To Kill a Mockingbird Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1 Review The story is narrated by a young girl named Jean Louise Finch – but she goes by her nickname of Scout. She is beginning to explain how her older brother, Jem, got a broken arm many years earlier. Her family’s farm is called “Finch’s Landing.” Scout and Jem’s father is Atticus Finch, a lawyer. They live in Maycomb, a tired, poor old town in the grips of the Great Depression.

Chapter 1 Continued The Finch’s cook is an old black woman named Calpurnia. She helps to raise the children and keep house. Atticus’s wife died when Scout was 2, so she doesn’t remember much about her mother. Jem is four years older and can remember their mother.

Chapter 1 Con’t. In the summer of 1933, Jem is almost 10 and Scout is almost 6, a strange boy named Charles Baker Harris (Dill) moves next door. He is staying with his aunt, Miss Rachel, for the summer. The Finch children play with Dill all summer. When they get bored, Dill suggests they try to lure Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor, out of his house. Boo Radley hasn’t been seen outside in years. Boo got in trouble with the law years ago and his father imprisoned him in the house as a punishment.

Chapter 1 Con’t Boo’s father, Mr. Radley, dies and Boo’s older brother, Nathan, comes to live with Boo. Boo still stays inside. Dill dares Jem to run over and touch the Radley house. Jem does so, sprinting back quickly. There is no sign of movement at the Radley place, although Scout thinks that she sees a shutter move slightly, as if someone were peeking out.