What is an entailment?
I have asked people this ever since I first saw the movie when Scout and her father discuss Mr. Cunningham's visit to them, WHAT is an entailment? Doesn't anybody know?
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MovieChat Forums > To Kill a Mockingbird (1963) Discussion > What is an entailment?
I don't know. It seems like it's pretty pivotal in that one scene, yet I don't get it.
sharehttp://tokillamockingbirdchaptertwo.weebly.com/glossary---entailment.html
It's mainly a legal term and during the Depression small farmers like Mr Cunningham were in danger of losing their land and farms so Atticus generously accepted collard greens and hickory nuts in lieu of money. People like Mr. Cunningham needed every cent they could earn in order to stay slimly solvent and not lose everything.
Hope that helps. Great scene when Scout innocently but effectively prevents the imminent lynching.
Not to be a smart aleck, but you could look it up in a dictionary. An entailment is a kind of legal encumbrance on land. Land that is entailed is not owned free and clear; the current owner can't sell it and maybe can't mortgage it, since it was inherited for life only--after the present owner's death, the land goes to the next heir. Mr. Cunningham evidently was trying to break an entailment on his land.
sharePride and Prejudice had an entailment. Only male heirs could live in the Bennett's home. That is why Mrs.Bennett was in such a lather to get her daughters married off to rich husbands. Legally, she and her daughters could be tossed out of their home by Mr. Collins when Mr.Bennett dies.
shareSense & Sensibility too. When their father died, the three Dashwoid sisters and their mother had to move out of their big country estate and into a tiny cottage. The oldest half-brother and his witchy wife inherited the estate under the laws of male primogeniture entailment.
Here is a good explanation - http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~simpsone/Teaching/Romantics/josh.html
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People should be more careful when pisting answers. Here is something I found on a "legal website" about entailment which is absolutely wrong.
NO! This is wrong:"It?s when Mr Cunningham used other methods to repay Atticus for helping him with a court matter previously because he had no money to pay Atticus.He paid Atticus with hickory nuts and some other things he grew on his farm. The doctor in To kill a Mockingbird also does that.He charges people two bushels of potatoes(or something like that) for the delivery of a baby." NO! Omg where do people get off making up something like that.
An entailment is actually an encumbrance on property or real estate. There are restrictions on how you can use said property holdings and Atticus was helping Mr. Cunningham get around the entailment restrictions so he could get some needed cash out of his land.
Which serves to make me admire Atticus even more. He risked his law license to keep Mr. Cunningham from losing his land and having his family penniless and homeless.
The above poster is quoting someone else and saying they were wrong. Atticus only engaged in bartering, and I'm not sure they cared so much about that back then.
"There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on." - Rod Serling
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