TKAM Post

In chapter four, a lot of things happened with the idea of Boo Radley. First of all, Scout found gum in the hole of the tree that was in front of the Radley Residence. This is quite odd, since not a lot of people go that way. Scout wanted to chew it of course, so first, she licked it. When she didn't die, she proceeded to chew it. Jem then told her to spit it out because it's unsafe to chew/eat things you find on the ground. When Jem and Scout are walking past the Radley Residence, they find something else. They find a little box with Indian Head pennies in them. These are like good luck tokens described by Jem. He doesn't suspect it's any adult's, so he proposes the idea of keeping them until school starts again. Finally, at the end of the chapter we find out Scout heard something in the Radley Residence. When she was in the tire, rolling down the street, she had gotten up, and she swore she heard someone laughing within the house.

My first impressions are, why aren't they more suspicious about the gum? I'd be a little scared if there was just random gum in a the hole of a tree. Also, I'm not so fond of scout picking it up and deciding to eat it. It was safe, but it's not a really great thing to get used to in the future. I am happy that Jem did the smart thing and told Scout to spit it out. Second of all, why wouldn't they leave the box in the tree? It is not theirs, and it's not right to steal. They're old and hold value to someone, and someone is aware they left it there, so leave it there. However, I am a little bit worried about the laughing inside the house. Who would've that been? Doesn't that mean the person was watching them the whole time? This worries me. At the near end of the chapter, Dill, Scout, and Jem are running out of games to play. They decide to make one about the Radleys over the summer. They make a lot of assumptions however, while doing so. I think this is them being ignorant to the fact that they've never met Boo Radley, yet they are believing all of the rumors.