To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 9 Summary
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Setting
Chapter 9 of the novel is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama,
Main Characters
Scout- she is originally known as jean Louise finch but uses the nickname scout. Scout is the daughter of Atticus finch and is nearly six years old when the story begins. She is a tomboy, eager, inquisitive and observant.
Cecil Jacobs – she is One of Scout’s classmates who lives down the street.
Atticus- Atticus finch is a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama. He is a widowed father to Jem and scout.
Tom Robinson- he is the black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell.
Jem- Jeremy Atticus finch, also known as Jem is scout’s older brother who is 10 as the novel begins. He is wildly imaginative and as curious as a scout.
Plot Summary
Things began to get difficult for Scout. Atticus forbids Scout from fighting, but Cecil Jacobs makes her forget this when he announces to their class that Atticus defends black people. Scout denies it and later, asks Atticus if he "defends niggers.†Atticus admits that he does but cautions Scout to not talk that way, as it’s common. Scout points out that everyone at school talks that way, yet another bid to convince Atticus to not send her to school. He looks vaguely amused. Scout asks if all lawyers defend black people and point out that Cecil made it sound bad.
With a sigh, Atticus says he’s defending a black man named Tom Robinson, and some believe that he shouldn’t defend Tom. Scout asks why he took the case then, and Atticus insists that he had to in order to hold his head up and maintain the moral high ground. He tells Scout that she might hear nasty things about it at school and encourages her to not fight. Scout asks if he’ll win the case. Atticus says he won’t, but that it’s important to fight anyway. He pulls Scout onto his lap and says that they’re "fighting friends.†She remembers this when she tells Cecil to take his taunt back the next day. He refuses. Scout punches him and then walks away, feeling as though she has to obey Atticus since he rarely asks for anything like this. Christmas is a mixed bag for Jem and Scout. On the plus side, Uncle Jack visits for a week. On the downside, they have to spend time with Aunt Alexandra and her grandson Francis. Atticus insists they spend Christmas day at Finch’s landing every year, despite Aunt Alexandra is a formidable woman and gossip and Francis being boring.
Uncle Jack arrives on the train with two long packages, pecks Atticus on the cheek, and shows Scout and Jem pictures of his cat. He insists she is getting fat because she eats leftover body parts from the hospital, which Scout declares is "a damn story.†Atticus explains that Scout has decided cussing is fun and to ignore her, and Scout tells the reader that she believes that if Atticus realizes she learned the words at school, he won’t make her go. That night, she asks Uncle Jack to pass the damn ham. Later, he tells Scout that he does not like language like that and asks Scout if she wants to be a lady. Scout isn’t interested in being a lady, but Uncle Jack insists that she actually is. The next morning Scout and Jem receive air rifles from Atticus, but he won’t let them take them to Finch’s Landing.
At Finch’s Landing, the children exchange gifts and Jem leaves Scout to entertain Francis. They discuss what they got for Christmas. Scout finds Francis to be extremely boring and a tattletale. He relays everything to Aunt Alexandra, who passes everything onto Atticus. Atticus only ever got sharp with Aunt Alexandra once when she took offense to Scout’s overalls, as she believed that Scout needed to be a lady and a ray of sunshine for Atticus. At dinner, Scout sits alone at the kids’ table, fuming, but Aunt Alexandra’s cooking almost makes up for it. After dinner, Scout goes outside with Francis, who announces that Alexandra is going to teach him to cook. Scout giggles that boys do not cook.
Scout admits that she and Dill are engaged, which makes Francis laugh; according to him, Dill’s family passes him from relative to relative and declares that Scout’s lack of knowledge speaks to her general ignorance. He calls Atticus a "nigger-lover†who’s ruining the family. Scout chases him into the outside kitchen and waits for him to come out so she can jump him. When Aunt Alexandra appears, Francis whines that Scout cornered him. Francis kicks around the yard, gloating, and repeats his slur again. Scout punches him so hard she splits her knuckle to the bone. Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jack separate them, and Francis bawls that Scout called him a "whore-lady.†Scout does not deny it and Uncle Jack spanks her
At home, Scout locks herself in her room and tries to keep Uncle Jack from coming in to talk to her. Scout accuses him of not understanding children and of not being fair and asks to tell her side. She explains that Atticus always listens to her and to Jem when they fight and that Jack told her she could use bad words when provoked. She shares what Francis said and knows that Francis is in trouble by the look on Uncle Jack’s face. She begs him to let it go since Atticus made her promise to not fight over this sort of thing. He agrees and then bandages her hand. Scout asks what a "whore-lady†is. Uncle Jack tells her a story about a silly Prime Minister, which Scout thinks makes no sense.
Later, when Scout gets up for water, she stops in the hallway and listens to Uncle Jack tell Atticus that he will never have children after Scout’s dressing down earlier. He does not betray his promise to Scout but tells Atticus about dodging Scout’s question of what a "whore-lady†was. Atticus tells Uncle Jack to tell children the truth. He muses that Scout will go through a lot in the next few months and needs to learn to not beat people up. Jack asks about the case. Atticus says that it’s a case of he-said, she-said, and the Ewells are involved. He hopes that they come to him with questions and don’t catch Maycomb’s "usual disease.†Atticus sends Scout back to bed. Years later, she realizes that he wanted her to eavesdrop.
Themes
- Prejudice. Prejudice is shown in the novel by the many people living in Maycomb being racists and prejudiced against black people.
- Good, Evil, and Human Dignity. The novel follows Scout, a precocious six-year-old, over the course of three years as she begins to grow, and in the process, bears witness to the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman. As a child, Scout has set ideas regarding what’s good and what’s evil, but throughout the novel, her father, Atticus, gradually begins to encourage her to see that the world is not divided into good people and bad people. Rather, he suggests to her that all people are composed of a mix of good and bad qualities, but regardless, everyone is deserving of being treated with dignity and respect.