the condition of being awake or unable to sleep
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Critical Thinking
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