1. The Mysterious Boo Radley
TKAM Ch. 4-6

2. DICTION Diction is the author’s choice of words.
Denotation: the dictionary definition of a word
Connotation: the feelings and images associated with a word
“Slim” and “Skinny” mean technically the same thing, but each one has unique associations

3. Consider:
As for me, I knew nothing except what I gathered from Time magazine and reading everything I could lay my hands on at home, but as I inched sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County school system, I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something.
-Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird (32-33)

4. Journal:
1. What do you usually think of when you hear the word “treadmill”? Why does Lee describe Maycomb’s schools as a treadmill?
2. Why does Lee choose the words “inch sluggishly” to describe Scout’s progress? Why is this an unusual choice of words when describing progress on a treadmill?

5. Apply:
Write two sentences that describe your experience in school. Both should include a metaphor for the school (such as treadmill) and a verb (such as inching) to describe your progress.

6. Perspective
“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—”
“Sir?”
“—until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

7. Rewriting History As a pod, pick one of the following scenes:
Finding Gifts in the Tree
The Tire Game
“Boo Radley”
The Pants Go Missing
Each person in your pod needs to select a character:
Atticus
Boo Radley
Ms. Maudie
Mr. Nathan Radley
Rewrite the scene from their perspective.
Consider what that character values
How he/she acts & thinks
How does that change Scout, Jem, and Dill’s ‘innocent’ games?

8. Literary Questions
In Chapter 5, how does the picture of small town life in Scout and Ms. Maudie’s evenings create tension with the other events that surround these slow evenings?
Why does Harper Lee sandwich stories and come back to stories like she does?
(think about how often Boo Radley is mentioned)
How does Harper Lee use light and darkness to create suspense in chapter 6?
How and why does Harper Lee humanize Boo Radley?