Novel Insights Guide To

To Kill A Mockingbird

by Harper Lee


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TABLE OF CONTENTS


Author Biography ..................................... 1
Chapter 01 - 02 ..................................... 2
Chapter 03 - 05 ..................................... 9
Chapter 06 - 08 ................................... 16
Chapter 09 - 11 ................................... 23
Chapter 12 - 14 ................................... 32
Chapter 15 - 16 ................................... 38
Chapter 17 - 19 ................................... 45
Chapter 23 - 26 ................................... 41
Chapter 20 - 23 ................................... 52
Chapter 24 - 26 ................................... 59
Chapter 27 - 31 ................................... 67
Vocabulary Tests ................................... 75
Test Questions ................................. 110
Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle ................................. 118
Selected Bibliography ................................. 141


Chapters 01 - 02

Scout and her older brother Jem discuss the origins of his broken arm, with Jem tracing it back to the summer they first met Dill, when Jem was ten and Scout was six. Scout gives the opinion that it would be necessary to carry that vein of thought all the way back to the original Finch who settled in Maycomb County, providing the background information that the Finch family has a long history in Maycomb, and Maycomb is an old and tired town. Jem and Scout have lived with their widowed father, Atticus, since their mother died when Scout was two and Jem was six. Their housekeeper, Calpurnia, rides herd on the two children, keeping a tight but loving rein on them. When they meet Dill, he has come to live with his Aunt Rachel for the summer. He is seven, but is shorter than Scout, with white blonde hair and blue linen shorts that button onto his white shirt. Dill's real name is Charles Baker Harris, which Jem immediately declares is longer than he is. He replies that he is called Dill, and they soon discover he has a flare for the dramatic. The three spend the summer acting out stories from their favorite books, and by the end of the summer, Dill suggests they should try to make Boo Radley come out. For some reason, the Radley house held a fascination for Dill, and he would stand at the dorner with his arms around the light pole, staring at the house. The rumor was that the man who lived in the house, Arthur Radley, was a murderous villain who committed any number of crimes under the cover of darkness at night. Everyone in town feared the house, and skirted it when they were going anywhere in the vicinity. The story was that the family, which had always kept to itself, had been mortified by an incident with their younger son, Arthur, when he was in his teens. He had fallen into the wrong crowd, and had been arrested for disturbing the peace. The other boys were sent to a reform school, but Arthur was sent home with his father and was not seen again for fifteen years. There was a day when Arthur was cutting items from the newspaper, and drove the scissors into his father's leg. It was suggested he be sent to the state mental hospital, but his father refused. He was locked up in the courthouse basement for some time, then went back home. Then came the day when Mr. Radley died, and Nathan Radley, Arthur's brother, came to take his father's place. After a great deal of teasing and daring, Jem is enticed to enter the yard and touch the house. He runs up, touches it, and they all three run back to the Finch porch. Looking back, they see a shutter move inside the Radley house.

When Dill returns to his home in Meridian, it signals the beginning of school for Scout and Jem. Scout had been longing for a chance to join the other children in the schoolyard, but quickly finds that school was not all she had hoped it would be. Jem delivers her to her classroom, admonishing her to leave him alone during the school day. Scout's biggest shock comes when she is reprimanded by the teacher for knowing how to read. She is to tell her father not to be teaching her at home, although she cannot remember him teaching her at home - she has been reading as long as she can remember. In a classroom of students who are repeating the first grade, Scout is an anomaly. When she becomes bored and begins writing a letter to Dill - a skill she has learned from Calpurnia - she brings down the wrath of the teacher again. The teacher, who is not from Maycomb, does not understand why Walter Cunningham does not have a lunch, and the class turns to Scout to explain. This lands her in the corner with several raps on her hand, which the class finds humorous. Both she and the teacher are ready for the class to escape for lunch.


Suggested Activities - Chapters 01 - 02

  1. Assign research into the depression, which is the setting for this novel, so that students can understand some of the conditions faced by the characters in the book.
  2. Explain flashback to the students and show how the author uses this technique to begin the novel.
  3. Ask students to draw pictures of Scout, Jem and Dill as they appear at this stage of the story.
  4. Ask students to write a short story about their worst day in school.

Review Questions - Chapters 01 - 02

  1. What literary device does the author use at the beginning of the book? Why?
  2. With what does Scout associate Jem's broken arm? What does Jem consider to be the beginning of the events that led to his broken arm?
  3. List some of the effects of the depression that are apparent in Maycomb County.
  4. What does it mean that "Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself?"
  5. Describe Scout's family.
  6. Why does Dill come to Maycomb? With what does he become fascinated?
  7. Why has the town formed the opinion it holds of the Radley family?
  8. Why was Arthur Radley called Boo?
  9. Describe Miss Stephanie Crawford.
  10. As Mr. Radley's body is carried out past the Finch home, what commend does Calpurnia make about him?
  11. What is Jem's description of Boo Radley?
  12. What does Dill dare Jem to do?
  13. When they return to the Finch home, what do they see?
  14. Describe Miss Caroline Fisher.
  15. Why does Miss Fisher not understand the peculiarities of the Maycomb families?
  16. What is the first problem Scout has at school?
  17. What is the second thing for which she gets in trouble? Whose fault is this?
  18. What does it mean, that the crash hit the farmers the hardest?
  19. Look up information on the WPA.
  20. What is the result of Miss Caroline's attempt to punish Scout?

Review Question Answers - Chapters 01 - 02

  1. The author uses flashback because it effectively allows the reader to take in the necessary background information to understand the plot, and it introduces the main characters.
  2. Jem blames the broken arm on the Ewells; Scout associates it with the coming of Dill and his fascination with Boo Radley.
  3. The effects of the depression can be seen in the conditions of the town including the grass growing on the sidewalks, the muddy streets and the run-down courthouse; Hoover carts; the people shuffling in and out of the stores without buying anything; "there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no money to buy it with."
  4. This is a reference to a speech by President Franklyn D. Roosevelt.
  5. Their family consists of Scout, who at this time is six, her older brother Jem and her father Atticus. Atticus married late in life, and is past middle age. Their mother died when Scout was two, and she has few memories of her. Their housekeeper, Calpurnia, gives them the stability and discipline of a mother.
  6. Dill comes to stay for the summer with his Aunt Rachel, who lives next door to Scout and Jem. He becomes fascinated with Boo Radley and the thought of making him come out of his house.
  7. Unlike the majority of the citizens of Maycomb, the Radleys keep to themselves. They do not attend church, and do not visit with the neighbors as the traditions of Maycomb demand.
  8. He is called Boo because he is considered to be something of a monster, or ghost.
  9. Miss Stephanie Crawford is an old maid, and is the town gossip. She is the source of most of Jem's information about Boo Radley.
  10. She says he was the "meanest man God ever blew breath into."
  11. Jem describes Boo as six and a half feet tall, with a long jagged scar running across his face, teeth that were yellow and rotten, eyes that popped out, and he drooled most of the time. He dined mainly on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.
  12. Dill dares Jem to enter the Radley property in order to try and draw Boo out of the house.
  13. After Jem runs up and touches the house, they run back to the Finch home, and see the shutters move very slightly.
  14. She is no more than twenty-one, with auburn hair, pink cheeks, and crimson fingernail polish. She is young, inexperienced, and unsure of herself.
  15. She has moved to the area from north Alabama.
  16. Scout has been reading for as long as she can remember. Miss Caroline tells her she must tell her father to quit teaching her at home, even though Scout insists Atticus did not teach her to read - she just began reading on her own.
  17. She begins writing a letter to Dill. Calpurnia taught her to write.
  18. The crash of the stock market in October 1929 ushered in the Great Depression. Before this time, many people had mortgaged their properties because of the inflationary economy of the 1920s. Farmers had been experiencing depressed market conditions for their crops and goods since the end of World War I. Family farms that had been mortgaged during the Twenties to provide money to "get through until better times" risked foreclosure when their owners failed to make payments. Unable to pay wages for hired help, families whose farms were located near railroad tracks often hired men who volunteered to work for food.
  19. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) was signed into law in 1935 in order to create jobs for those who had been unemployed because of the Great Depression. WPA projects primarily employed blue-collar workers in construction projects across the nation. (Mentioning the WPA at this point in the story is somewhat of an anachronism, since it is not yet 1935.)
  20. When she raps Scout on the hand with the ruler, neither Scout nor the children in the class recognize it as a "whipping." When it dawns on them what was supposed to have transpired, the entire class erupts in laughter.