Jem maintains that it began the year Dill arrived, while Scout insists that they take a broader view. Many years later, they argue about when everything that led to the accident truly began. Even though the adult narrator spends much of the book speaking through the voice of her younger self and describing the world through her younger self's eyes, by establishing both the child and adult Scout as presences right from the beginning, the opening of the novel introduces the idea that this will be a novel about young Scout's growing into her older self. Analysis Scout explains that when her brother, Jem, was 13, he broke his arm. A child is unlikely to either perceive or describe her hometown as being "tired." Scout's language, then, makes clear that Scout functions in the novel in two ways: as the child who is its main character, but also as the grown up narrator looking back on her younger self with more knowledge, more wisdom. Scout's language to describe the town also accomplishes something else, as well. Scout's description of the town as old and tired further establishes the setting in which the story takes place-the Great Depression. (That Atticus left the plantation to make his living also implies that Atticus' views about race and slavery differ from those of his ancestors.) Meanwhile, the fact that Atticus-and by extension, Jem and Scout-are related to most people in the county speaks to the nature of small-town Southern life: Maycomb is a close-knit and insular community. But that Simon finds success and establishes a "plantation," which implies that he and his descendants owned slaves, points to the complications of good and evil: Simon who suffered prejudice goes on to build his fortune by practicing his own prejudice upon others. One day when Scout 'raced by' the Radley House, something shiny. The chapter begins near the end of the school year. That Simon Finch had to leave England to escape religious persecution points to the existence of prejudice. Expert Answers bullgatortail Certified Educator Share Cite CHAPTER 4. The opening of the novel effectively establishes a foundation for many of its themes.
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