To Kill a Mockingbird

Big Read audio file (use the transcript in your 9 English Common folder to take notes)

To Kill a Mockingbird Audio Book

To Kill a Mockingbird Electronic text

"What Was Jim Crow?"

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
These are the questions from your packet.  SPOILER ALERT: If you read the questions too far ahead, some of the surprises will be, well, spoiled.  I will leave spaces between each chapter questions so I don't spoil it as badly for you.

My advice is read the required chapters first, then read the questions, then go back and reread the chapter and answer them as you go.  Rereading will also give you a chance to take notes on characters.

Trust me, rereading is worth it.

Chapter 1

1.)    In what year is the story taking place?
2.)    What is the name of the town where the story takes place?
3.)    What is Scout and Jem’s father’s occupation?
4.)    Where is her mother?
5.)    What is unusual about the Radley place?
6.)    What are some of the children’s superstitions concerning Boo?















Chapter 2

1.)    Who comes to visit Miss Rachel in Maycomb?
2.)    Why does the teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, become annoyed with Scout?
3.)    How had Scout learned to read?
4.)    How had she learned to write?
5.)    How else does Scout get in trouble with the teacher?
6.)    What is Scout’s real name?

















Chapter 3

1.)    Why was Scout beating up Walter Cunningham in the school yard?
2.)    What does Jem do about the situation?
3.)    What happens that afternoon in the school that alarms the teacher?
4.)    What makes Scout decide she wants to quit school and run away?
5.)    What trick does Atticus teach Scout to help her get along with the other people?


















Chapter 4

1.)    What does Scout find in the tree in Radley’s front yard?
2.)    What did Scout and Jem find a couple days later?
3.)    What are some of the summertime games Dill, Jem, and Scout play?
4.)    What is a “hot steam”?

















Chapter 5

1.)    Who is Maudie Atkinson?
2.)    What happens to the children’s plan to stick a note through the shutter to Boo?
3.)    What does Atticus tell them?

















Chapter 6

1.)    What is the children’s plan for Dill’s last night in Maycomb?
2.)    How do you keep a squeaky gate from making noise?
3.)    How does Jem loose his pants?
4.)    Does Nathan Radley know who was in the back yard?
5.)    What does Jem feel he has to do?
6.)    Why doesn’t Scout want to go?
7.)    Is Jem successful in getting back his pants?
















Chapter 7

1.)    When does this chapter take place?
2.)    What age are the children now?
3.)    What remarkable thing does Jem tell Scout about that night he had to go back after his pants?
4.)    What do the children plan to do about the things they find in the knothole in the tree?
5.)    What are the things they find in the knothole?
6.)    What do they decide to do about the treasures they receive?
7.)    What do they discover?


















Chapter 8

1.)    What happened to weather that fall?
2.)    Mr. Avery says when seasons are unusual, who is responsible?
3.)    Who dies?
4.)    The snowman the kids make looks like who?
5.)    Who is Eula May?
6.)    What tragedy occurs for Miss Maudie?
7.)    Where did the blanket come from that Scout finds around her shoulders?


















Chapter 9

1.)    Why does Scout get into a fight with Cecil Jacobs?
2.)    What is Atticus about to do which places his honor in question?
3.)    Why is Atticus defending the man?
4.)    Does he expect to win the case?
5.)    What do the Finches do at Christmas?
6.)    How do the children feel about their relatives?


















Chapter 10

1.)    What does Scout wish were different about Atticus?
2.)    What does Atticus say about mockingbirds?
3.)    What does Atticus do which makes him a hero in the eyes of his children?

















Chapter 11

1.)    What kind of woman is Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose?
2.)    What does Atticus tell the children about Mrs. Dubose?
3.)    What makes Jem so angry that he beats down Mrs. Dubose’s camellias?
4.)    What is Jem’s punishment for this act?
5.)    What does Atticus say a “nigger lover” is?
6.)    How do the reading sessions finally end?
7.)    What does Atticus tell Jem about Mrs. Dubose after his death?

















Chapter 12

1.)    How old were Jem and Scout at this pointing the story?
2.)    How is the relationship between Jem and Scout now?
3.)    What is disappointing about this summer?
4.)    Where does Calpurnia take the children on Sunday?
5.)    What is different about Calpurnia when she is at church?
6.)    How had Calpurnia learned ho w to speak standard (good) English?
7.)    Why doesn’t she speak this way when she is speaking to other black people?

















Chapter 13

1.)    Are the children glad to find that Aunt Alexandra has come?
2.)    Why has she come to stay with the Finch family?





















Chapter 14

1.)    What does Alexandra suggest about Calpurnia?
2.)    Why does Alexandra want Calpurnia sent away?

















Chapter 15

1.)    What does it mean in Maycomb when grown men stand outside in the front yard instead of come inside?
2.)    What position does Alexandra take concerning the trail?
3.)    What is Atticus worried about when he goes and sits in front of jail?
4.)    Can you give two of Atticus’ saying which Scout considers important?

















Chapter 16

1.)    How old are Scout and Jem now?
2.)    What does Atticus say about a mob?
3.)    Is Miss Maudie the kind of person who would go to a trail just out of curiosity?
4.)    Is Miss Stephanie? (Same question as 3)
5.)    What is peculiar about Dolphus Raymond?
6.)    What happens to Scout and Jem as a result of the crowding in the courthouse?


















Chapter 17

1.)    What position does Heck Tate hold in Maycomb?
2.)    In a few words, what is his testimony?
3.)    What kind of people are the Ewells?
4.)    What is Mr. Ewell’s testimony?
5.)    What was Atticus trying to show?


















Chapter 18

1.)    What impression does Atticus bring out from Mayella Ewell’s testimony about their home and family?
2.)    What is the essence of Mayella’s testimony?
3.)    What evidence best supports that Tim could not have grabbed the girl and beaten and raped her?
4.)    What points does Atticus try to establish through Mayella’s testimony or lack of it?
5.)    Why does Mayella object to Atticus calling her “ma’am” and “Miss Mayella?”




















Chapter 19

1.)    Was Tom Robinson well acquainted with Mayella Ewell?
2.)    Did she pay him?
3.)    Why did he refuse?
4.)    What was the true story of the “rape?”




















Chapter 20

1.)    Whom do the children meet outside the courtroom after Dill feels sick?
2.)    Why does Mr. Raymond drink Coke from a paper bag?
3.)    Why does he want people to think he’s a drunk?
4.)    Why does he let the children in on his secret?




















Chapter 21

1.)    Why does Calpurnia come into the courtroom?
2.)    How does Scout know as soon as she sees the jury coming in that they have convicted Tom?
3.)    Why do all the Negroes stand up as Atticus leaves the courtroom?




















Chapter 22

1.)    Why does Jem cry as the children leave the court?
2.)    What does Atticus mean when he says, “This is their home.  We’ve made it this way for them, they might as well learn to cope with “it?”
3.)    What characteristic phrase does Atticus use the next morning?





















Chapter 23

1.)    What happens that worries the children very much?
2.)    Does Atticus feel that he is rally in danger from Ewell?
3.)    Does Atticus believe in the jury system?
4.)    Does Atticus believe in capital punishment?
5.)    What man on the jury took longest to be convinced that Tom was guilty?
6.)    Will Aunt Alexandra allow Scout to have Walter Cunningham home for dinner another time?
7.)    What does Jem believe that “background” is?
8.)    What does Jem say in this chapter about understanding Boo Radley?




















Chapter 24

1.)    Why does Scout attend her aunt’s meetings and teas?
2.)    Does Scout want to learn to be a lady?
3.)    What is the purpose of this chapter?
4.)    What news is received of Tom Robinson?
5.)    What does Scout learn about being a lady?





















Chapter 25

1.)    What time of year is it now?
2.)    Who had gone with Atticus and Calpurnia when they went talk to Helen Robinson?
3.)    Why can Mr. Underwood say whatever he want to in his newspaper?
4.)    At this point, can you say why the book is titled as it is?  Give your thought gathered from the book?




















Chapter 26

1.)    What does Scout believe about Boo Radley?
2.)    Did the people of Maycomb discuss the Robinson case with the children?
3.)    What confuses Scout about what her teacher says about no persecuting anybody?
4.)    Why is Jem cross whenever the trial is referred to?




















Chapter 27

1.)    Why is Bob Ewell still causing trouble for everybody connected with the case?
2.)    What is to be different about Halloween this year in Maycomb?
3.)    What is Scout’s part in the Halloween pageant?




















Chapter 28

1.)    What first fright do Scout and Jem receive when they are on their way to the school?
2.)    Why do the children wait backstage until the audience has left the school?
3.)    Why does scout have to wear the ham costume home?
4.)    What happens in the dark?
5.)    Who has attacked the children in the woods?
6.)    What happened to him?




















Chapter 29

1.)    What has saved Scout from being stabbed?
2.)    Who is the man in the corner who had saved the children and stabled Bob Ewell?




















Chapter 30

1.)    What fantasy of Scout comes true in this chapter?
2.)    Whom does Atticus thing stabbed Ewell?
3.)    Whom does Heck Tate think stabbed Ewell?
4.)    What does Heck Tate really know about the stabbing?
5.)    Why do the two men, Tate and Atticus, tacitly agree to say that the stabbing had been accidental, Ewell falling on the knife?




















Chapter 31

1.)    Why does Scout say, “I would lead him through our house, but I would never lead him home?”
What does Scout mean when she says, “I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn’t much left for us to learn, except probably algebra?”

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