STUDY GUIDE: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
Chapters 1-11
CHARACTERS
Scout (Jean Louise) Finch
Jem (Jeremy) Finch
Atticus Finch
Aunt Alexandra Hancock
Calpurnia
Dill (Charles Baker) Harris
Miss Maudie Atkinson
Boo (Arthur) Radley
The Cunninghams
Mrs. Henry Dubose
Tom Robinson
Mayella Ewell
Bob Ewell
Mr. Heck Tate
Mr. Horace Gilmer
Mr. Link Deas
Mr. Braxton Underwood
Mr. Dolphus Raymond
Mrs. Grace Merriweather
PART I (Chapters 1-11)
CHAPTER 1
1. When does To Kill a Mockingbird take place?
2. Where does the story take place?
3. How old were Scout and Jem when the story begins?
4. Why was Arthur Radley shut up in the Radley house as a teenager?
5. Whose idea was it to get Boo Radley to come out?
6. What are some of the legends which are told about the Radley household?
7. With what dare does Dill challenge Jem?
CHAPTER 2
1. Why did Scout’s attitude about school change on her first day of school?
2. What evidence of prejudice do the children have about Miss Caroline, the new teacher?
3. Who says this? “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love
breathing.”
4. Explain the incident which involved Walter Cunningham and Miss Caroline at school.
5. Who is the “Cunningham tribe” according to Scout?
6. Why does Scout willingly hold out her hand to Miss Caroline?
CHAPTER 3
1. What circumstance prompts Calpurnia to say “That boy’s your comp’ny and if he wants to et up
the tablecloth, you let him, you hear”?
2. Explain Burris Ewell’s presence at school. What does he bring with him?
3. Explain who the Ewells are. Why didn’t they have to go to school?
4. What other activities of the Ewells were ignored by the law?
5. What compromise does Scout make with her father?
CHAPTER 4
1. What does Scout find on the way home from school? Later what do Scout and Jem find?
2. What is a “hot stream”?
3. What kind of game do the children develop during the second summer Dill was there?
4. Why does Scout quit the game?
CHAPTER 5
1. What is the relationship between Miss Maudie and Scout?
2. Explain what Miss Maudie means when whey says, “Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man
is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of – oh, your father.”
3. To what does Miss Maudie attribute the Radley family’s peculiarities?
CHAPTER 6
1. How did Jem lose his pants?
CHAPTER 7
1. What are the other things that Jem and Scout find in the tree?
2. What reason did Nathan Radley give Jem for cementing the tree?
CHAPTER 8
1. How do Scout and Jem create a snowman out of the first snowfall since 1885?
2. What unexplained action occurred the night Miss Maudie’s house burned?
CHAPTER 9 (Reading Check: Chapters 1-9)
1. What trouble do Scout and Jem begin having at school?
2. What reasons does Atticus give the children for his defending a Black man?
3. At Christmas time at Finch’s landing, when Atticus tells his brother Jack that he hopes his
children survive the trial without catching “Maycomb’s usual disease,” what disease is he talking
about?
4. Why does Scout get in a fight with Francis?
CHAPTER 10
1. Why does Atticus say that “it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird”?
2. When Atticus shoots the mad dog, what does Jem find out about his father that he didn’t know
before?
CHAPTER 11
1. What does Mrs. Dubose do to make Jem angry? What does Jem do to get back at her?
2. What punishment does Atticus prescribe for Jem’s misbehavior?
3. What does Atticus mean by – “the one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s
conscience?”
4. Who is Atticus talking about then he says: “…I couldn’t go to church and worship God if I didn’t
try to help that man”?
5. Who says, “…nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t’ mean anything…ignorant, trashy
people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes…when they want a common, ugly term
to label somebody”?
6. What situation is Atticus talking about when he says “…I wanted you to see what real courage is,
instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand?”