Chapter 8: Bradley Raabe

Plot Summary: Chapter 8 has two huge events happening one after the other. First and foremost Maycomb experiences snow since 1885. As the first flakes float down Scout wakes up and is horrified and confused as she’s never seen snow before, but she soon begins to yearn for it as any kid would. After a while and they thought there was enough snow, Jem and Scout soon want to build a snowman. They find out that there is not enough snow to do so, so Jem hatches an idea. First they go on over to Miss Maudie’s house to say hi and to get some snow. To their surprise Miss Maudie exclaims how much she despises snow, claiming that the snow kills her beloved azaleas plants. Despite Miss Maudies complaining Jem still has his heart on getting snow for the snowman and after asking if they could, Jem and Scout happily scoop up the snow into baskets and carry them back to the yard away from the ever relieved Miss Maudie. Since they still didn’t have enough snow, Jem uses his brain to gather up some dirt to build the body of the snowman and then cover it with snow. To top it off they took Miss Maudies hat and garden clippers to put on the snowman. With the days activities finished night arrives with a startling. Atticus wakes Scout and Jem up as Miss Maudies house goes up in flames. The whole neighborhood goes outside to help retrieve Miss Maudies valuables before the house collapses. Scout and Jem only stare on and watch, but after the night’s event and they get home Scout is surprised to notice a blanket over her shoulders after standing in front of the Radleys house. The family figures it must’ve been Boo. The very next day starts with Scout and Jem heading over to Miss Maudies “place” to see an obviously delirious Miss Maudie as she is happy instead of grieving over her burned house. She claims that without the house there is more space to plant her garden and she tells the two kids that the house probably burned due to her trying to keep her plants warm. The chapter ends with Scout and Jem going back home to pick up the remains of the snowman.

Major Changes and Developments: The major changes in characters were most certainly, Miss Maudie and less obviously, Boo Radley. Miss Maudie, who was the nice giving lady on the street, becomes even happier at the loss of her house, which is kind of creepy. She decides to stay with Miss Stephanie for the time being and she just seems to have reached a stage of denial as she tries to convince herself and everyone around her that she’s glad she lost her house. The other character to change is Boo, or at least people’s opinions of him have changed. In this chapter we can infer that it was actually Boo who put the blanket on Scout. When she finds out Scout seems to almost throw up from having Boo Radley behind her, but it seems that other people thought it was nice and most certainly not insane to do a kind act like that.

Significant Quotes: “Miss Maudie looked around, and the shadow of her old grin crossed her face. ‘Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard. Just think, I'll have more room for my azaleas now!’ ‘You ain’t grievin’, Miss Maudie?’ I asked, surprised. Atticus said her house was nearly all she had.”(page 97)

This quote shows us how Miss Maudie is well, crazy. Her house is burned down which is all she really had and she is acting all happy as if she wanted it burned down.

“Old Mrs. Radley died that winter, but her death caused hardly a ripple…”(page 85)

Although peoples opinions of Boo might be changing, this quote shows how the citizens of Maycomb sill don’t seem to care for the Radleys.

Literary Elements: Irony shows up brightly in this chapter. Miss Maudie was so against the snow and its cold destroying her plants that she took to using heat in her own house to keep them warm and alive. This is ironic as she then sets her house on fire from the heat.

Vocabulary: Morphodite (hermaphrodite) - a person, animal, or flower that has both male and female reproductive organs

Azaleas - a woody plant with shiny, dark-green leaves, which produces many brightly-coloured flowers in the spring

Critical Thinking: 1. Is Boo Radley a nice neighbor or a total pedophile based on the event with Scout and the blanket? Explain.

2. In your own opinion, is Miss Maudie deranged and in denial over the loss of her house or is she genuinely happy about it?