Comprehension Questions - GDHS English Department

To Kill A Mockingbird Comprehension Questions
Chapter 1
1. What is Lee’s purpose for including Boo Radley in the story since the reader has not
seen him?
2. How does Lee use the setting of Maycomb, Alabama to emphasize the themes of the
story?
3. Is Atticus an example of a static or dynamic character? Explain your answer.
4. How does Scout’s role as narrator affect the reader’s understanding of the story?
Chapter 2
1. On her first day of school, what does Scout get in trouble for?
2. How does Miss Caroline Fisher feel at the end of her first day?
3. What are the Cunninghams like?
4. Given Miss Fisher’s activity with her 1 st graders (reading about the cat family), what is ironic about her reprimand to
Scout, “Let’s not let our imaginations run away with us, dear?”
Chapter 3
1. Why hasn't Walter Cunningham passed the first grade?
2. Why did Calpurnia request Scout's presence in the kitchen?
3. How does Scout solve her problem with Walter Cunningham? How does Jem, on the other hand?
4. When Scout questions Walter’s table manners, the reader learns something about Calpurnia and her place in the
family. What do you learn? Why might this surprise some of Maycomb’s citizens?
Chapter 4
1. What was in the knot-hole of one of the oak trees?
2. Who was the meanest old woman who ever lived?
3. Why did Scout freeze?
4. Who had the most to say about the Radleys than anybody in Maycomb?
5. TF Jem lied to his father about their Boo-Radley theatrics.
6. What was Scout's first reason for wanting to quit the Boo-Radley game?

Chapter 5
1. What direct order does Atticus give the children?
2. Explain Miss Maudie’s statement, “…sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the
hand of- oh, your father.”
3. TF Atticus, after reading the note, asked his son to stop tormenting Boo.
4. What was the oldest lawyer's trick on record?
Chapter 6
1. How do the children spend Dill’s last night in Maycomb?
2. What goes wrong with the children’s escape plan?
3. How did Dill explain the loss of Jem's pants to the crowd in front of the Radley place?
Chapter 7
1. What did Jem find unusual about his britches?
2. TF After a three-day waiting period, Jem and Scout considered everything they found in the knot-hole to be their
property.
3. Why wasn't the letter delivered?
4. What was Nathan Radley's ulterior motive for cementing the knot-hole?
Chapter 8
1. Why was school closed?
2. TF After her house burnt to the ground and the fire trucks left, with whom did Miss Maudie stay?
3. Who put the brown woolen blanket around Scout?
4. TF Miss Maudie was bitterly pessimistic about rebuilding her house.
CHAPTERS 9 and 10- Language and Character Revelation
Remember that an author does not always specifically tell us what a character is like. Sometimes a character’s
personality or background is revealed indirectly through his or her speech. This may include how the character speaks or
what he/she says.
Examine each of the novel excerpts below and on a separate sheet, explain:
1) The speakers name and situation being discussed (frame the conversation)
2) Significance of the quote
3) What this excerpt reveals about his/her personality or background.

Excerpt 1
“Well if you don’t want me to grow up talkin’ that way, why do you send me to school?” (Lee 75)
Excerpt 2
“Scout, simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally.
This one’s mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: just hold
you head up high and keep those fists down.” (Lee 83)
Excerpt 3
“If Uncle Atticus lets you run around with stray dogs, that’s his own business, like Grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I
guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a n-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you that it certainly does mortify the rest
of the family.” (Lee 83)
Excerpt 4
“And why do I not understand children, Miss Jean Louise? Such conduct as yours required little understanding. It was
obstreperous, disorderly, and abusive.” (Lee 85)
Excerpt 5
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 90)
Excerpt 6
“I don’t call fifty very old,” said ______ tartly. “Not being wheeled around yet, am I?” (Lee 90)
Chapter 11
1. Why did the Finch children dislike passing by Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose's house?
2. Atticus advised his son to act like a gentleman toward whom?
3. What did Atticus do that made Scout think he was the bravest man who had ever lived?
4. To show his wrath for Mrs. Dubose, what did Jem do?
5. TF Mrs. Dubose kicked the morphine habit.
6. Atticus would have insisted that Jem read to Mrs. Dubose because he wanted his son to see an alternative view of
what?
Chapter 12
1. TF Scout gravitated toward Calpurnia partly due to the imposition of Jem's changing values.
2. Why was Scout temporarily crushed?
3. Who tried to intimidate Calpurnia at her own church?
4. TF When asked by Scout what Tom had done, Calpurnia dodged the question and declined to answer.
5. TF Aunt Alexandra was the phantom who told Boo to get out of the swing.

Chapter 13
1. TF Aunt Alexandra was visiting in order to bring some "feminine influence" to Scout.
2. TF Aunt Alexandra's criticisms of various people always went unchallenged by Atticus.
3. What would cause "a ripple in the quiet stream of family resemblance," but not enough to upset the "caste system in
Maycomb"?
4. It "takes a woman to do" what kind of work?
Chapter 14
1. TF Calpurnia had not told Atticus about having taken the children to her church.
2. What pronoun did Scout misconstrue?
3. Who told Atticus about Dill's presence in the Finch household?
Chapter 15
1. Where did Mr. Heck Tate want to move Tom Robinson to avoid trouble from the "Old Sarum bunch"?
2. TF The group of men who visited Atticus's house on Saturday were his friends.
3. TF Scout sensed the peril surrounding her father.
4. To where was Tom moved?
5. What did Atticus do after supper that Jem and Scout thought peculiar?
6. Why did Atticus need the extension cord?
7. From amongst the semi-circle, whom did Scout recognize?
8. Both Scout and Jem made faulty assumptions in this chapter. List as many as you can.
Chapter 16
1. Why did Aunt Alexandra spew out waves of disapproval at the breakfast table?
2. TF Aunt Alexandra objected to Atticus's communicative habits.
3. Who objected to Miss Maudie Atkinson's yard?
4. TF Judge Taylor's casualness often led to a chaotic courtroom.

Chapter 17
1. What two major points did Atticus score in his favor during Heck Tate's testimony?
2. TF The Sheriff's testimony was found to be rather dull, leaving the audience in a relaxed mode.
3. Where did the Ewells live?
4. What made the ground around the Ewells' cabin look like the playhouse of an insane child?
5. What was Mr. Gilmer’s trademark?
6. How did Mr. Bob Ewell describe his daughter's screaming?
7. How did Bob Ewell regard Atticus?
8. TF Atticus asked Mr. Ewell some of the same questions that he had asked Heck Tate.
Chapter 18
1. TF The nineteen-year-old Mayella misconstrued routine courtesy.
2. What habit brought Mr. Ewell into suspicion?
3. Judge Taylor felt who was browbeating whom?
4. What is Atticus's perception of Judge Taylor?
5. How did Mr. Robinson injure his left arm?
Chapter 19
1. Why did Tom have to serve his 30 days for misorderly conduct?
2. Scout felt Mayella was lonelier than whom?
3. TF Mayella, who initiated the kissing, ordered Tom to reciprocate.
4. Why was Dill crying?
5. What does "thin-hided" mean?
Chapter 20
1. Why did Mr. Raymond entrust the reason for his pretentiousness to Scout and Dill?
2. TF Jem was confident that the defense would win.
3. In his closing argument, Atticus referred to a "time-honored code." What is that unwritten law that Mayella violated?

Chapter 21
1. Calpurnia's note was from whom, announcing what?
2. TF Scout's intuition told her that the defendant would be found guilty.
3. Why did Jem jerk repeatedly?
4. TF The attending blacks gave reverence toward Atticus as he passed by.
Chapter 22
1. Atticus told his sister that "'they might as well learn to cope with it.'" What did he mean?
2. Which neighbor was impervious to the fact that the Finch children were sitting in the Colored balcony?
3. State Jem's critique of the legal system.
4. Who pledged revenge against Atticus?
Chapter 23
1. Atticus reminded Jem about what ugly facts of life?
2. According to Atticus, what constitutes white trash?
3. From Jem's perspective, why does Boo Radley want to stay inside?
Chapter 24
1. Why couldn't Scout go to Barker's Eddy, the swimming creek, with Jem and Dill?
2. TF Aunt Alexandra mourned for the loss of one black man just as she would grieve for the loss of many.
Chapter 25
1. Why did Scout conclude that Jem "was getting more like a girl every day"?
2. What was Helen's reaction to the news of her husband's death?
3. Maycomb, at large, understood Tom's sense of futility, hence, his motivation for attempting to escape.
4. TF Mr. Underwood's editorial, which stated that killing a cripple was a sin, similar to the senseless slaughter of
songbirds, encapsulated the core of Atticus's defense.
Chapter 26
1. TF Scout felt a flicker of regret for having disturbed the peace of a recluse.
2. TF It was clear to Atticus that Tom Robinson's trial was not completely digested nor thoroughly sorted in the minds of
both of his children.

Chapter 27
1. TF Bob Ewell pestered Judge Taylor and Helen.
2. Who came to Mrs. Robinson's rescue?
Chapter 28
8. What characteristics do we know about the attacker?
9. Who carried Jem to the safety of his house?
10. What garment did Scout get to wear?
11. TF Scout asked what question repeatedly?
12. TF Atticus, because he had underestimated the depth of Ewell's grudge, did not initially suspect Bob as the attacker.
Chapter 29
1. TF Aunt Alexandra had a premonition about the evening's turn of events.
3. What caused the "shiny clean line" on the dull wire of the remains of Scout's costume?
4. How did Heck Tate describe a man like Bob Ewell's kind?
5. TF Scout assumed it was Jem who had yanked Bob down off of her.
6. What blurred Scout's image of Arthur Radley?
Chapter 30
1. TF Dr. Reynold's casual greeting towards Arthur helped humanize Boo's existence in Scout's mind.
2. TF Aunt Alexandra's influence upon Scout was seen via the latter's cordial politeness towards Boo.
3. Explain how exactly Bob Ewell died. Be sure to give an account of both knives and all relevant parties.
Chapter 31
1. With regard to returning to the Radley Place, how did Scout show signs of becoming a lady?
2. While standing on the Radley porch, what did Scout learn as evident from her daydreaming?