Chapter 1
In today’s world we would look at the Radley family as a very dysfunctional family. In the time of the Radley family they were probably a pretty functional family. That is what shows how society has changed over time and is getting better. In today’s society we would look at the Radley family as very dysfunctional because of all the things that happened in that family that there was a lot of happening back then. Some of the examples would be that the woman was mainly controlled by the man of the house. This was true in the Radley family as Mrs. Radley had to listen to what Mr. Radley told her to do. The men didn't just tell the woman what they needed to do they told them what they couldn't do and exactly how they had to live their life, and back then that was acceptable and the woman would listen. The woman would generally be abused if she did not listen to what her man commanded her to do or not to do. Mr. Radley didn’t just command his wife and beat her around he did this to his entire family, which eventually lead to him getting killed by his own son. Nathan, the son would then become the man of the house, even after killing his own father. Even Nathan was able to command his own mother what he did and did not want her to do and abuse her. In today’s world it is completely different as both men and women respect each other pretty equally, the abusing and commanding of woman still happens, but very rarely and it is no longer acceptable, as you will be arrested for abuse. So what will it be like in five years, ten years, or even twenty years? Will it continue to get better?
Chapter 2-3
Family can be the way it is for many reasons. Some may be that they want the family to be the same as it was in past generations. It could also be a new way that the family wants to function. Also it is the people in the family and the way that they live their life. The financial standpoint of a family will certainly change the way that they live. A family can still be a very very good family even if they have little to no money. It doesn’t mean that families that have little money are bad families and families that have money are good families, sometimes that is true, but not all of the time. Walter Cunningham lives in a family that doesn’t have hardly any money at all. Watler does not even have enough to bring to school for anything at all for lunch. When the rare times come that he does get food he gets as much as possible. When it is available he likes soaking his food in heavy syrup. He does this because it is high in sugar. The best part is that it is heavy, which makes it fill him up. He also has to go to school dirty since he rarely gets to bathe. He also gets blamed for things a lot since he is mainly just a person that is looked at as not worth anything. But Walter still goes to school everyday and does what he needs to do.
Chapter 4-6
In these chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird we find out that we become sketched around our family. What does it mean to be sketched around your family? Well it still happens today and with mostly every family and will probably be this way forever. What it means is that the person that you become is the person that is mainly conducted by your parents or further family, such as older siblings, grandparents, and more. You build your life around them and at some point in time you want to be just like them. Sometimes you may notice your similarities with your parents very easily and sometimes it may be harder for you to see. Everyone does have similarities to their parents regardless of if it is hard to notice or not they are there. Your parents will always want you to be successful and even more successful than they are so that the family just keeps getting more and more successful throughout the years.
Chapter 7-8
In these chapters of the book we find out a ton about family. Most people think of family as those who have the last name as them or live in with them. Of course these people are members of your family, but they do not have to be the only ones that are a part of it. Your family can be anybody from people that you don’t know that well, but they help you to some of you best friends. Personally, I have a lot of friends that are like family to me and I know that they will always be there whenever I need them. I don’t know if this is a bad thing but I don’t usually worry about bad things happening because I know if something bad ever does happen I know that someone will have my back and I will be able to go to someone with the problem. Also your family teaches you that when bad things do happen that as long as we help each other and stay together through the bad times, things will get better. This is a huge example of what Mrs. Maudie did for the kids when the fire happened and burnt her house down. When the kids asked what she was going to do and were trying to comfort her she didn’t grieve because she knew what was done was done and she only could look at the bright side of things and that really comforted the kids too.
Chapter 9-11
The people that you know the most are your family. You know the way they like to do things, their personal view on life, and overall just their personality. Some people may know their family and are closer to their family than others. Even the people that think they know everything that there is about the family they live in they are probably wrong. There will always be something that you don’t know about someone no matter if you see them and talk to them everyday there will always be something that you don’t know and you may never know. It is also the same the other way around, your family doesn’t know every single thing about you and they never will know absolutely everything. With your family since they are a huge part of your life there probably isn’t big things that they don’t know about you, but a couple or a few little things that they don’t know. Not that the things are bad, but they just don’t know. If you ever do find things out that you didn’t know you will usually be surprised by that. Just like the boys were surprised when they found out that Atticus could shoot a gun, after thinking that he hated guns and didn’t even know how to shoot.
Chapter 12-14
We all do things for our family that may bother others or get us in trouble, but that is what family is for. Family is there to guide you and help you fight your battles no matter what is. Most families will do absolutely anything for each other and will not care what other people think. Whether it be standing up for a family member or just helping you with something, they will always be there. Again the family helping you doesn’t just have to be the people with the same last name or the same blood. Anyone that is willing to go out of their way for you and help you with your problems should, to you be considered your family and hopefully they also consider you as their family. Likewise, when you go out of your way for others they will look at you as family and they will always know that if they have a problem that you are someone else who will always be there for them and when they need help they will count on you to assist them. In To Kill a Mockingbird this type of helping out family is when Calpurnia goes out of her way to bring the white children to the colored church. Calpurnia went out of her way to help the children that she cared about, although not everyone liked it she cared about the kids enough to still bring them to the church.
Chapter 15-17
All families make mistakes and hit rough times in their families but they can always pull through it and make out still a great family and if not, better. They will have learned from their mistake and will hopefully not go on to make it again and just move on like a family should. Sometimes when families do make mistakes bad things can happen though, I know of a very good example that just happened a few weeks ago. Sometimes when mistakes are made things don’t always turn out for the best. A family may be torn apart because of a mistake, someone in the family could even potentially get hurt or even killed. It’s not all mistakes are bad though because families do learn and come back from them. Every family makes them, you could ask anyone in the world if their parents have had an argument about something and everyone will say yes. The mistake that Bob Ewell made, would be a big mistake not only in his family, but also at his hearing in court. The mistake that he made was not getting any medical attention when his daughter was beaten very badly because he said it would cost too much. Now the court is asking him all kinds of questions about why he did call on any medical attention and it is kind of making him look like the bad guy in the case.
Chapter 18-20
The person that you show your family will usually be the person that they view you as, forever. If you give them reasons to make them want to view you as a good, trustworthy person, then they probably will. If you give them reasons to make you think of a bad person that is getting into trouble then they probably won’t view you as a very good person. No matter what kind of person that you show them they will always be there for you no matter what. They will still be there for you and will always be willing to help you even if you haven’t made the wisest choices. This doesn’t mean that you should make unwise choices just because you know that someone in your family will still be there for you. If you give them an image to view as outgoing and that you make good choices they will even want to help you more, and will trust you more to let you do things. This is an example of when Mr. Deas tells the court that Tom Robinson didn’t do the crime because they had been working together for nine years and haven’t had any problems.
Chapter 21-23
As a family we are always watching out for one another and usually always worrying about each other. If not worrying, then wondering what another family member is doing right at the time that you are doing something else. Like my immediate family during school days, my mom is at work on one end of town and my dad on the other, my brother is at Adams and then I am here, at the High School. So since we are all so spread out around town I do wonder what they are all doing and how it’s crazy that we are so spread out around town. But when evening comes around and we all get home we all look out for each other and ask each other how each others day was. Even when we are not altogether we still look out for our family and still want what is best for them. A good example of this would be when one person in the family goes on a business trip or goes somewhere and gets other family members something because they were thinking about them and missing them when they were gone. This happens a lot in To Kill a Mockingbird, but one very big example is when Tom Robinson is convicted guilty and now the kids are all very mad about him being convicted and are very worried about what is going to happen to him because he is like a family member to all of them and they don’t want anything bad to happen to him.
Chapter 24-26
Sometimes you may not always like someone, but should people be able to not like someone if they don’t even know them? People that don’t like someone else just because they hear things about that person from others shouldn’t be doing things like that. People shouldn’t do that because they could be missing out on a person that could become a very good friend and “family” member to them. If you never talk to a person and stereotype somebody based on what other people say there is no way that that person will ever be able to become your friend or like family to you. If you just put what other people say to the side you may be able to gain a new friend and then you will be able to say good things about that person. When you say good things about that person then the bad things that people say will go away. Then people will hear good things about that person then even more people will want to be friends with him or her. To me, I feel like this is what Mr. Underwood realized when Tom Robinson was killed. He completely disliked, black people but when Robinson was killed he realized that there was really nothing wrong with them. It helped him to realize that he should have not disliked him for no reason.
Chapter 27-28
With a great family comes trust in all of the members of the family. In order for the family to function and be able to do things there must be great trust and love between them all. If there is even one person in the family that doesn’t trust in another then the family will not be able to function correctly. That is when trust would need to gained back to whichever family member needs the trust back. When the whole family has trust in each other the family will be able to function very well and they will all be happy. Trust and love is what brings together a family and mainly makes it function.
Chapter 29-31
In the final chapters of the book it mainly closes up what family means and what you have to have to be a functional family. What that is is love and dedication to one another and faith in each other. Just think of your family, you may not notice it but it functions correctly due to the faith that you have in each other. Also all families have dedication for each other, they will do anything that they need to know for each other no matter what could happen. Mothers and fathers will do whatever is best for their son or daughter. They will do the best for their children because they want them to have a good life and want them to make the right choices all of the time. Also if the children see their parents doing good things for them and noticing that they are doing those things they will grow up to be very good young adults and in to parenthood. When they become parents they will do the same thing for their families and children and then they will always be successful.
In today’s world we would look at the Radley family as a very dysfunctional family. In the time of the Radley family they were probably a pretty functional family. That is what shows how society has changed over time and is getting better. In today’s society we would look at the Radley family as very dysfunctional because of all the things that happened in that family that there was a lot of happening back then. Some of the examples would be that the woman was mainly controlled by the man of the house. This was true in the Radley family as Mrs. Radley had to listen to what Mr. Radley told her to do. The men didn't just tell the woman what they needed to do they told them what they couldn't do and exactly how they had to live their life, and back then that was acceptable and the woman would listen. The woman would generally be abused if she did not listen to what her man commanded her to do or not to do. Mr. Radley didn’t just command his wife and beat her around he did this to his entire family, which eventually lead to him getting killed by his own son. Nathan, the son would then become the man of the house, even after killing his own father. Even Nathan was able to command his own mother what he did and did not want her to do and abuse her. In today’s world it is completely different as both men and women respect each other pretty equally, the abusing and commanding of woman still happens, but very rarely and it is no longer acceptable, as you will be arrested for abuse. So what will it be like in five years, ten years, or even twenty years? Will it continue to get better?
Chapter 2-3
Family can be the way it is for many reasons. Some may be that they want the family to be the same as it was in past generations. It could also be a new way that the family wants to function. Also it is the people in the family and the way that they live their life. The financial standpoint of a family will certainly change the way that they live. A family can still be a very very good family even if they have little to no money. It doesn’t mean that families that have little money are bad families and families that have money are good families, sometimes that is true, but not all of the time. Walter Cunningham lives in a family that doesn’t have hardly any money at all. Watler does not even have enough to bring to school for anything at all for lunch. When the rare times come that he does get food he gets as much as possible. When it is available he likes soaking his food in heavy syrup. He does this because it is high in sugar. The best part is that it is heavy, which makes it fill him up. He also has to go to school dirty since he rarely gets to bathe. He also gets blamed for things a lot since he is mainly just a person that is looked at as not worth anything. But Walter still goes to school everyday and does what he needs to do.
Chapter 4-6
In these chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird we find out that we become sketched around our family. What does it mean to be sketched around your family? Well it still happens today and with mostly every family and will probably be this way forever. What it means is that the person that you become is the person that is mainly conducted by your parents or further family, such as older siblings, grandparents, and more. You build your life around them and at some point in time you want to be just like them. Sometimes you may notice your similarities with your parents very easily and sometimes it may be harder for you to see. Everyone does have similarities to their parents regardless of if it is hard to notice or not they are there. Your parents will always want you to be successful and even more successful than they are so that the family just keeps getting more and more successful throughout the years.
Chapter 7-8
In these chapters of the book we find out a ton about family. Most people think of family as those who have the last name as them or live in with them. Of course these people are members of your family, but they do not have to be the only ones that are a part of it. Your family can be anybody from people that you don’t know that well, but they help you to some of you best friends. Personally, I have a lot of friends that are like family to me and I know that they will always be there whenever I need them. I don’t know if this is a bad thing but I don’t usually worry about bad things happening because I know if something bad ever does happen I know that someone will have my back and I will be able to go to someone with the problem. Also your family teaches you that when bad things do happen that as long as we help each other and stay together through the bad times, things will get better. This is a huge example of what Mrs. Maudie did for the kids when the fire happened and burnt her house down. When the kids asked what she was going to do and were trying to comfort her she didn’t grieve because she knew what was done was done and she only could look at the bright side of things and that really comforted the kids too.
Chapter 9-11
The people that you know the most are your family. You know the way they like to do things, their personal view on life, and overall just their personality. Some people may know their family and are closer to their family than others. Even the people that think they know everything that there is about the family they live in they are probably wrong. There will always be something that you don’t know about someone no matter if you see them and talk to them everyday there will always be something that you don’t know and you may never know. It is also the same the other way around, your family doesn’t know every single thing about you and they never will know absolutely everything. With your family since they are a huge part of your life there probably isn’t big things that they don’t know about you, but a couple or a few little things that they don’t know. Not that the things are bad, but they just don’t know. If you ever do find things out that you didn’t know you will usually be surprised by that. Just like the boys were surprised when they found out that Atticus could shoot a gun, after thinking that he hated guns and didn’t even know how to shoot.
Chapter 12-14
We all do things for our family that may bother others or get us in trouble, but that is what family is for. Family is there to guide you and help you fight your battles no matter what is. Most families will do absolutely anything for each other and will not care what other people think. Whether it be standing up for a family member or just helping you with something, they will always be there. Again the family helping you doesn’t just have to be the people with the same last name or the same blood. Anyone that is willing to go out of their way for you and help you with your problems should, to you be considered your family and hopefully they also consider you as their family. Likewise, when you go out of your way for others they will look at you as family and they will always know that if they have a problem that you are someone else who will always be there for them and when they need help they will count on you to assist them. In To Kill a Mockingbird this type of helping out family is when Calpurnia goes out of her way to bring the white children to the colored church. Calpurnia went out of her way to help the children that she cared about, although not everyone liked it she cared about the kids enough to still bring them to the church.
Chapter 15-17
All families make mistakes and hit rough times in their families but they can always pull through it and make out still a great family and if not, better. They will have learned from their mistake and will hopefully not go on to make it again and just move on like a family should. Sometimes when families do make mistakes bad things can happen though, I know of a very good example that just happened a few weeks ago. Sometimes when mistakes are made things don’t always turn out for the best. A family may be torn apart because of a mistake, someone in the family could even potentially get hurt or even killed. It’s not all mistakes are bad though because families do learn and come back from them. Every family makes them, you could ask anyone in the world if their parents have had an argument about something and everyone will say yes. The mistake that Bob Ewell made, would be a big mistake not only in his family, but also at his hearing in court. The mistake that he made was not getting any medical attention when his daughter was beaten very badly because he said it would cost too much. Now the court is asking him all kinds of questions about why he did call on any medical attention and it is kind of making him look like the bad guy in the case.
Chapter 18-20
The person that you show your family will usually be the person that they view you as, forever. If you give them reasons to make them want to view you as a good, trustworthy person, then they probably will. If you give them reasons to make you think of a bad person that is getting into trouble then they probably won’t view you as a very good person. No matter what kind of person that you show them they will always be there for you no matter what. They will still be there for you and will always be willing to help you even if you haven’t made the wisest choices. This doesn’t mean that you should make unwise choices just because you know that someone in your family will still be there for you. If you give them an image to view as outgoing and that you make good choices they will even want to help you more, and will trust you more to let you do things. This is an example of when Mr. Deas tells the court that Tom Robinson didn’t do the crime because they had been working together for nine years and haven’t had any problems.
Chapter 21-23
As a family we are always watching out for one another and usually always worrying about each other. If not worrying, then wondering what another family member is doing right at the time that you are doing something else. Like my immediate family during school days, my mom is at work on one end of town and my dad on the other, my brother is at Adams and then I am here, at the High School. So since we are all so spread out around town I do wonder what they are all doing and how it’s crazy that we are so spread out around town. But when evening comes around and we all get home we all look out for each other and ask each other how each others day was. Even when we are not altogether we still look out for our family and still want what is best for them. A good example of this would be when one person in the family goes on a business trip or goes somewhere and gets other family members something because they were thinking about them and missing them when they were gone. This happens a lot in To Kill a Mockingbird, but one very big example is when Tom Robinson is convicted guilty and now the kids are all very mad about him being convicted and are very worried about what is going to happen to him because he is like a family member to all of them and they don’t want anything bad to happen to him.
Chapter 24-26
Sometimes you may not always like someone, but should people be able to not like someone if they don’t even know them? People that don’t like someone else just because they hear things about that person from others shouldn’t be doing things like that. People shouldn’t do that because they could be missing out on a person that could become a very good friend and “family” member to them. If you never talk to a person and stereotype somebody based on what other people say there is no way that that person will ever be able to become your friend or like family to you. If you just put what other people say to the side you may be able to gain a new friend and then you will be able to say good things about that person. When you say good things about that person then the bad things that people say will go away. Then people will hear good things about that person then even more people will want to be friends with him or her. To me, I feel like this is what Mr. Underwood realized when Tom Robinson was killed. He completely disliked, black people but when Robinson was killed he realized that there was really nothing wrong with them. It helped him to realize that he should have not disliked him for no reason.
Chapter 27-28
With a great family comes trust in all of the members of the family. In order for the family to function and be able to do things there must be great trust and love between them all. If there is even one person in the family that doesn’t trust in another then the family will not be able to function correctly. That is when trust would need to gained back to whichever family member needs the trust back. When the whole family has trust in each other the family will be able to function very well and they will all be happy. Trust and love is what brings together a family and mainly makes it function.
Chapter 29-31
In the final chapters of the book it mainly closes up what family means and what you have to have to be a functional family. What that is is love and dedication to one another and faith in each other. Just think of your family, you may not notice it but it functions correctly due to the faith that you have in each other. Also all families have dedication for each other, they will do anything that they need to know for each other no matter what could happen. Mothers and fathers will do whatever is best for their son or daughter. They will do the best for their children because they want them to have a good life and want them to make the right choices all of the time. Also if the children see their parents doing good things for them and noticing that they are doing those things they will grow up to be very good young adults and in to parenthood. When they become parents they will do the same thing for their families and children and then they will always be successful.