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To
kill a Mockingbird Summary: Chapter 7
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Jem is "moody and silent" after the pants incident. The new school
year starts, and Scout finds it to be just as boring as first grade. She and
Jem are walking home together one day when Jem says that he didn't tell her
that when he found his pants that night, they were all folded up, and the tears
had been crudely sewn up, as if someone knew that he would be coming back for
them. He finds this highly eerie. Then they find a ball of twine in the hiding
place in the oak tree. They aren't sure if it's theirs or not, so they leave
it for a few days. When it's still there, they take it, and decide that anything
left there is okay to take.
Jem is excited about sixth grade, because they learn about ancient Egypt, and
he tells Scout that school will get better for her. One day in October they
find two little figures, a boy and a girl, carved artfully out of soap. Upon
closer examination, they realize that they are images of themselves. They wonder
who could have done it - maybe Mr. Avery, a neighbor who whittles wood. In a
couple of weeks, they find a package of chewing gum, then an old medal for winning
the spelling bee, then a broken pocket watch on a chain with an aluminum knife.
Jem can't get it to work, but they decide to write a letter thanking whoever
gives them these gifts. They write a note of thanks and leave it in the oak
tree.
The next day, they are horrified to discover that someone has filled their hole
up with cement. They ask Mr. Radley about it, who claims that the tree is dying
and the cement will keep it alive. But Atticus, when asked, says that the tree
looks very healthy.
Jem stands out on the porch for a long time, and when he comes inside, he looks
like he has been crying.
Analysis
The fact that the tree is in the Radleys' yard, coupled with Mr. Radley's act
of filling the hole with concrete after they leave the note, points to Boo as
the deliverer of all the presents, and probably also the sewer of the pants.
He hasn't said a word, but the reader can intuit from his sweet, clumsy offerings
that he means well and has a generous, thoughtful, and perceptive nature, yet
very few social skills. Though he's a middle-aged man, his little hidden gifts
of chewing gum and pennies suggest a childish nature or a fondness for children
- he himself disappeared into the house at a young age and therefore remains
forever young in the memories of the townspeople. Mr. Radley, who plugs up the
hole, and all the other adults discourage this interaction, however. Jem's reaction
to the plugging of the hole is perhaps symptomatic of his passage from the world
of childhood toward adulthood - just as the hole has been plugged up and their
"conversation" with Boo has ended, so too must childish games end
and grown-up events begin. Standing on the porch, a threshold between the outdoor,
summery world of childish freedom, and the inside, civilized world of the grown-ups,
Jem is perhaps mourning the last days of his own childhood as much as the loss
of the budding friendship with Boo.
