To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
© Harper Lee 1960


Part One

Chapter 1

The opening chapter of the novel sees the introduction of key characters in this story of small town America, and the moral code by which they inhabit their world. The story is narrated in the first person, by Scout, who is five when the story begins; her brother Jem is four years older. Some of the perceptions are childlike and vivid and yet there is an undercurrent of adult observation.
The opening sentence is crisp and evocative “When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow” – after this inauspicious start, we are given an insight into the family background of the Finch family, from their ancestors leaving England in order to settle in the New World and the significant effect the family had on the community of Finch’s Landing. When Atticus Finch breaks away from family tradition to attend law school it appears that the Finch’s are moving away from their roots.

The story is set in Maycomb “a tired old Town” in sleepy Alabama where time didn’t matter and “A day was twenty four hours long but seemed longer” and no one hurried “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb county.”

The Finch family are reasonably affluent and live in the main residential street. Where following the death of their mother, the Finch children are brought up with “courteous detachment” by their father, Atticus, who has a law practise in town, and also by their cook, Calpurnia, who is a “tyrannical presence” in their lives. The Finch children know their boundaries and tend to abide by rules; this doesn’t mean that they are unadventurous.

Into the mix comes Dill, a young summer visitor who is staying with his aunt, Miss Rachel, a neighbour of the Finch’s. “Dill was a curiosity” – older than Scout, but younger than Jem, and he is fascinated with “The Radley Place” - a house that has aroused suspicion and curiosity within the local community. The house is in poor condition and appears to be neglected and yet remains inhabited - “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom” ...who came out only at night... “when the moon was high”. Several years earlier there had been an incident in the town involving one of the younger Radley boys, Arthur, known derogatorily as “Boo”, – he was caught causing trouble in town, and rather than being sent to a correctional institution, he was confined to his home for years. This action by Boo's father has caused some resentment within the community of Maycomb and has fostered the rumour that there was something slightly unusual about Boo Radley.“Boo Radley wasn’t crazy, he was high strung at times”.
When Jem and Scout show a childish interest in the goings on in the Radley house their father, Atticus, does not encourage this interest - "When Jem would question him Atticus's only answer was to mind his own business and let the Radley's mind theirs ..." - so most of their gossip about the Radley house has been gleaned from a neighbourhood scold, Miss Stephanie Crawford.

When the elder Mr Radley died, Boo continued to be confined to the house supervised by his older brother Nathan Radley. Boo is never seen outside.

Dill fascinated by the Radley house wants to encourage Boo to come out. This is momentous, and even though Jem and Scout are apprehensive, they are manoeuvred into action. With the bravado of his superior years, and with encouragement from Scout and Dill, Jem is persuaded to “touch the house”.

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• What do you think of the visual description of Maycomb - does Harper Lee manage to convey the essence of the town?
• How important are boundaries to Scout and Jem, and why do they extend these boundaries when encouraged by Dill?
• Jem and Scout are products of a small town community, and have largely accepted the treatment of Arthur “Boo” Radley - but by listening to local gossip, the myth surrounding Boo is perpetrated.What does this say about Maycomb and it's inhabitants?
• How do the children characterise "Boo Radley"?


*** SPOILERS AWAY FROM THE MAIN CHAPTER ANALYSIS MAY BE DISCUSSED HERE

• What do you think of the visual description of Maycomb - does Harper Lee manage to convey the essence of the town?

It's interesting how Lee switches from the story telling from Scout's point of view as a child, and then as an adult reminiscing about her childhood. She does a wonderful job painting the picture of a small southern town. I remember my summers as a child, and how they seem to stretch on forever. I'm 49, and when I grew up in a small city, a little bigger than Maycomb. At five, I wasn't involved in any extra curricular activities, except going to church on Sundays. My friends and I would play outside all day. We didn't watch a lot of TV and there were no video games, and there were no organized sports for five year olds. So, summer seemed endless, not that we didn't enjoy every minute of it, bored or not. So, her description resonated with me and my childhood memories.

• How important are boundaries to Scout and Jem, and why do they extend these boundaries when encouraged by Dill?

I don't think they really ever considered going outside the boundaries until Dill came along. They were raised in a very structured environment as far as tradition, and I don't think they ever realized they could go further than a couple houses down either direction. As far as trespassing on the Riley's property, the kids knew it was wrong, so that was that, until Dill came along and coaxed Jem by a dare, which a boy of Jem's age could not in good conscience ignore.

• Jem and Scout are products of a small town community, and have largely accepted the treatment of Arthur “Boo” Radley - but by listening to local gossip, the myth surrounding Boo is perpetrated.What does this say about Maycomb and it's inhabitants?

With very little outside influence or forms of entertainment, it's the least bit surprising that town gossip would center around someone as mysterious as Boo who is rarely if ever seen outside his house. By all appearances Boo's house is falling apart, which also adds to that air of mystery. There's no screen door, the drapes are never open, it's as closed off to the town of Maycomb, as Maycomb is closed off to the outside world. Fear of the unknown and boredom gives rise to this kind of gossip.

• How do the children characterize "Boo Radley"?

For all practical purposes, in the children's eyes, he's a monster or bogeyman of sorts. At 6 1/2 feet tall with bloodstained hands after eating raw the small animals he catches at night, a long jagged scar across his face, and yellow rotten teeth, he's the stuff of a kid's nightmare.

I grew up in a small industrial town in NW England which is as far removed from Maycomb as is possible to be -however like Scout and Jem I had boundaries and knew just how far I could push those boundaries before trepidation kicked in....it's interesting that all cultures have a " bogeyman" and for Scout and Jem "Boo" Radley was the ultimate fear....the house was also pretty creepy and just touching the house was a huge deal...

We had an unoccupied house that all the neighborhood kids held in frightful awe. It set at the tip end of a triangle shaped lot overlooking the field we all played in. An elderly couple had lived there and passed away before I was born, and the house was never sold. Now we were all convinced they died in that house and were never removed. It just set there for years and years. We had all kinds of ghost stories that we swore were true revolving around that lurking house. I honestly don't think any of us would even have the nerve to touch it, but somehow we all "knew" every nook and cranny of its decor, and all of it was eerie. So, I could really feel Jem's trepidation at the thought of just stepping through that gate, let alone touching the house. Through Scout's eyes, Jem is old, and it sometimes easy to forget that although he's just an elementary school aged kid too.

I thought that I had previously read this book in high school until I started in on the first chapter and realized that I hadn't. During this chapter, I thought that Scout was a little boy and I loved the telling of the story through a child's eye. They have a way of expressing thoughts unfiltered which makes the adults around them squirm a bit but their honesty is refreshing. It did remind me of growing up since every neighborhood had it's spooky houses and they were usually the ones with single elderly people living in them that you hadn't seen in a while or the rare empty house on the block in disrepair. This chapter also brought back those memories of lazy summers with no organized activities and kids just played outside conjuring up ways to combat boredom. Raise your hand if you ever let your 5 yr olds outside unsupervised with or without a 9 yr old sibling. I think that it was only a matter of time before Jem and Scout started testing those boundaries with or without Dill, although Dill is like the little devil on their shoulder, that's for sure.

Dill is an intriguing little character and we don't really know much more about him in this chapter than how they find him. In the ways of children, they don't ask each other as many questions as they ask adults so we never know that much about him.

Pauline for a long time I thought Scout was a little boy and was really shocked when Demi Moore and Bruce Willis named their daughter Scout - I thought surely not that's a boys name

As children go Scout, Jem and Dill are no different from children everywhere - their honesty is refreshing, and the way they accept their place in the world...

I loved the bit about the cinema- when Dill had been given five dollars and spent it by going to the picture show twenty times and Jem's reply "Don't have any picture shows here, except Jesus ones in the court house, sometimes" and the growing respect Jem gave to Dill because he had seen Dracula ....

I am enjoying everyone's comments about this first chapter.
I have never read TKAM, but recall seeing the movie and am thus visualizing the characters as such with Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. I found myself memorizing many of the details in the first chapter that I might have to refer to later and reading slower and slower so I could absorb all of the information the author provides.

The first sentence tells us that we are going back to the past when the children were younger, prior to Jem breaking his arm. The stage is set as we learn that Jem and Scout are four years apart in age; live in a main residential area; their mother was fifteen years younger than her husband and died suddenly of a heart attack when the children were very young; Uncle Jack is a physician; Dill doesn't have a father; Boo Radley was the bad boy in town, and so on. It seems that in every family the unit is not complete.

The description of Maycomb is perfect -- a small town where everyone knows each other and tends to gossip about their neighbors, regardless of the blood ties. Atticus seems to stand apart from the rest of the inhabitants and has a special manner with his children. I found it interesting that both Jem and Scout address him by his first name. I don't think I would have had the nerve to ever call either of my parent's by their first names, especially at 5 or 9 years of age.

The parameters for playing outside remind me of growing up in the Bronx with my older sister. We were able to tread no further than the mailbox at the end of the block and the chiropractor's office on the other end. We never ventured "around the corner." We experienced many lazy summers where we improvised performances and even tape recorded ourselves. Oh, what carefree, harmless fun. All of those memories flooded back as I read this chapter. The camaraderie among Jem, Scout and Dill is endearing. They may have their own difficulties, but together during the summer months, they manage to forget and create new adventures.

Thanks for the great chapter summary, Sassenach!
• What do you think of the visual description of Maycomb - does Harper Lee manage to convey the essence of the town?
I think she does convey the essence of the town, it was great to read about the ways people there lived and interacted with one another (and great to read about how hot it was there, especially as much snow as we've been getting here, lately ) Reading the chapter made me feel as if I was walking through the town right along with the characters.

• How important are boundaries to Scout and Jem, and why do they extend these boundaries when encouraged by Dill?
The boundaries seem like a safety net, both for them and their family...having Dill around to encourage stretching their boundaries was almost like a "I dare you" moment that so many kids go through - I think they wanted to look brave in front of him.

• Jem and Scout are products of a small town community, and have largely accepted the treatment of Arthur “Boo” Radley - but by listening to local gossip, the myth surrounding Boo is perpetrated.What does this say about Maycomb and it's inhabitants?
The town seems very open to one another, especially since they all know one another. Newcomers and people who are not as open to one another seem like fodder for gossip. This was the first time I'd read the word "townies" in a book - it is a term used in the small town in the Northeast, where I live, and here I thought it was "new"! lol. It was good to find a connection. As newcomers here, we found much the same environment, townies were very close to one another and welcoming to a point before the gossip started, through the kids on the bus and then the families. We've made some good friends here, though, and it seems like most are families who are transplants to the area, like us, in addition to families that have been here for generations.