Discussion for Chapters 1-8 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee p. 3-74

Chapter One p. 3-15

“That was the summer Dill came to us.”

1. Place Setting

2. Time setting

3. What is Atticus Finch’s profession?

4. Point of view (Person and type)

5. Who is Calpurnia? Describe her physical & personal attributes.

6. Who is Dill?

7. What game does he invent?

8. What did Arthur (Boo) Radley do (at age 33) that landed him in the county jail?

9. According to Jem’s description, what does Boo look like?

10. What act of “courage” on Jem’s part ends the chapter?

Chapter Two p. 15-22

“We’ll do like we always do at home,” [Jem] said, “but you’ll see---school’s different.”

1. On her first day of school, what three things does Scout get in trouble for?

2. How does Miss Caroline Fisher feel at the end of her first day? How do you know?

3. Who are the Cunninghams? What are they like?

Chapter Three p. 22-32

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…”

1. How does Scout solve her problem with Walter Cunningham?

2. How does Jem solve Scout’s problem with Walter?

3. Why can’t Walter pass the first grade?

4. What scared & shocked Miss Caroline? (Do you know another name for this creature?)

Chapter Four p. 32-41

“Grown folks don’t have hiding places.”

1. What is the first gift that appears in the hollow tree? What other gifts do the children find?

2. What new facts does Dill offer about his father?

3. How does the Boo Radley game change?

4. When Scout rolls into the Radley front yard in the tire, what does she hear?

Chapter Five p. 41-50

“His name’s Arthur and he’s alive.”

1. What does Scout admire about Miss Maudie?

2. What do you learn about Uncle Jack?

3. What new plan do the boys devise to get Boo to come out? Why doesn’t it work?

4. What does Dill say that causes Scout to accuse him of lying?

5. What direct order does Atticus give the children?

Chapter Six p. 50-57

“It was then, I suppose, that Jem and I first began to part company.”

1. How do the plan to spend Dill’s last night in Maycomb?

2. What goes wrong with the children’s escape plan?

3. At whom does Mr. Nathan think he has fired his gun?

4. How do the children claim to have sent the evening?

5. What makes Jem decide to return to the Radley yard that night?

Chapter Seven p. 57-63

“As Atticus had once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it.”

1. What does Jem tell Scout about “that night” at Boo Radley’s?

2. What FIVE new gifts do they find in the knothole?

3. What ends the knothole gifts?

Chapter Eight p. 63-74

“…the coldest weather since 1885.”

1. Who dies this winter?

2. What “aberration of nature” frightens Scout?

3. What method does Jem devise to make a snowman?

4. When Maudie’s house begins to burn, what other possibility is the Finch family worried about?

5. Why doesn’t Atticus help carry out Maudie’s furniture?

6. Whom will Scout someday want to thank for keeping her warm on the night of the fire?