To Kill a Mockingbird

1. To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee Chapter Questions

2. Chapter 1 • Where does this story take place (give details)? • Who were Atticus’ first two clients? What happened to them? Why? How did this case change Atticus as a lawyer? • What does the author mean by: “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County.” Why did the people of Maycomb have “no money”? • What happened to the narrator’s mother? How did her death affect the narrator? How did it affect Jem? • Give 2-3 examples of rumors about the Radley house and its inhabitants. • What did Atticus mean when he told the children “there were other ways of making people into ghosts”?

3. Chapter 2 • Explain Jem and Scout’s interpretation of the “Dewey Decimal teaching system” that Miss Caroline uses. • Why won’t Walter Cunningham take Miss Caroline’s money? • What do the Cunningham’s do when they cannot pay for a service? • How do the people of Maycomb “seal” contracts and deals?

4. Chapter 3 • What does Walter do at dinner that surprises Scout? • What does Calpurnia tell Scout as a result of her outburst? • What do the kids first think causes Miss Caroline to scream? What is the real reason? • Why do you think the Ewell children only come to school on the first day? What do you think is the reason many Maycomb children need to stay at home for the rest of the year? • What is Atticus’s solution when Scout tells him that she doesn’t want to go back to school? • What do we learn about the Ewell family from Scout and Atticus’s conversation?

5. Chapter 4 • What treasures do Scout and Jem find in the knothole of the tree? • How does Scout end up in the yard in front of the Radley house? • What do we learn about the children’s belief in superstitions in this chapter? Explain their behavior.

6. Chapter 5 • What is a “foot-washing” Baptist, according to Miss Maudie? • What does Miss Maudie mean by “sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of-oh, your father”? Why do you think Scout doesn’t understand Miss Maudie’s analogy? • What do you think Scout means when she tells Dill, “You act like you grew ten inches in the night”?

7. Chapter 6 • Why do they decide to wait until nightfall to peek into the Radley house? • What do the children see through the window? • Describe the whole “lost pants” incident. • What nickname does Jem call Scout? • What does Jem do after he knows Atticus is asleep? Why does he do this? • Why is Scout worried about him?

8. Chapter 7 • What does Jem tell Scout about “that night” at Boo Radley’s? • What new gifts do they find in the knothole? (there are five) • What ends the knothole gifts? • Why do you think Mr. Nathan Radley filled in a knothole in a healthy tree? • Why do you think Jem cries at the end of this chapter?

9. Chapter 8 • Who dies this winter? • What “aberration of nature” frightens Scout? • What method does Jem devise to make a snowman? • When Maudie’s house begins to burn, what other possibility is the Finch family worried about? • Why doesn’t Atticus help carry out Maudie’s furniture? • Whom will Scout someday want to thank for keeping her warm on the night of the fire?

10. Chapter 9 • Who is Tom Robinson? • What gift does Uncle Jack give the children? • What new habit has Scout picked up that bothers Uncle Jack? • What does cousin Francis tell Scout about Dill’s homelife? • Why does Scout fight her cousin after the Christmas dinner at Finch’s Landing? • What is “Maycomb’s usual disease”?

11. Chapter 10 • In Scout’s eyes, what is Atticus’s chief fault? • Name five things we learn about Atticus. • What crisis shows the children a surprising skill that father possesses? • Who is Tim Johnson? What is wrong with him? • Why do the kids have a new appreciation for their father?