In to kill a mockingbird, "Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience. Summer was our best season: It was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots, or trying to sleep in the treehouse; summer was everything good to eat; It was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill."(Lee 38)

Question

explain the function of the first semicolon

Answer 1

The function of the first semicolon in this sentence is to separate two related independent clauses. The first clause, "Summer was on the way; Jem and I awaited it with impatience," introduces the idea of summer and the anticipation the narrator and Jem feel for its arrival. The second clause, "Summer was our best season," expands upon this idea and explains the significance of summer to the narrator and Jem. The semicolon allows for a clear separation between these two clauses while still indicating their connection and flow of thought.