In Chapter 6, the creative Dill challenges Jem to go onto the Radley porch with him and try to see inside. Their plan goes awry when Mr. Radley fires his shotgun on the porch; terrified, the boys take flight, but Jem catches his pants on the Radley's wire fence. In his haste to get to safety, he wriggles out of them and runs only to be stopped by the neighbors who have assembled outside, having heard the shotgun blast. When Atticus sees Jem standing in nothing but his shorts he asks him where his pants are. Jem stalls, not wishing to lie; however, Dill tries to cover for him, telling Atticus that he has won Jem's pants playing strip poker by the fishpool. When Dill's Aunt Rachel is shocked that the children were playing with cards, Jem continues the lie and says that they were using matches.
1. Once they are home, Jem feels that he must retrieve his pants before his father learns that he has lied. While he shakes from fright at the thought of returning to the Radley fence for them, Jem is even more worried about the repercussions of having lied to his father. He tells Scout,
"Atticus ain't never whipped me since I can remember. I wanta keep it that way."
Jem ventures out and returns after a while; however, Scout can tell that he is trembling as she hears his cot moving.
2. Later, Jem tells his sister that when he returned for his pants, he found them neatly folded over the fence as though he were expected to return for them, and they had been sewn, as Jem says,
"Not like a lady sewed 'em, like somethin' I'd try to do. All crooked. It's almost like--"
"--somebody knew you were comin' back for 'em."
Jem shuddered, "Like somebody was readin' my mind."
This is the first of Boo Radley's kind gestures.
No comments:
Post a Comment