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TKM 3

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9 views

TKM 3

Uploaded by

AMMY
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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‘What’d you get for Christmas?’ I asked politely.

‘Just what I asked for,’ he said. Francis had requested a pair of knee-pants,
a red leather booksack, five shirts and an untied bow-tie.

‘That’s nice,’ I lied. ‘Jem and me got air-rifles, and Jem got a chemistry set
—’
‘A toy one, I reckon.’

‘No, a real one. He’s gonna make me some invisible ink, and I’m gonna
write to Dill in it.’ Francis asked what was the use of that.

‘Well, can’t you just see his face when he gets a letter from me with
nothing in it? It’ll drive him nuts.’

Talking to Francis gave me the sensation of settling slowly to the bottom


of the ocean.

He was the most boring child I ever met. As he lived in Mobile, he could
not inform on me to school authorities, but he managed to tell everything
he knew to Aunt Alexandra, who in turn unburdened herself to Atticus,
who either forgot it or gave me hell, whichever struck his fancy. But the
only time I ever heard Atticus speak sharply to anyone was when I once
heard him say, ‘Sister I do the best I can with them!’ It had something to
do with my going around in overalls.

Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not


possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do
nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that
required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved
playing with small stoves, tea-sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace
she gave me when I was born; futhermore, I should be a ray of sunshine
in my father’s lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine
in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a
sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every
year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge, but
when I asked Atticus about it, he said there were already enough
sunbeams in the family and to go on about my business, he didn’t mind
me much the way I was.

At Christmas dinner, I sat at the little table in the dining-room; Jem and
Francis sat with the adults at the dining table. Aunty had continued to
isolate me long after Jem and Francis graduated to the big table. I often
wondered what she thought I’d do, get up and throw something? I
sometimes thought of asking her if she would let me sit at the big table
with the rest of them just once, I would prove to her how civilized I could
be; after all, I ate at home every day with no major mishaps. When I
begged Atticus to use his influence, he said he had none – we were
guests, and we sat where she told us to sit. He also said Aunt Alexandra
didn’t understand girls much, she’d never had one.

In this passage, what methods does Lee use to present Scout’s


feelings about Aunt Alexandra and Francis?

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