To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Chapters 1-7
Essential Question--How does analyzing setting help us
understand the choices characters in literature make?
Name: _______________________
ELA 8
Chapters 1-7 Essential Vocabulary
Chapter 1
Dictum: (n.) a statement or well-known remark that expresses an important idea or rule
Eccentric: (adj.) tending to act in strange or unusual ways
Quaint: (adj.) having an old-fashioned or unusual quality or appearance that is usually attractive
or appealing
Malevolent: (adj.) having or showing a desire to cause harm to another person
Morbid: (adj.) relating to unpleasant subjects (such as death); gruesome, gloomy, or dark
Predilection: (n.) a preference for something; a bias in favor of something
Chapter 2
Indigenous: (adj.) occurring or living naturally in an area; native to a particular place
Illicit: (adj.) involving activities that are not considered morally acceptable; unlawful or illegal
Sentimentality: (n.) excessive tenderness, sadness, or nostalgia (longing for the past)
Entailment: (n.) the process in which property cannot be sold, devised by will, or otherwise
done anything with by the owner
The property passes by law to the heir of the owner upon his death. Entailment was used to keep
properties in the main line of succession. The heir of an entailed property could not sell the land,
or give it to say an illegitimate child.
Chapter 3
Monosyllabic: (adj.) having only one syllable; saying very little or responding with one-syllable
words
Misdemeanor: (n.) a crime that is not very serious; a crime that is less serious than a felony
Capital Felony: (n.) very serious crimes, including first degree murder and high treason, which
are punishable by death in selective states
Chapter 4
Auspicious: (adj.) showing or suggesting that future success is likely
Chapter 5
Benevolence: (n.) a tendency to help or do charitable acts for others
Edification: (n.) the instruction or improvement of a person morally or intellectually
Chapter 6
Malignant: (adj.) dangerous; evil
Eerily: (adv.) weirdly; mysteriously
Chapter 7
Meditative: (adj.): To meditate is to reflect upon something, or think about it. When Jem give
the patch on the tree a meditative pat, he does so in a thoughtful manner.
Whittles (v.): To whittle is to use a knife to cut away thin shavings of wood. Sometimes, a
whittler may actually end up carving a recognizable object.
Character Tracker
In the first several chapters of the novel, several key characters are introduced. These
characters will play a vital role in the development of the plot. Beside each of the
names listed below, write down what you know about each character. Include both
physical traits and personality characteristics. Include page numbers for reference.
Character
Physical Characteristics & Personality Traits
Scout
Jem
Atticus
Calpurnia
Dill
Miss Maudie
Boo Radley
Miss Caroline
The Radleys
(Other than
Boo)
The
Cunninghams
The Ewells
Directions: Throughout the early chapters of the novel, the narrator reveals a lot of key
information about Maycomb, the setting of this classic. It’s important to note, that Maycomb,
although a town, becomes a lot like one of the characters in the novel. After reading,
complete the Mind Map below by filling in all of the important details that the reader gathers
about Maycomb while reading. One sample has been provided as an example.
Natives of Maycomb are stubborn (pg. 5)
Maycomb
Maycomb
Directions: The following questions require a close examination of each chapter.
These questions must be answered on a separate sheet of paper with a full heading,
in several sentences, with appropriate references to the text to support your
response. Credit will not be given if you do not provide a thorough response.
Chapter 1 Close Reading Questions
1. What kind of figurative language does Harper Lee use in the following description (simile,
repetition, onomatopoeia, and symbolism)? “Ladies bathed before noon, after their three
o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet
talcum.” What does this description suggest about the role of women in Maycomb?
2. What is revealed about the history of the Radleys in this chapter? Why should the reader
be suspicious of this information?
Chapter 2 Close Reading Questions
1. Scout reflects: “Unit I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love
breathing.” What comparison is Lee suggesting in these two sentences? What does it
suggest about how Scout thinks about reading?
2. When Scout introduces Walter to her teaching by saying, “Miss Caroline, he’s a
Cunningham,” what does Scout assume that Miss Caroline will automatically understand
about him? What characteristics do the residents of Maycomb automatically associate
with “the Cunningham tribe”?
3. How are readers and Miss Caroline similar in their understanding of Maycomb society at
this point in the novel? How does Harper Lee use the character of Miss Caroline to
introduce readers to what everyone in Maycomb already “knows”?
4. What words and phrases do Scout and Atticus use to describe the Cunninghams in this
chapter? How are the Cunninghams different from the Finches? How are they similar?
Chapter 3 Close Reading Questions
1. How does Atticus distinguish between the Cunninghams and the Ewells? Is either family
part of the “common folk” of Maycomb? How do the two families differ in class and status
from each other and from the Finches? What specific evidence from the text helps explain
why his opinion of the two families differs?
2. Atticus tells Scout, “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with
all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his
point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Explain the importance of looking at a situation from another person’s point of view?
What is the value in trying? How does Atticus’s advice relate to empathy? Write down a
definition of empathy.
Chapter 4 Close Reading Questions
1. What do Jem and Scout agree to do with the items they find in the tree on the edge of the
Radleys’ yard? What conclusions about these items does Jem seem to be making without
sharing with Scout? Scout says, “Before Jem went to his room, he looked for a long time
at the Radley place. He seemed to be thinking again.” What do you think Jem was
thinking about?
2. How does the children’s behavior in chapter four contradict Atticus’ advice about empathy
from chapter three?
Chapter 5 Close Reading Questions
1. What purpose do you think Miss Maudie’s character plays in the novel? (Hint—Consider
what she reveals about the Radley family when Scout questions her about Boo. How does
she differ from Stephanie Crawford?)
2. What does Scout mean when she says, “Atticus don’t ever do anything to Jem and me in
the house that he don’t do in the yard” (61).
3. What reasons does Atticus give for forbidding the children from playing the Boo Radley
game? Do you think he is right? Why or why not?
Chapter 6 Close Reading Questions
1. Why is it so important to Jem to risk his safety to retrieve his pants from the Radleys’
fence in the middle of the night?
2. To Kill a Mockingbird is considered a coming of age novel because of Scout’s growth
throughout the course of events in the novel. Scout states in chapter 6, “It was then, I
suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company.” What prompts her to draw this
conclusion? What does she mean? As you continue to read the novel, look for evidence
that Scout and Jem are growing apart.
Chapter 7 Close Reading Questions
1. Jem tells Scout that when he retrieved his pants from the Radleys’, “they were folded
across the fence like they were expectin’ me.” How does this language contribute to the
sense of mystery around the Radley house? Does Jem know how his pants ended up that
way?
2. Why does Jem cry at the end of chapter 7? What does Jem understand about Boo and
Mr. Radley that he did not understand before? Find evidence from the text to support
your answer.
Post Reading Reflection Questions
In chapter 3, Atticus and Scout talk about “Maycomb’s ways.” What stands out to you
most about the customs, traditions, and unwritten rules of Maycomb’s society.
Chapter by Chapter Cloze Summaries for Review
Directions: As you read each of the chapter summaries provided below, fill in the blank spaces with
information obtained while reading. Once completed, these summaries will provide the gist of each of
the chapters.
Chapter 1—
Scout
Alabama
13
Word Bank
Atticus
Dill (x4)
arm (x2)
slaves
law
scissors Maycomb
6
Calpurnia
2
7
10
Rachel
hanged
Meridian
father
leg
Simon
criminal
Boo(x2)
________, the narrator, tells the reader in the first lines of chapter 1 that Jem got his __________ broken when he was
_____ years old. When Scout and her brother talk about it years later, Scout maintains that the whole story of Jem breaking his
_________ started with the Ewells. However, Jem disagrees; he says it started earlier when their friend ________________ first
came and visited and gave them the idea of “making ____________________ Radley come out.”
Scout decides that if the story is going to be told correctly, a bit of family history is needed. The first Finch to come to
__________________, the state where the story takes place, was ______________ Finch, who was a devout Methodist. Scout
tells us that he went against the church rules and owned _______________, or “human chattels.” Usually the Finch men stayed
on at Finch’s Landing, but Scout’s father, ______________, left to study __________________ in Montgomery, Alabama. It
was Scout’s Aunt Alexandra who continued to live at Finch’s Landing.
After Scout’s father finishes his studies, he moves to _________________, Alabama, where Scout’s family lives now. Atticus’s
“first two clients were the last two persons ____________ in the Maycomb County Jail. Scout thinks this case might be the
beginning of her father’s distaste for ______________ law.
The reader finds out that Scout is about to turn __________ years old and her brother is almost ____________ years old. She
lives with her brother, father, and her cook, ____________. Scout’s mother died when she was only _________ years old.
Although Scout and Jem find their father satisfactory, he is a bit detached.
One morning while Scout and Jem played in their backyard, they met Charles Baker Harris, who called himself ____________.
He tells the Finch children that he is going on _________ years old. He was visiting his Aunt ______________. He lives
usually in ______________, Mississippi.
After growing tired of the usual games they played, __________ wanted to get __________ Radley, whose name is Arthur
Radley, to come out. The children were intrigued by the mystery that surrounded the Radley’s household. There are many town
myths about _____________. There is one that involves him stabbing his _______________ in the ___________ with
_______________. ____________________ is so excited about ___________________ that he dares Jem to run up and touch
the house. After Jem does it, they all think they saw a shutter move inside the house.
Chapter 2—
Word Bank
Dill
Scout lunch smacks
Walter Cunningham
new
quarter
September arrives, and ________ leaves Maycomb to return to the town of Meridian. _________, meanwhile,
prepares to go to school for the first time, an event that she has been eagerly anticipating. Once she is finally at school,
however, she finds that her teacher, ______________________, deals poorly with children. When Miss Caroline concludes
that Atticus must have taught Scout to read, she becomes very displeased and makes Scout feel guilty for being educated. At
recess, Scout complains to Jem, but Jem says that Miss Caroline is just trying out a __________ method of teaching.
Miss Caroline and Scout get along badly in the afternoon as well. ______________________, a boy in Scout’s class, has not
brought a lunch. Miss Caroline offers him a ______________ to buy ____________, telling him that he can pay her back
tomorrow. Walter’s family is large and poor—so poor that they pay Atticus with hickory nuts, turnip greens, or other goods
when they need legal help—and Walter will never be able to pay the teacher back or bring a lunch to school. When Scout
attempts to explain these circumstances, however, Miss Caroline fails to understand and grows so frustrated that she
__________ Scout’s hand with a ruler.
Chapter 3—
farm
first
Word Bank
Burris Ewell invites
Calpurnia
At lunch, Scout rubs Walter’s nose in the dirt for getting her in trouble, but Jem intervenes and __________ Walter
to lunch (in the novel, as in certain regions of the country, the midday meal is called “dinner”). At the Finch house, Walter
and Atticus discuss __________ conditions “like two men,” and Walter puts molasses all over his meat and vegetables, to
Scout’s horror. When she criticizes Walter, however, ___________ calls her into the kitchen to scold her and slaps her as she
returns to the dining room, telling her to be a better hostess. Back at school, Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a tiny bug,
or “cootie,” crawls out of a boy’s hair. The boy is __________________, a member of the Ewell clan, which is even poorer
and less respectable than the Cunningham clan. In fact, Burris only comes to school the __________ day of every school year,
making a token appearance to avoid trouble with the law. He leaves the classroom, making enough vicious remarks to cause
the teacher to cry.
At home, Atticus follows Scout outside to ask her if something is wrong, to which she responds that she is not feeling well.
She tells him that she does not think she will go to school anymore and suggests that he could teach her himself. Atticus
replies that the law demands that she go to school, but he promises to keep reading to her, as long as she does not tell her
teacher about it.
Chapter 4—
2
gum
slow
Word Bank
Boo Radley
pennies
Boo
The rest of the school year passes grimly for Scout, who endures a curriculum that moves too ________and leaves
her constantly frustrated in class. After school one day, she passes the Radley Place and sees some tinfoil sticking out of a
knothole in one of the Radleys’ oak trees. Scout reaches into the knothole and discovers ____ pieces of _______. She chews
both pieces and tells Jem about it. He panics and makes her spit it out. On the last day of school, however, they find two old
“Indian-head” ______________ hidden in the same knothole where Scout found the gum and decide to keep them.
Summer comes at last, school ends, and Dill returns to Maycomb. He, Scout, and Jem begin their games again. One of the
first things they do is roll one another inside an old tire. On Scout’s turn, she rolls in front of the _____________ steps, and
Jem and Scout panic. However, this incident gives Jem the idea for their next game: they will play “____________.” As the
summer passes, their game becomes more complicated, until they are acting out an entire Radley family melodrama.
Eventually, however, Atticus catches them and asks if their game has anything to do with the Radleys. Jem lies, and Atticus
goes back into the house. The kids wonder if it’s safe to play their game anymore
Chapter 5--
Miss Maudie
Word Bank
foot-washing fishing pole
false
left out
Jem and Dill grow closer, and Scout begins to feel ___________ of their friendship. As a result, she starts spending
much of her time with one of their neighbors: ________________ Atkinson, a widow with a talent for gardening and cake
baking who was a childhood friend of Atticus’s brother, Jack. She tells Scout that Boo Radley is still alive and it is her theory
Boo is the victim of a harsh father (now deceased), a “________________” Baptist who believed that most people are going
to hell. Miss Maudie adds that Boo was always polite and friendly as a child. She says that most of the rumors about him are
_________________, but that if he wasn’t crazy as a boy, he probably is by now.
Meanwhile, Jem and Dill plan to give a note to Boo inviting him out to get ice cream with them. They try to stick the note in a
window of the Radley Place with a ______________, but Atticus catches them and orders them to “stop tormenting that man”
with either notes or the “Boo Radley” game.
Chapter 6—
pants(x2)
gun
Word Bank
run
sneaks
poker
Jem and Dill obey Atticus until Dill’s last day in Maycomb, when he and Jem plan to ___________ over to the
Radley Place and peek in through a loose shutter. Scout accompanies them, and they creep around the house, peering in
through various windows. Suddenly, they see the shadow of a man with a hat on and flee, hearing a ______________ go off
behind them. They escape under the fence by the schoolyard, but Jem’s __________ get caught on the fence, and he has to
kick them off in order to free himself.
The children return home, where they encounter a collection of neighborhood adults, including Atticus, Miss Maudie, and
Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip. Miss Maudie informs them that Mr. Nathan Radley shot at “a Negro” in
his yard. Miss Stephanie adds that Mr. Radley is waiting outside with his gun so he can shoot at the next sound he hears.
When Atticus asks Jem where his pants are, Dill interjects that he won Jem’s pants in a game of strip ___________. Alarmed,
Atticus asks them if they were playing cards. Jem responds that they were just playing with matches. Late that night, Jem
____________out to the Radley Place, and retrieves his _________.
Chapter 7-
Word Bank
dying bored spelling chewing gum pants
cement hung gray twine
pocket
A few days later, after school has begun for the year, Jem tells Scout that he found the ________ mysteriously
mended and ______ neatly over the fence. When they come home from school that day, they find another present hidden in
the knothole: _________________. They leave it there for a few days, but no one takes it, so they claim it for their own.
Unsurprisingly, Scout is as __________ 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 __________, a ______________ medal, and an old ___________ watch. The
next day, Jem and Scout find that the knothole has been filled with ___________. 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 ___________.