Question

When Scout and Jem leave the school, the night is still 'black dark.' Someone has offered them a ride home but they have declined it, almost certainly a bad decision. As they are crossing the schoolyard, Scout realizes that she has forgotten her shoes. When they turn back to the school to retrieve the shoes, suddenly the auditorium lights go off, another ominous sign. As they walk, Jem stops several times, thinking that he hears something in the darkness: 'I hear it when we're walkin' along, but when we stop I don't hear it.' Thinking that the sound may be Cecil Jacobs trying to scare them again, they yell out, hoping that Cecil will give up the joke. However, Cecil does not appear, and no one answers their calls. As they approach the oak tree, they both know for certain that someone is following them. With a note of dread, Scout tells the reader, 'Our company shuffled and dragged his feet, as if wearing heavy shoes. Whoever it was wore thick cotton pants; what I thought were trees rustling was the soft swish of cotton on cotton, wheek, wheek, with every step.' Who do Scout and Jem suspect is following them?

1) Cecil Jacobs
2) The school janitor
3) Their neighbor
4) A stranger

Answer 1

Scout and Jem first suspect Cecil Jacobs is following them, but as the situation becomes more ominous, they fear it could be someone else with a more threatening intent.

Step-by-step explanation:

In the scene described from To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem suspect that they are being followed as they cross the schoolyard at night. Initially, they suspect that it might be Cecil Jacobs, a schoolmate who had previously tried to scare them. However, as they hear the sounds more closely, the suspicion shifts towards a potentially more ominous presence. The passage with the ominous signs and sound of heavy shoes is intended to create tension and foreshadow a significant event in the storyline.