To Kill a Mockingbird - Chapters 1-8 Summary

1. To Kill A Mockingbirdby Harper Lee

2. Chapter 1 The chapter opens with the introduction of the narrator, Scout (Jean Louise) Finch, her older brother Jem (Jeremy), and their friend and neighbor, Dill (Charles Baker Harris). Next, Lee provides an overview of Finch family history. Their ancestor, a Methodist named Simon Finch, fled British persecution and eventually settled in Alabama, where he trapped animals for fur and practiced medicine. Having bought several slaves, he established a largely self-sufficient homestead and farm, Finch's Landing, near Saint Stephens. The family lost its wealth in the Civil War.

3. Chapter 2 The summer is over, and September has arrived. Dill has returned to his family in Meridian, and Scout eagerly awaits her first day of school. She is excited about the prospect of finally starting school, but her first day of first grade leaves her extremely disappointed. Her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is 21 years old and new to the Maycomb County schools. Miss Caroline is from the richer and more cultured North Alabama, and does not understand the country ways of Maycomb. Miss Caroline forbids Scout to let Atticus teach her to read anymore. Scout feels discouraged returning home from school. After dinner she tells Atticus she doesn't want to go back. Atticus asks her to understand the situation from Miss Caroline's point of view - Miss Caroline can't be expected to know what to do with her students when she doesn't know anything about them yet. Scout wants to be like Burris Ewell and not have to go to school at all.

4. Chapter 3 Jem invites Walter Cunningham over for lunch when he finds out that the boy doesn't have any food. Walter hesitates but then takes Jem up on the friendly offer. At the Finch house, Atticus and Walter discuss farming, and Scout is overwhelmed by their adult speech. Walter asks for some molasses and proceeds to pour it all over his meat and vegetables. Scout rudely asks him what he's doing and Calpurnia gives her a lecture in the kitchen about how to treat guests - even if they're from a family like the Cunninghams. Miss Caroline wants Burris Ewell to go home and take a bath, but before he leaves the room for the rest of the year, he yells crude insults at her and makes her cry. The children comfort her and she reads them a story.

5. Chapter 4 • The school yearwasnot thebestforScout. Sheis far above the curriculum and spendsmostofherdaysbeingfrustrated. • She is bored and can't wait for summer. While walking home one day, she spots something in the knot-hole of the tree on the Radley place. Scout is the first one to find the gifts left in the tree.

6. Chapter 5 • Jem and Dill becoming closer and Scout feeling left out. She begins to spend more time with Miss Maudie Atkinson. • Miss Maudie tells Scout that Boo is still alive and that he was always polite to her. • Jem and Dill decide to stick a note to the end of a fishing pole and deliver it to Boo, however Atticus catches them and warns them to leave Boo alone.

7. Chapter 6 • Jem, Dill and Scout ignore the warning from Atticus and sneak to the Radley house to peak in the window. • While they are there, they see a shadow and get frightened and run off. • Jem's pants become hung in the fence and he has to take them off. He returns later that night to retrieve his pants.

8. Chapter 7 • A few days later, after school has begun for the year, Jem tells Scout that he found the pants mysteriously mended and hung neatly over the fence. • When they come home from school that day, they find another present hidden in the knothole: a ball of gray twine. • They leave it there for a few days, but no one takes it, so they claim it for their own. • Unsurprisingly, Scout is as unhappy in second grade as she was in first, but Jem promises her that school gets better the farther along one goes. Late that fall, another present appears in the knothole—two figures carved in soap to resemble Scout and Jem. • The figures are followed in turn by chewing gum, a spelling bee medal, and an old pocket watch. The next day, Jem and Scout find that the knothole has been filled with cement. When Jem asks Mr. Radley (Nathan Radley, Boo’s brother) about the knothole the following day, Mr. Radley replies that he plugged the knothole because the tree is dying.

9. Chapter 8 • For the first time in years, Maycomb endures a real winter. There is even light snowfall, an event rare enough for school to be closed. Jem and Scout haul as much snow as they could from Miss Maudie’s yard to their own. • Since there is not enough snow to make a real snowman, they build a small figure out of dirt and cover it with snow. They make it look like Mr. Avery, an unpleasant man who lives down the street. The figure’s likeness to Mr. Avery is so strong that Atticus demands that they disguise it. Jem places Miss Maudie’s sunhat on its head and sticks her hedge clippers in its hands, much to her chagrin. • That night, Atticus wakes Scout and helps her put on her bathrobe and coat and goes outside with her and Jem. Miss Maudie’s house is on fire. • Boo Radley puts a sweater on Scout. Atticus tells Jem and Scout to keep it a secret. • Miss Maudie looses the house but is not sad.

10. Chapter 9 Summary • At school , Scout almost figures with Cecil Jacobs after he says that Atticus defends ‘negroes’ • Atticus is defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. It is a case he will probably not win, but explains to Scout that he must argue to uphold justice and self-respect. • At Christmas Uncle Jack comes to visit. When he comes, Scout begins cursing and he tells her not to . • On Christmas day, they go to Finch’s Landing and Scout is forced to hang out with France’s (Alexandra’s grandson). She also must deal with the proper Alexandra who insists that Scout dresses like a girl. • Frances says rude things about Dill and says that Atticus is a ‘negro’ lover. Scout beats him up and Frances tells Alexandra and Jack and Scout immediately gets spanked. • When they go back to Maycomb, Scout tells Jack what Frances says. Jack is furious but promises Scout he will not tell Atticus. • Later, Scout overhears Atticus telling Jack that Tom Robinson is innocent but doomed because an all white jury would never acquit him.

11. Chapter 10 • Scout says that Atticus is different from most fathers in Maycomb (older, reads, doesn’t hunt or fish). • One day, a mad dog comes down the street. Calpurnia calls Atticus and he comes with Heck Tate (The Sheriff). Atticus shoots the dog in the first shot. • Miss Maudie reveals to Jem and Scout that Atticus was the best shot in the county. “One shot Finch” was his nickname. • Scout want to brag, but Jem tells her to keep it a secret because if Atticus wanted them to know he would have told them.

12. Chapter 11 • Mrs. Dubose, an old neighborhood lady, always shouts at Jem and Scout when they walk by. Atticus says to be nice to her because she is old and sick. • One day she says that Atticus is not any better than ‘the negro and trash he works for’. Jem loses his temper and destroys all of her camellia bushes. • As punishment Jem must read to her everyday for a month. She dies a month after the punishment is complete (she was addicted to Morphine and reading helped to fight the addiction) • After she dies Jem gets a box from Mrs. Dubose’s maid with a single camellia (of the ones he destroyed).

13. Chapter 12 • Jem is now twelve years old and he wants Scout to leave him alone. Scout is sad and can’ wait for Dill to come. • Unfortunately, Dill doesn’t come that summer. He sends a letter to say he has to stay in Meridian with his new father (who we assumed his mother married). • Atticus travels to the state capital a great deal for work. • Calpurnia takes the children to a ‘colored church’ called First Purchase because it was bought with the earnings of the first freed slaves. • One woman criticizes Calpurnia for bringing white children but mostly one else is friendly. • During the service, the people give money for Tom’s wife as she is unable to work with the accusations against her husband. • Scout learns that Tom Robinson was accused by Bob Ewell. She can’t understand why anyone would believe an Ewell’s word. • When the children go home aunt Alexandra is waiting for them.

14. Chapter 13 • Aunt Alexandra will stay with the children for a while to give them a ‘feminine influence’. She becomes very social in the town. • She spends a lot of time talking about family consciousness because the same families have lived in Maycomb for generations. • She tries to get Atticus to lecture the children about their ancestors. He tries, but ends up making Scout cry in his attempt.

15. Chapter 14 • People in town are always whispering about Jem and Scout because of Atticus’ role in the trial of Tom Robinson. • Scout asks Atticus what ‘rape’ means, but the question is sidestepped with discussion of the church trip that is coming up. • Aunt Alexandra tells Scout she cannot go back to the church next Sunday. She also tries to get Calpurnia fired, but Atticus refuses. • Jem and Scout argue at night and Jem tells Scout not to antagonize Alexandra. The children are sent to bed for fighting, and Scout finds Dill under her bed, who ran away form home because he wasn’t getting enough attention. • Jem tells Atticus, who tells Miss Rachel (Dill’s aunt). Atticus prepares food for Dill who eats and goes to bed.

16. Chapter 15 • A week later, a group of men come to Atticus’ house. Tom is moved to the Maycomb jail and there is a talk of a possible lynch mob. • Jem reveals to Scout that Aunt Alexandra and Atticus have been fighting about the trial. Alexandra says that Atticus is bringing shame to the family. The next evening the kids follow Atticus out to see him reading in front of the jail. • Four cars come up to the jailhouse and a group of men get out demanding Atticus move away from the door. • Scout comes out of her hiding place and Jem and Dill follow. Atticus orders Jem home but he refuses. • Scout recognizes Mr. Walter Cunningham as one of the men. She starts talking about his son and says to tell him ‘hey’. He (ashamed) bends down and tells her he will. • Mr. Cunningham gets his companions and leave • When they go, Mr. Underwood (owner of the newspaper) says he had a shotgun and had Atticus covered the whole time.

17. Chapter 16 • The trial begins the next day and people from all over the county come to Maycomb. • Once most of the crowd has entered the courthouse, Jem, Scout, and Dill slip in at the back so Atticus won’t notice them. They are only able to get seats when Reverend Sykes lets them sit in the balcony where black people are forced to sit to watch the trial. • Judge Taylor is presiding over the trial. He has a reputation for running the court in an informal manner.

18. Chapter 17 • Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor questions Heck Tate. Heck states that on the night of November 21, Bob Ewell convinced him to go to the Ewell house as his daughter, Mayella, had been raped. • When Tate arrived, he found Mayella bruised and beaten, and she told him Tom Robinson had raped her. Atticus cross-examines the witness, who admits that no doctor examined the girl, and tells Atticus that Mayella’s bruises were only on the right side of her face. Tate leaves the stand, and Bob Ewell is called. • Bob Ewell and his children live behind the garbage dump with a yard full of trash. An extremely rude little man, Bob testifies that on the evening in question he was coming out of the woods when he heard his daughter yelling. When he reached the house, he looked in the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her. Robinson ran, and Ewell went into the house, saw that his daughter was alright, and ran for the sheriff. • Atticus’ cross-examination is brief: he asks Mr. Ewell why no doctor was called. He says that it was too expensive and there was no need for one. Atticus has Bob write his name. The jury sees that Bob is left handed-and a left-handed man would be more likely to leave bruises on the right side of the girl’s face.

19. Chapter 18 • Mayella is called to the stand and she testifies that she called Tom Robinson inside the fence that evening and offered him a nickel to break up a dresser for her. She says that once inside the house, he grabbed her and took advantage of her. In Atticus’ cross-examination, the jury learns that Mayella’s life is not easy. She has seven unhelpful siblings, a drunken father, and no friends. • Atticus asks Mayella why she didn’t put up a better fight, why her screams didn’t bring the other children running, and , how Tom Robinson managed the crime: how he bruised the right side of her face with his useless left hand, which was torn apart by a cotton gin when he was a boy. • Atticus pleads with Mayella to admit that there was no rape, and that her father beat her. She shouts at him and yells that the courtroom would have to be a bunch of cowards not to convict Tom Robinson; she then bursts into tears, refusing to answer any more quesions. • Mr. Underwood notices Jem and Scout in the balcony, but Jem tells Scout that the newspaper editor won’t tell Atticus about their being there. Atticus calls only one witness – Tom Robinson.