Log #7

From Chapter VI to Chapter XIV, we are able to learn more on both the nature of Maycomb, Jean Louis, and Jean Louis’s family. Different from the previous chapter, which focused much on Jean Louis’s childhood memory, we are now allowed a more complete view on the present and her family, friends, and acquaintances. In these chapters we see much of the relationship between Jean Louis and Atticus, Alexandra, John. Furthermore, from their relationships and interactions with Jean Louis and some of her memories with them, we can learn more about each character’s personality. Last but not least, towards the end of chapter IX, we are also given the information of how Jean Louis’s brother and mother had died.

Chapter VI opened with the brute questioning of Alexandra regarding Jean’s interactions with Henry. From this point, combined with what we saw from the previous chapters, we can deduce that her aunt is responsible, caring in nature, yet she was also conservative, self-righteous, and quite pious. In fact, later in the following chapters we learn that Alexandra was only the epitome of Maycomb－religiously devoted, conservative, and gossiping. This come as no surprise given the social norm of small towns in the south in mid 50s. We can also deduce that this could be the reason why Jean Louis stayed in New York, because the town is too ossified for her behavior, though we later learn that it was her father who encouraged her to go out into the world in the first place.

Moreover, we could finally meet Jean’s uncle, John. We learn from Jean’s description of John that John was well-learned in literacy and he was a doctor. He had a good relationship with Jean, similar to Atticus, yet the context of their interaction was much different. John showed her to Victorian literature while Atticus taught her to play golf, from which we can also see the difference between her father and uncle. Furthermore, from an argument of John with the priest over hymn singing style, we may safely conclude that he is person who would really devote for what he believed in and had passion for. Last but not least, from his comments on the ongoing racism in the South, we see that belief in freedom plays an important role in his life－belief that people are free to act however they want, racist or not.

Back to the point where Atticus taught Jean golf, of all the things a renowned lawyer could teach his daughter, we can relate it to the part where Jean mentioned that her father let her roamed free like a boy, and deduce that her father was a liberal person. This could be further proved by the calm reaction Atticus had when he heard Jean allegedly swam naked in the river with Henry－contrary to Alexandra’s hysteria. Yet this was challenged, in Jean’s perspective, toward the end of chapter IX when Jean saw her father meeting with a group of racists－which became quite interesting when later John explained the reason behind it.

The entirety of Chapter XIII was devoted to the contrast between Jean and her friends. From the conversation happened at a friend reunion that took place at Atticus’s house, we see much of Jean Louis’s soliloquy, which is an intriguing contrast to what her friends were all supporting. From her friends we see some conservative and racist characters, which was in direct contrast with Jean’s belief. It is even more interesting to see how she had to interact politely with her “friends” while she despises their belief in segregation.

Towards the ends of Chapter XIV, we have begun to see the real problem that lies behind all the conflict that had been happening within Jean and in Maycomb. While many, especially the Federal Government, see that every man deserves equal rights to freedom, people in the South see the extra measures taken to protect black rights per se is a violation to their freedom－a freedom that Maycomb, that John, that Henry and Atticus were all a part of, the freedom for men to be able to thank and act however they want. This draws to the bigger picture that has been foreshadowed, the conflict between the new and old generation regarding values, and black rights happened to be the staple of it