Atticus uses the "oldest lawyer’s trick on record" by assuming Jem was playing a game involving Boo and rapidly questioning his son, which essentially tricks Jem into revealing the truth about their game. Jem responds by telling Atticus, We weren’t makin' fun of him, we weren’t laughin’ at him... we were just (Lee, 50).
Jubilantly, Jem shouts that Atticus is a gentleman. It’s telling that Jem is so ecstatic to learn that Atticus is a good shot, as it falls into line with what Jem believes about courage and worth coming from easily demonstrable skills, like shooting.
To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Atticus is older than other kids' parents, and Scout and Jem are sometimes embarrassed by their father's bookishness.
Get the entire To Kill a Mockingbird LitChart as a printable PDF. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S. Atticus tries to refuse, but he takes the rifle and steps into the street. He pushes his glasses up, but they fall back—he drops them, and they crack.
People tease Scout after she commits herself to “a policy of cowardice.” He refuses to teach Scout and Jem to shoot their air rifles and tells them that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. This isn’t a normal thing for Atticus to say, so Scout asks Miss Maudie about it.
His father asks, "You want to be a lawyer don't you"(Lee 83). This quote shows that Jem wanted to be a lawyer and this fits with the diamond because lawyers need a sharp mind to be able to figure out how to win. Lawyers also try to leave no loose ends, and circles have no ends.
Jem doesn't want to be a lawyer anymore because Atticus questioned him and he fell in his trick. Therefore, he got mad and told him he no longer wanted to be a lawyer.
Jem says that he didn't say they were doing that, and thus inadvertently admits that they were doing just that. Atticus caught him with "the oldest lawyer's trick on record." In this, Atticus played on Jem's sympathy and conscience...... inadvertantly he confesses.
Atticus also tells them to stop playing their stupid game, and Jem says they weren't making fun of Boo, inadvertently revealing to Atticus that they were in fact playing at being the Radleys.
Why does Jem declare at the end of the chapter, "I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I ain't so sure now"? He was willing to risk his life in order to retrieve his pants, because he knew that in the morning, Mr. Radley would find them.
Why is it important to Jem to go back and get his pants before morning, even though the mission is dangerous? He does not want Atticus to find out what he, Scout, and Dill were up to. More importantly, he does not want to lose his father's respect.
Jem cries at the end of chapter 7 because he realizes all his life when he said how mean Boo was, is was complete and utter lies. Boo was being mistreated the whole time, and no one will help him.
Terms in this set (43) What secret does Jem reveal to Scout? Jem reveals that when he went back for his pants, they were folded and sewn across the fence like as if they were expecting him.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch does not win the court case. Tom Robinson, an African-American man, is found guilty of raping a white woman,... See full answer below.
Boo Radley is a white individual who never left his house because of the ways society viewed him. Tom Robinson was a black man who got framed of a crime that he did not do.
Scout recounts how, as a boy, Boo got in trouble with the law and his father imprisoned him in the house as punishment. He was not heard from until fifteen years later, when he stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Although people suggested that Boo was crazy, old Mr.
Atticus begins defending Jem, insisting that killing Bob Ewell was clearly self-defense. Sheriff Tate corrects Atticus, saying that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife. Atticus appreciates what Heck is trying to do, but he doesn't want anyone to cover for Jem.
Atticus arrives and catches them all. He tells them to stop tormenting Boo, and lectures them about how Boo has a right to his privacy, and that they shouldn't go near the house unless they're invited.
Miss Maudie is a widow who hates her house. She spends her day gardening and her evenings dressed beautifully. She tells Scout that nut-grass is the only weed she ever kills and allows Scout to inspect her bridgework (fake teeth), a gesture that makes them friends. Miss Maudie is kind to Jem and Dill, too, and she calls them to eat her exceptional cakes.
Get an answer for 'How does Atticus trick Jem into confessing to playing the Radley game in To Kill a Mockingbird?' and find homework help for other To Kill a Mockingbird questions at eNotes
In Chapter 5 Jem defends his pestering of Boo Radley, "We weren't makin' fun of him, we weren't laughin' at him...we were just--" Atticus finishes Jem's sentence, "putting his life's history on display for the edification of the neighborhood."Jem had let Atticus finish his own sentence by getting at the truth of the story.
This quote is uttered by Jem at the end of Chapter Five after he and Dill have been caught redhanded by Atticus trying to deliver a note to Boo Radley through a side window.
Atticus essentially catches Jem in a lie by asking him a series of leading questions in quick succession, which is the oldest lawyer trick on record. Jem is caught off guard and admits to something he denied earlier.
Atticus' trick is to get Jem to admit things (specifically, that he and the other kids had been playacting Boo's life for fun) by asking a series of leading questions until Jem gets knocked off balance (mentally) and accidentally admits to doing what Atticus already knew they'd done .
Atticus tells Jem to leave Boo alone. He tells him not to leave notes for him at a side window and to wait for an invitation before going near his house.
Jem yells out " I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I ain't so sure now!" because he is annoyed that Atticus has just used an old lawyer's ploy to trick him into admitting that he has been playing a game based on Boo Radley.
Jem realizes that his father has used the skills which make him an incredible lawyer to verbally entrap him. He can't further deny the truth, and he simply stands with his mouth agape. Shocked and with an injured sense of pride, Jem wants to retaliate but can't—until Atticus leaves. Once his father is far out of earshot, Jem yells that he isn't so sure he wants to be a lawyer anymore because he has been solidly beaten in a verbal challenge and suffers from an injured sense of pride.
When Atticus unexpectedly returns home one day to retrieve a file, he catches the kids playing a game that seems suspect. (Because Atticus is so intuitive, perhaps he had planned to "forget" this file, giving him a good excuse to check up on his children during the day.) The kids are right in the middle of playing their Boo Radley game, ...
To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis. To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapter 10. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Scout and Jem’s disappointment with the fact that Atticus apparently can’t do anything again suggests that both of them think of courage and personal worth as coming from an individual’s tangible capabilities. As a lawyer, there’s not much to directly see of Atticus’s work, which makes it harder for his children to understand that he performs important services for his community through his profession.
This isn’t a normal thing for Atticus to say, so Scout asks Miss Maudie about it. She agrees with Atticus and says that mockingbirds just sing for people. Scout complains that Atticus is too old and can’t do anything. Miss Maudie points out that Atticus can write fantastic wills, play checkers, and play the mouth harp.
Miss Maudie sends Scout home, so the construction crew doesn’t crush her. Scout finds Jem ’s attempts to shoot tin cans boring, so when Atticus gets home, he finds Scout pointing her rifle at Miss Maudie’s backside. He warns Miss Maudie, who good-naturedly insults Atticus, and tells Scout to not point her gun at people. Annoyed, Scout asks Calpurnia what Atticus can do. Calpurnia insists that Atticus can do lots of things but can’t list any. Later, Scout feels even worse when Atticus is the only father not playing in the inter-church football game.
When Scout refers to her choice to follow Atticus’s request as a “policy of cowardice,” it shows that she still thinks courage and bravery have to do with the way a person fights physically or verbally for what they believe in. In other words, it hasn’t yet crossed her mind that it might be more courageous for her to walk away from others’ taunts. Atticus’s request that the children not kill innocent mockingbirds hearkens to his defense of Tom Robinson, who is being persecuted by the community. When Miss Maudie echoes what Atticus said, it helps the children see that within Atticus’s sense of morality is based on universal concepts of right and wrong that everyone can apply.
He warns Miss Maudie, who good-naturedly insults Atticus, and tells Scout to not point her gun at people . Annoyed, Scout asks Calpurnia what Atticus can do. Calpurnia insists that Atticus can do lots of things but can’t list any.
Scout and Jem are disappointed that Atticus, at 50 , is older than their classmates’ parents and doesn’t do anything, like farm or drive a dump truck. He also wears glasses and never hunts, drinks, or smokes. Despite how innocuous he seems, everyone talks about him defending Tom Robinson.
Atticus essentially catches Jem in a lie by asking him a series of leading questions in quick succession, which is the oldest lawyer trick on record. Jem is caught off guard and admits to something he denied earlier.
Atticus' trick is to get Jem to admit things (specifically, that he and the other kids had been playacting Boo's life for fun) by asking a series of leading questions until Jem gets knocked off balance (mentally) and accidentally admits to doing what Atticus already knew they'd done .