244and5

Page 244 and 245

From the text:
Page 244
'Don't do that Scout. Set him out on the back steps.'......
A roly-poly had found his way inside the house...
Page 245
'Why couldn't I mash him?' I asked.
'Because they don't bother you,' Jem answered in the darkness...

Our interpretation of this:
The roly-poly, an insect, represents Tom Robinson, a black man. Scout represents the White community in Maycomb. And Jem represents Atticus. We believe that Jem was angered when Tom Robinson was shot to death while escaping from prison. He was able to relate the killing of an insect with the killing of Tom. Jem knew that TR (abbreviation of Tom Robinson) had done nothing wrong but was accused by the Whites in Maycomb who simply think that the lives of Negros were not worth anything. "What was one Negro, more or less, among 2 hundred of them? He wasn't Tom to them, he was an escaping prisoner." In this way, Scout representing the Whites in Maycomb just wanted to mash the insect, representing TR. In Scout's mind, the roly-poly is just one insect in the community of insects and Scout, being superior than it, her conscience did not get pricked or she wouldn't have felt guilty if she killed the insect. In the same way, Tom Robinson was just one of the many blacks in Maycomb. It did not matter to the Whites in Maycomb that he died, because he was nothing to them.
Jem, here, thinks Scout shouldn't kill the insect because it doesn't hurt anyone. Like Atticus, Jem defends the insect/TR. Jem felt that TR was treated like a tiny insect and felt disgusted by it. In the eyes of the White community in Maycomb, TR is just another Negro, an unworthy being, a person who is uneducated, a person who is most likely to commit crimes. Due to the prejudice in the Whites, the guards in the prison didn't care if TR would be shot or killed when they fired at him, they just shot. If Scout had killed that insect, she would have become no better than the guards.

Character Study
Jem - sensitive and rational. He is able to think deep into the situation of Scout and the insect and relate it to that of TR's death and the Whites in Maycomb.. Jem knew that the roly-poly was innocent. It was a harmless insect but Scout wanted to mash it. He felt for the insect the same way he felt for TR. Jem believed that the Whites were like Scout, wanting to step on or kill the minority of their community - The insignificant minority. Jem also thinks twice before he reacts. He is not like Scout, who is rash in her actions. He stops to think - "Is this right?" If he believes it is wrong, he would not do it. As for Scout, even if she felt whatever she intends to do is wrong, she would still do it.
Scout - rash and insensitive. She is more childish than Jem, so she is not able to understand how the insect would "feel" when she did smash it. Scout is unable to sense the moral in the situation. She is unable to see that the insect is harmless, but all she thought was to kill it. She is very rash and resorts to "violence" - she just wanted to mash the poor insect.