This passage has a melancholic mood. You can tell this due to some specific key words: "dull", "dark", "soundless." They all have a negative connotation. The imagery of a lone rider in a dreary and dull country under the oppressive sky may clue you in that the overall passage has a sad tone to it. Even later in the passage the author states that the scene is melancholic.
Answer:
What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a nght to impose a private will upon a fellow creature.
Explanation:
The two excerpts above impose a sense of knowledge, power and freedom. This is because we can see that the above excerpt shows a narrator free to act, feel and think according to his own conception and his own principles, using his own opinions. This ability is achieved when an individual is able to free himself from an interminably limiting and weighting oppression.
What do you need help with
When Jem gives Miss Maudie his sympathies for the loss of her house, she says, "Always wanted a smaller house, Jem Finch. Gives me more yard. Just think, I’ll have more room for my azaleas now!"<span>
She tells Jem and Scout that she'll be able to have a bigger yard which means more room for the plants she loves to tend. She also calls her old house a cow barn and says that she had thought of burning it does herself.
Miss Maudie's reaction to her house being burnt down furthers her likable character. Her character is one of the mother figures for Scout and Jem since their mother is gone. Throughout the book, she is able to look on the bright side of things and is more accepting of others than most of Maycomb.
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