Chapter+2

Chapter two begins with the departure of Dill Harris, a new comer to Jem and Scout, who they have made friends with. As the summer comes to a calming end in Maycomb County, Scout develops anxious feelings about her first exposure to school life. She is eager to meet new people and is open to new experiences, but at the same time nervous. Scout looks to her older brother Jem for guidance, as she has spent most of her time watching for his red jacket around the school grounds. She feels sympathy for the kids she observes through her 2x power scope. Jem explains to her that they’re interactions at school will be limited. Once arriving at school, Scout meets her first teacher, Miss Caroline, a young woman who is 21 years of age, from Winston County. Miss Caroline considers Scout to be insubordinate to her ways of teaching. Scout already knows how to read, spell, and write in cursive, which is, in Miss Caroline’s eyes incompatible with her way of linear teaching. Scout doesn't realise how learning to read and write at an early age, hinders the effectiveness of Miss Caroline's teaching. Scout then learns Miss Caroline isn't familiar with the local population of Maycomb county when she tries to lend Walter Cunningham a quarter. Although her intentions were good, she doesn't realise that The Cunningham family doesn't recieve donations which would inevitably lead to their debt. Scout tries to explain this, but she is "punished" and yet again doesn't realise how her actions led to her punishment. Fortunately for Scout, she was saved by Mrs. Blount's interruption, as she stalled the class untill the bell rung.
 * Plot summary **

Chapter 2 takes place at winter, and mostly in Maycomb’s public school, where Scout meets her class teacher, Miss Caloline. Scout has just become a first grader and goes to school, but nothing is said about the school itself. The only information given is their frequent encounters with the Radley’s house on the way home, so I assume that the Radley’s house is about halfway between Finch’s house and the School.
 * Setting **

__Miss Caroline__ Her full name, Caroline Fisher, is the class teacher of Scout in the first grade, and has come from Northern Alabama, Winston County. She is new to Maycomb County, and has a hard time getting used to this ancient town. In class, she tries to act firm and formal to Scout in order to manage her, but she breaks down right after the class ends, and ends up crying. She is easily freaked out, and is obviously a city-person, not used to the whole environment of a farming town. When she sees a rat in the classroom, she ends up screaming until a student picks up the rat and throws it away. In many ways, she is fragile unfortunate to have come in the harsh Maycomb County, as Scout describes her as ‘a pretty little thing’. __Walter Cunningham__ Walter Cunningham is a first grade boy from the Cunningham’s family. Their family had broken badly during the ‘Great Depression’, and lives a very poor life. His family is disrespected by many people because they’re so poor, but they consider themselves as gentlemen, acting formal. He doesn’t want to do anything that puts him in dept to someone else.
 * Character Profile **

~As used by Scout to view the School yard~ page 24 ~The style of hair Miss Caroline uses~ page 25 ~ "... the class was wriggling like a bucketful of catawba worms." ~ page 26
 * Photo Bank of items mentioned in Chapter 2 **

~ The //Mobile Register//, "... After making me read most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from the Mobile Register aloud, she discovered..." page 26

~ "... as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking..." page 28

~ "Molasses buckets appeared from nowhere, and the ceiling danced with metallic light.' page 30

~ "Walter Cunningham's face told everyone in the first grade he had hookworms." page 30

~ "One mourning Jem and I found a load of stove wood in the backyard. Later, a sack of hickory nuts appeared on the back steps. With Christmas came a crate of smilax and holly. That spring when we found a crocker sack full of turnip greens, Atticus said Mr. Cunningham had more than paid him." page 33

~"People caught hookworms going barefooted in barnyards and hog wallows." p.30

Vocabulary (Chapter 2)

1. Multitudes - A large number "...spying on //**multitudes**// of children through a two-power telescope.."

2. Transaction - An instance of buying or selling something "I think some money changed hands in this **//transaction//**.."

3. Enact - Make law " I was not to approach him with requests to //**enact**// a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant men....."

4. Seceded - With draw formally from membership in a Federal Union, an alliance, or political or religious organization "When Alabama **//seceded//** from the Union on January 11,1861..."

5. Literate - Able to read and write "... she discovered I was **//literate//** and looked at me with more than faint distaste."

6. Impressionistic - Based on subjective reactions presented unsystematically "No comment seemed to be expected of us, and the class received //**impressionistic**// relations in silence."

7. Sentimentality - Excessive tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia "In Calpurnia's teaching, there was no //**sentimentality**//."

8. Drawled - Speak in a slow, lazy way with prolonged vowel sounds. "Nome thank you ma'am, he //**drawled**// softly"

9. Conferred - Grant or bestow. "Miss Caroline and I had //**conferred**// twice already, and they were..."

10. Entailment - A settlement of property. "When I asked Jem what //**entailment**// was, and Jem described it as..."

11. Mortification - To feel embarrassed, ashamed or humiliation. "...and Miss Caroline subsequent //**mortification**//, but it was beyond my ability..."

12. Uninitiated - Without special knowledge or experience. "...as yet //**uninitiated**// the door hands on hips and announced..."