To Kill a Mockingbird-- Study
Questions
Use these questions as
a review for the test or to guide your journal entries.
Chapter 1
1. To Kill a Mockingbird is told as a flashback leading up to what event?
2. When does Jem think that the story begins?
3. What do you learn about
4. What do you learn about Atticus and his family?
5. What happened to Boo Radley as a young man that led to his current situation?
6. What do you think about Miss Stephanie Crawford’s story about Boo and the scissors?
7. Why are Scout, Jem and Dill fascinated by the Radley place?
8. From what point of view is the novel told?
Chapter 2
1. Describe Scout’s first day of school.
2. Why does Jem not want anything to do with Scout at school?
3. What is the Dewey Decimal System? What does Jem think it is?
4. What qualities does Miss Caroline Fisher have that would make her a good teacher? Not a good teacher?
Chapter 3
1. Beyond being a housekeeper, what is Calpurnia’s role in the Finch household?
2. What lesson does Scout learn from Walter Cunningham’s visit?
3. What does Atticus mean when he tells Scout that you can never really understand a person “until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”?
4. Who are the Ewells? What are their lives like?
Chapter 4
1. What superstitions do the children have in connection with the Radley house?
2. Do you think the game the children make up about Boo Radley is an accurate version of what happens at the Radley house?
3. What items do Jem and Scout find in the knothole of the tree outside the Radley house?
4. What is the cause of laughter from the inside of the house (after Scout, inside a tire, rolls into the side of the house)?
Chapter 5
1. How does Miss Maudie’s report about Boo Radley compare with what Scout already believes?
2. Scout claims that “Dill could tell the biggest ones” she ever heard. Why might Dill have told such lies?
3. Why does Atticus not want the children playing the Boo Radley game?
Chapter 6
1. Why does Scout disapprove of Jem’s and Dill’s plan of looking into one
of the Radley’s windows?
2. What does Mr. Nathan Radley know about the intruders in his garden?
3. Why does Miss Stephanie Crawford refer to a “negro” over whose head Mr. Nathan Radley fired?
Chapter 7
1. What is “strange” about Jem’s trousers when he gets them back?
2. What evidence is there that Jem is beginning to understand Boo better than Scout?
3. Why are the children prevented from sending a letter to the person who leaves the gifts?
4. Why does Mr. Radley plug up the knothole with cement?
Chapter 8
1. What is the “near libel” that Jem puts in the front yard?
2. What do Scout and Jem realize when Atticus asks him about the blanket on Scout’s shoulders?
3. What does Atticus mean when he tells Jem not to let his discovery “inspire” him to “further glory”? Why does Jem listen to Atticus’s warning?
Chapter 9
1. How well does Atticus feel he should defend Tom Robinson?
Is this usual for
2. What does Atticus mean by “Maycomb’s usual disease”?
3. Why does Atticus let Scout overhear his conversation with Uncle Jack? Why doesn’t he just tell her directly what he wants her to know?
Chapter 10
1. Why does Scout call Atticus “feeble”? At the end of chapter 10 do you think Scout still feels this way? Why?
2. Why are Scout and Jem not aware of their father’s nickname, “One-shot Finch”?
3. Why does Atticus tell the children that “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird?”
Chapter 11
1. How does Atticus advise Jem to react to Mrs. Dubose’s taunts?
2. What causes Jem to destroy Mrs. Dubose’s camellias?
3. What does Atticus think of insults like “nigger lover”?
4. Why does Atticus have Jem read to Mrs. Dubose other than punishing him for destroying Mrs. Dubose’s camellias?
5. What is Atticus’s idea of courage?
6. How did Mrs. Dubose exemplify Atticus’s idea of courage?
7. Why does Lee end Part I of the novel where she does?
Chapter 12
1. What does Scout learn from her visit to Calpurnia’s church?
Chapter 13
1. What do Aunt Alexandra’s first two comments when she comes to live with the Finch’s say about her?
2. Why does Aunt Alexandra refer to Scout as “dull”? Do you think Scout is “dull”?
3. What do you think of Aunt Alexandra’s ideas about breeding and family?
4. What do you think of Scout’s comment in response to Aunt Alexandra’s ideas about family and breeding?
Chapter 14
1. Do you think Atticus’s explanation to Scout about rape is a suitable answer? Why?
2. Why does Aunt Alexandra think Atticus should dismiss Calpurnia and how does he respond?
3. What is can be learned about Dill from his account about running away?
Chapter 15
1. What does Atticus’s comment about the Ku Klux Klan reveal about him?
2. Why does Atticus go down to the jail?
3. Why does Scout have such an effect on the lynching party?
Chapter 16
1. Who is Dolphus Raymond?
2. Does Judge
Chapter 17
1. What are the main points of Heck Tate’s evidence?
2. What does Atticus show in his cross-examination of Sheriff Tate?
3. Describe the Ewell’s home life.
4. What is revealed during Bob Ewell’s testimony?
5. Why does Atticus ask Bob Ewell to write out his name?
Chapter 18
1. How is Mayella different or similar to her father?
2. Why does Mayella cry in court?
3. Why does Mayella act as she does when Atticus is polite to her?
4. How do you think Lee wants the reader to feel about Mayella?
5. How well does Mr. Gilmer prove guilt in the eyes of the readers and in the eyes of the jury? Why is there a difference between these two?
Chapter 19
1. Why did Tom visit the Ewell’s in the first place?
2. Why does Scout think Mayella was the “loneliest person in the world”?
3. Describe Mayella’s relationship with her father.
4. Why does Dill react to this part of the trial as he does?
Chapter 20
1. My does Mr. Raymond hide his Coca-Cola in a paper bag?
2. What is Lee’s purpose for including Mr. Raymond in the novel?
3. What does Atticus say is the thing that Mayella has done wrong?
Chapter 21
1. What does Jem expect the verdict to be? Why?
2. What does Atticus expect the verdict to be? Why?
3. What is unusual about the time it takes the jury to reach a verdict?
4. What observation does Scout make as the jury returns from deliberating?
Chapter 22
1. Atticus does not want his children I court, but he feels Jem has a right to know what happened. Why?
2. Miss Maudie tells Jem that “things are never as bad as they seem.” What reasons does she give for this view?
3. Why does Dill want to be a clown when he grows up?
4. Why is Bob Ewell so angry with Atticus? Is his threat a real one?
Chapter 23
1. How does Atticus react to Bob Ewell’s “challenge”? Why does he react this way?
2. What does Atticus tell Scout about why the jury took so long to convict Tom?
3. What do you think of Aunt Alexandra’s comment that the Cunningham’s are good, but not “our kind of folks”?
Chapter 24
1. Are the missionaries sincere about worrying about the Mrunas? Why do you think this? What is the irony of their concerns?
2. What do you think of Atticus’s explanation for Tom’s attempted escape?
3. How does your view of Aunt Alexandra change in this chapter?
Chapter 25
1. Comment on the idea that Tom’s death was “typical”.
2. Explain the contrast Scout draws between the court where Tom was tried and “the secret court of men’s hearts”.
3. Why did Jem not want Scout to tell Atticus about Bob Ewell’s comment? Was this wise?
Chapter 26
1. In her lesson on Hitler, Miss Gates says that “we don’t believe in persecuting anyone.” Why is Scout puzzled about her disapproval of Hitler?
2. Why does Scout’s question upset Jem? What is the answer to her question?
Chapter 27
1. What three things does Bob Ewell do that alarm Aunt Alexandra?
2. According to Atticus, why does Bob Ewell hold a grudge?
3. According to Atticus, which people does Bob Ewell see as his enemies?
Chapter 28
1. How does this chapter remind you of earlier events?
2. Why is it ironic that Jem says Boo Radley must not be at home?
3. Why is it important for Jem and Scout that Boo should not be at home?
Chapter 29
1. What causes the “shiny clean line” on the otherwise “dull wire” of Scout’s costume?
2. Which explanation of Bob Ewell’s attack is true—Atticus’s or Sheriff Tate’s?
Chapter 30
1. Why does Sheriff Tate insist that Bob Ewell’s death was self-inflicted?
2. Is Sheriff Tate right in sparing Boo Radley the publicity of a public inquest?
3. What do you think of Boo’s appearance at the end of the novel?
Chapter 31
1. Re-read the 1st page of the novel. What new insight do you have about it?
2. How does Scout make sense of an earlier remark of Atticus’s as she stands on the Radley porch?
3. Are you surprised to find out what Boo is really like?
4. How does the story Atticus reads to Scout at the end of the novel connect to earlier themes?