Chapter 1 Discussion Questions & “When I was Scout” Activity

 Chapter 1  What did you name it?  “Meeting Dill”  “The Dare”  “Who are the Finches, Dill, and Boo Radley?”  …?

 1.What is the function of the relating the Finch family history at the outset of the novel?  The author chooses for the narrator to share the Finch family history to describe the traditional nature of Southern life at the time. A person’s heritage (what family they come from, where they come from, what their family is “known” for) was used to determine a person’s status or form an impression about that person without knowing them. The fact that Atticus and his brother broke tradition and left the “Landing” to become a lawyer and a doctor indicates that they are “rebels” or do not follow tradition. Discussion Questions

 2.What techniques are used to establish a feeling of mystery in the first chapter?  A feeling of mystery is created through descriptions and references to the Radley house and the “phantom” that lives within. Scout describes the house in a way that makes the reader think of a traditional haunted house and Jem’s description of Boo is more likely to create an image of a monster than a person. Discussion Questions

 4.Cite details which establish the setting of the novel.  Annotate the paragraph on pg. 6 that starts with “Maycomb was an old town…”  Allusions to Southern living  Allusions to the Great Depression Discussion Questions

 5.What attitudes seem prevalent as a result of elements of setting?  The time of the novel is clearly set in the 1930s. The weight of The Great Depression causes a sluggishness. People valued the “status quo” – no one liked anyone who was going to “rock the boat” or threaten the security of Maycomb, since so much was up in the air at the time. Discussion Questions

 6.Contrast Dill’s family life with the Finches’.  Jem and Scout have been motherless since Scout was two years old. Scout does not remember her mother, so she does not feel her absence like Jem does. However, Atticus and Calpurnia provide a stability that Dill does not have.  Dill is too without a mother and a father by reason of divorce and remarriage. He has been shifted between relatives like an unwanted burden of responsibility. The instability in his life manifests itself in his propensity toward imagination and fabrication. Discussion Questions

  In an attempt to “get into the mind” of the narrator, I’ve asked you to bring a picture of yourself when you were Scout’s age at the beginning of the story – just six years old…  Harper Lee captures a vivid depiction of summer through the eyes of Scout, a child narrator: Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots or trying to sleep in the tree house; Summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.  I want you to remember what summer was like when you were that age…what can you remember playing, seeing, eating, hearing? When I was Scout…

  On a piece of construction paper, write the title: “When I was Scout…”  Paste your picture  Under your picture write your full name (middle name too!), your nickname when you were that age, your birthday and the city and state where you grew up  Write your own “Summer was…” description – mirroring the syntactical structure that Harper Lee used SEE MY SAMPLE! TASK

When I was Scout… Jean Louise Finch “Scout” February 14, 1925 Maycomb, Alabama Summer was our best season: it was sleeping on the back screened porch in cots or trying to sleep in the tree house; Summer was everything good to eat; it was a thousand colors in a parched landscape; but most of all, summer was Dill.