Illuminator
As I read through the first few chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird I realized that the author used many different literary devices. She was very good at making conflicts, and connections through out the first chapters. My job was to find these literary devices and explain where the author used them in her story.
I liked the symbol she had with Walter and the quarter. When he wouldn't accept the quarter from his teacher because he knew he couldn't pay her back. The quarter to me represented his honest heart, and good intentions. The author also uses good adjectives and literary devices to show great detail to settings such as when she described the Radley house, with how its scary and how its probably haunted. She also used good detail in describing the Radley's yard, with its old trees and gate.
There are quite a few conflicts in the story such as between Scout and her teacher. When they argued about her being able to read and write. Also the conflict between Scout and Calpurnia when she kept bad mouthing Walter just because he was poor. The author resolves this conflict though with Calpurnia taking Scout into the kitchen and scolding her. Scout learned a lesson from this conflict and it helps set the tone for Scout to be more understanding. The author is very good at creating emotion throughout the first few chapters also. She uses these conflicts between the characters to make some drama, and set the overall tone as anticipation. Also i know that the character who would add the most input to our literature circle would be Scout because she is so smart.
Our group mostly summarized what the first few chapters had in them, along with the connections that the book had to our lives. Such as how some of us live next to weird people who remind us of the Radleys. Also many of us didn't like our first grade teachers.
We all realized that we may all be different, but we can still get along together, and together we form a community. Just like the first day of school for Scout, all those different kids came from different parts of town came to one school. They may not have the same parents and some of them may not like each other, but all together they are a class.
