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To Kill a MockingbirdBy Harper Lee

Study Guide – Part 1Chapters 1 -11

Name _________________________________________Period____________To Kill A Mockingbird Study Guide

To Kill A Mockingbird is set in the imaginary district of Maycomb County in southern Alabama. The story begins in the summer of 1933 and ends on Halloween night, 1935. The country is in the grips of the Great Depression. Throughout the nation there is widespread poverty

and unemployment. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with his “New Deal” program, is trying to improve the desperate situation.

But Maycomb County is relatively untouched by this nationwide disaster. Situated twenty miles southeast of the river, and more than thirty miles from Selma, Maycomb is slow to respond to change of any kind. For many years this rural area has been poor and undeveloped. Black people receive low wages as field workers and house servants. White farmers are often more likely to own land, but their crops are often meager, trade is slow or sporadic, and they are often cash poor. Because of its relative isolation, Maycomb’s population has remained virtually unchanged for many years. Newcomers and new ideas are not accepted easily. Poverty afflicted the rural South for decades. Racial prejudice ran high, and while blacks were technically free, the so-called Jim Crow laws, passed in the 1880s and 1890s, kept them from voting and segregated them from white social institutions.

Harper Lee’s Maycomb, Alabama is in many ways a microcosm of small towns throughout the South of the 1930s. Typically, southern towns had three social classes, more or less descended from the three major groups of early settlers (planters, farmers, and slaves). “Old family” southerners formed an upper class (though not all had upper-class incomes). While many were open-minded (like Atticus Finch), many more (Like Atticus’ sister Alexandra) were inordinately proud of their ancestry and tried to preserve the pre-Civil War values of elegant southern society. At the poverty level were often hard working white farmers (like the Cunninghams), who had to struggle to make ends meet. At the bottom of the local society were the blacks, who worked chiefly as servants (like Calpurnia) or farm laborers (like Tom Robinson). Segregated from white social institutions, blacks were often subjected to great deprivation and humiliation.

By 1960, when Harper Lee published To Kill A Mockingbird, the civil rights movement was under way, and pressures to end segregation and racial discrimination were mounting. Harper Lee was among many enlightened southern whites who joined with blacks in the cause of civil rights.

“To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee.” Scribner Literature Novel Guide. Scribner Laidlaw. 1989. “To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee.” Study Guide. Prentice Hall. 1991.

Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, had many childhood experiences which are similar to those of her narrator, Scout Finch.Harper Lee's Childhood Scout Finch's ChildhoodGrew up in 1930s - rural southern Alabama town Grew up in 1930s - rural southern Alabama townFather - Amasa Lee - attorney who served in state legislature in Alabama

Father - Atticus Finch - attorney who served in state legislature in Alabama

Older brother and young neighbor (Truman Capote) are playmates

Older brother and young neighbor (Dill) are playmates

Harper Lee - an avid reader Scout reads before she enters school; reads Mobile Register newspaper in first grade

Six years old when Scottsboro trials were meticulously covered in state and local newspapers

Six years old when the trial of Tom Robinson takes place

From http://library.advanced.org/12111/SG/SG5.html#author


Chapter 1Background ReferencesThese are people, places, and terms you may read and need to know more about. Chapter 1Andrew Jackson: military hero (1767-1845) who defeated the Creek Indians in Alabama in 1814. He later served as the seventh president of the United States. Battle of Hastings: battle in which the Norman invaders conquered England in 1066.John Wesley’s: John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founder of Methodism.Nothing to fear…itself: a reference to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s statement in his 1933 inaugural address that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”Dracula: classic horror film about a vampire (1931).Victor Appleton: author of the popular Tom Swift novels, which focused on the efforts of an “All-American boy.”Edgar Rice Burroughs: creator of the Tarzan and other popular fictional characters (1875-1950).flivver: old, cheap automobileTuscaloosa: site of major Alabama medical centerPensacola: city in northwest Florida

VocabularyDirections: Using a dictionary, match the word with its definition.

_____ assuage (v.) A. authoritative statement

_____ dictum (n.) B. calmed

_____ malevolent (adj.) C. unclear

_____ nebulous (adj.) D. often silent

_____ nocturnal (adj.) E. not defiled or disgraced

_____ repertoire(n.) F. desiring to harm others

_____ taciturn (adj.) G. of or occurring at night

_____ unsullied (adj.) H. the stock of plays that a group of performers

has learned


Focus BoxDirections: As you read, pay attention to the following topics. Take notes for facts/details you feel will be relevantScout Maycomb

Jem Atticus

Simon Finch Calpurnia

Dill Mr. Radley

Arthur (Boo) Radley


Study Guide Questions1. Who is the narrator of the story? What point of view is used?

2. What is the setting of the story?

3. When does Jem think that the events that led up to his broken arm really began? What about Scout?

4. What careers do Atticus and his brother Jack pursue?

5. When did Atticus’s wife die? Who helps bring up his young children? What type of person is she?

6. How old are Scout and Jem at the beginning of the story?

7. What was the main activity of the summer for Scout and Jem?

8. In the beginning of the novel ,who first gives Scout and Jem the idea of making Boo Radley come out?

9. What were some of the stories about Boo Radley?

10. What occurrence almost resulted in Arthur’s placement in the state industrial school ?

11. What habits of the Radleys made them aliens in the town of Maycomb?

12. According to Miss Stephanie, what did Boo Radley do one day while clipping times from the Maycomb Tribune? Why is this event significant?

13. Who moved into the Radley place when Boo’s father died?


Chapters 2 and 3Background ReferencesChapter 2Dewey Decimal System: a system for classifying library books, developed by Melvil Dewey. Jem confuses it with the theories of progressive educator, John Dewey.WPA: The Works Progress Administration was established in 1935 to provide jobs for people on relief.the crash: the stock market crash of 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.hain’t: ghostChapter 3 cootie: louse, small animal that can be found living on the human scalp


_____contentious (adj.) A. originating or existing in a particular place

_____covey (n.) B. deviating from the conventional standard

_____erratic (adj.) C. a small group

_____fractious (adj.) D. quarrelsome

_____fraught (adj.) E. filled (with)

_____indigenous (adj.) F. irritable

Focus BoxChapter 2

Scout’s (Jean Louise) first day of school Cunningham family

Miss Caroline Little Chuck Little

Chapter 3Calpurnia Ewell family

Atticus’s parenting skills


Study Guide Questions1. Why did Scout have to sit in the corner on the first day of school?

2. What information does Scout give Miss Caroline about the Cunninghams?

3. Why did Atticus say that Mr. Cunningham “came from a set breed of men”? What does his remark mean?

4. In Maycomb, what sealed an oral contract?

5. Why does Jem extend an invitation to Walter? What can you infer about the values of the Finch home based on this gesture?

6. Why does Calpurnia get upset with Scout? What lesson does Scout learn from this encounter?

7. Why were the Ewells considered “disgrace of Maycomb”?

8. Why does Scout want to quit school?

9. Discuss two examples of Atticus’s wise and effective parenting skills.


Chapters 4-6Background ReferencesChapter 4scuppernongs: sweet grapes common in the southeastern states.One Man’s Family: popular weekly radio show of the 1930s.Chapter 5Second Battle of the Marne: a major battle of World War I (1918).Chapter 6Kudzu-covered front porch: Kudzu is a rapidly spreading vine that grows in the deep South.


_____auspicious (adj.) A. very harmful

_____edification (n.) B. any highly infectious, epidemic disease

_____malignant (adj.) C. favorable

_____pestilence (n.) D. intellectual or moral enlightenment

Focus BoxOak Tree/Gifts Games

Miss Maudie Foot-washing Baptists

Jem’s behavior Dill’s sophistication

Atticus Notes/Contact


Study Guide Questions1. What did Scout find in the oak tree?

2. Describe the Boo Radley game.

3. What two reasons does Scout give for quitting this game?

4. What does Miss Maudie hate so much?

5. What does Miss Maudie explain to Scout about the Radleys?

6. How do the children first attempt to pass a note to Boo Radley? What is Atticus’s reaction?

7. What happens when the children finally get near the Radley porch?

8. What is Nathan Radley’s response?

9. Why does Jem have to return to the Radley place alone?


Chapters 7-8Background ReferencesChapter 8Rosetta Stone: ancient Egyptian tablet. It provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphics but had nothing to do whatsoever with predicting the weather. Appomattox: site of Lee’s surrender to Grant in 1865, which ended the Civil War. morphodite: regionalism for hermaphrodite (having both male and female characteristics). VocabularyDirections: Using a dictionary, match the word with its definition.

_____aberrations (n.) A. to cross or take out

_____delete (v.) B. committed (a crime)

_____perpetrated (v.) C. deviations from the normal or usual

Focus BoxPants Miss Maudie

Boo Radley Oak Tree


Study Guide Questions1. When Jem returns to get his pants what does he notice about them?

2. How is Boo Radley trying to make friends?

3. What is the mean thing Nathan Radley does?

4. That winter is very cold, what happens for the first t ime in many years? What do the children do?

5. What happens to the house next door? Why was Miss Maudie so calm in her reaction to the tragedy?

6. Who puts the blanket around Scout? Why does Scout stop Atticus from returning the blanket?

7. What picture of Boo Radley is emerging from these incidents?

8. What important lesson do Jem and Scout learn as a result of their realization about Boo Radley?


Chapters 9-11Background ReferencesChapter 9 Missouri Compromise: act of Congress (1820) intended to maintain balance between free and slave states.Stonewall Jackson: Confederate general (1824-1863).Rose Aylmer: reference to a poem by the English poet Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864).Lord Melbourne: British statesman (1779-1832)Chapter 10Jew’s Harp: a simple folk instrument used in country musicChapter 11 CSA: Confederate States of AmericaIvanhoe: novel of twelfth century England by Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).


_____apoplectic (adj.) A. honest and naive

_____articulate (adj.) B. noisy or unruly

_____calomel (n.) C. of or like sudden paralysis, caused by a

rupture of blood vessels in the brain

_____foliage (n.) D. ease or relief of pain

_____ingenuous (adj.) E. able to express oneself effectively

_____invective (n.) F. painful feeling of sorrow for wrongdoing

_____jetty (n.) G. bitter verbal attack

_____jubilantly (adv.) H. mass of leaves

_____obstreperous (adj.) I. a powder used as a laxative

_____palliation (n.) J. joyfully or triumphantly

_____philippic (n.) K. wharf

_____remorseful (adj.) L. violent verbal attack


Focus BoxChapter 9

Atticus’s decisions “Maycomb’s usual disease”

Finch’s Landing Christmas

Aunt Alexandra Frances

Chapters 10 and 11Children’s changing view of Atticus Title of the novel

Tim Johnson Mrs. Dubose

Physical courage Real courage


Study Guide Questions1. Cecil Jacobs taunts Scout in Chapter 9. What does Scout learn when she relates her experience to Atticus?

2. Why has Atticus taken Tom Robinson’s case?

3. What happens during the family visit to Finch’s Landing at Christmas?

4. What is Scout punished for, and why does Scout say Uncle Jack isn’t being fair?

5. What creature does Atticus forbid the children to shoot? What explanation does Miss Maudie give for this command?

6. Who is Tim Johnson? How does he die?

7. What skill does Atticus reveal to his children?

8. When Jem destroys Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bushes, how is he punished?

9. What does Scout eventually realize about the alarm clock at Mrs. Dubose’s house?

10. What does Atticus tell the children after Miss Dubose’s death?

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