The door creaked and a rectangle of light fell onto the magazine that I was reading. I looked up to a boy who had come into the lobby was a stranger, about nineteen, tall and thin.
"Looking for someone?" I asked.
"No," the boy said. His long fingers trembled as they fumbled with the buttons of his coat.
"Well, may I help you with something?"
"No." The boy dropped his coat onto the worn tweed sofa and sat down slowly. In the light from the window his pale cheeks gleamed as if wet.
He's sick, I thought, while walking over to him. A narrow hand reached out and seized my wrist, cold, strong fingers twining around my arm like vines or snakes. I try to fight the impulse to pull away, looking down instead into the boy's troubled, grey eyes.
And neigh like Boanerges. That's the sound a horse makes so it makes sense.
Use care with secondary clauses. Use active voice. Use powerful verbs. Follow grammar rules
Complex and compound sentences.
Unlike Atticus and Calpurnia, Harper Lee does not give us a paragraph describing Jem. Instead we must learn about his character through his actions and speech. Sometimes Scout will use a descriptive sentence for her brother's character but mostly the reader learns about him as the story progresses. Many of Jem's statements in the first chapter are written in the imperative mood. For example, he says, "Don't blame me when he gouges your eyes out." By using the imperative mood, Harper Lee shows Jem to be older and seemingly the leader of Dill and Scout. The use of the indicative mood in Jem's dialogue also shows his stubbornness as a leader. When Dill is pressuring him into touching the house of Boo Radley, Jem says, "I'm going...don't hurry me." Even though Jem is worried about what may happen when he touches the house, he stays in control of the situation by using both the indicative and imperative mood in this sentence. Jem is also seen as the protector of Scout. When Jem is hesitant about making Boo Radley come out of the house because he fears for his life, Scout notes, "Besides, Jem had his little sister to think of." It is clear from this sentence, that Jem looks out for Scout which shows that he is a protective, responsible older brother.
