Saturday, January 21, 2012

Describe a subplot (i.e., a secondary plot or minor conflict) in the novel.To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

While Boo Radley is an important character who figures into the entire narrative of To Kill a Mockingbird, the subplot that involves the superstitions of the children and their attempts to overcome them figures in as a minor episodes. 


As Scout and Walter walk home for dinner after school, she tells him "this is where a haint lives."  Later, Dill dares Jem to do such things as run up to the Radley house and look in the window and they are involved in play-acting in which they recreate the defining scissor scene.


This subplot focuses on the games and tricks that Dill, Jem and Scout engage in as they toy with the fear and excitement of a "haint." 


One minor conflict that helps support the major racial conflict is that of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who has chosen to live with the blacks.  In order to help the whites reconcile their feelings about this situation, Mr. Raymond feigns alcoholism by carrying around a bottle of Coca-Cola wrapped in a brown paper bag as one would wrap a bottle of beer or liquor.

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