Discussion Questions for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Chapter 1
1. What is the relationship between Scout and Atticus?
2. How old was Scout when her mother died?
3. Describe the Radley place.
4. What were the legal charges the boys were charged with? Which one was unusual?
5. What was the punishment for the boys going to be? Why is it that during this time period this may not have been such a bad punishment?
6. Why does Mr. Radley’s boy stay gone for fifteen years?
7. What did Boo Radley do when he was 33? How was he punished? Describe the first and second stage of his punishment, and the necessity of the second stage.
Chapter 2
1. Where is Miss Caroline Fisher from? What is the significance of this region?
2. What was the children’s reaction to the story that Miss Caroline read? Explain why they reacted this way.
3. What has Atticus done that Miss Caroline does not approve of? How does this make a point for the importance of reading to young children?
4. Why doesn’t Walter Cunningham borrow the quarter from Miss Caroline?
5. Describe the Cunningham family.
Chapter 3
1. During lunch, what lesson does Scout learn about company?
2. What happens between Miss Caroline and Burris Ewell?
3. Describe the Ewell family.
Chapter 4
1. What did Scout find in a tree?
2. Why did Cecil Jacobs walk a mile per school day?
3. Why does Scout end up in the Radley’s yard?
4. What do Jem, Scout, and Dill start playing?
Chapter 5
1. What do foot-washer Baptists believe?
2. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says, “…sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of oh, of your father.”?
3. What plan do Dill and Jem devise to get Boo Radley to come out of the house?
4. Dill is lying about his daddy. Why would he make up lies about his father? Consider the time period.
Chapter 6
1. What do Dill, Scout and Jem decide to do on Dill’s last night in Maycomb?
2. Who does Mr. Radley say he shot at? What makes us think Mr. Radley knew who he was really shooting at?
3. What happened to Jem’s pants? How does he explain this to Atticus?
4. Why does Jem sneak out of the house later that night?
Chapter 7
1. Who do you think is leaving the items in the tree?
2. Why does Mr. Radley say he plugged the hole with cement? Does this seem like it is true, why or why not? What do you think the real motivation is?
Chapter 8
1. Who died that winter?
2. Why does Scout think the world is coming to an end?
3. On the coldest night of the winter, what happened in the middle of the night?
4. What was Miss Maudie most worried about?
5. Where did the third truck come from?
6. Who put the blanket around Scout?
Chapter 9
1. Why does Scout get in 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 Atticus expect to win the case? Be very specific.
5. How does Alexandra feel about the way Scout and Jem are being brought up?
6. Why does Scout get into a fight with her cousin Francis?
7. What lesson did Uncle Jack learn?
8. Atticus says,”…I hope I can get Jem and Scout through this without bitterness, and most of all without catching Maycomb’s usual disease.” What is Maycomb’s usual disease?
Chapter 10
1. What does Scout wish were different about Atticus?
2. What does Atticus say about mockingbirds? Be very specific.
3. What does Atticus do that makes him a hero in the eyes of his children?
4. Why was Atticus the person to do this and not Heck Tate?
5. Why had Atticus given up shooting?
6. How does Jem feel about his father after the incident with the mad dog?
Chapter 11
1. What kind of woman is Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose?
2. How does Atticus expect the children to treat Mrs. Dubose?
3. What makes Jem so angry that he beats down Mrs. Dubose’s camellias?
4. What are Jem’s punishments for this act? How long was it supposed to last and how long did it last?
5. How does Atticus explain “nigger lover” to Scout?
6. How do the reading sessions finally end?
7. After her death, what does Atticus tell Jem about Mrs. Dubose? What was the point in the reading sessions?
Chapter 12
1. How old are the children at this point in the story?
2. What is disappointing about this summer?
3. Where does Calpurnia take the children on Sunday? Is this usual for them? Were they welcomed by everyone? Would this have been different if they were anyone else’s children?
4. What does Scout find unusual about the church that Calpurnia attends?
5. How did Calpurnia learn to speak proper English?
6. Why doesn’t Calpurnia speak proper English when speaking with other colored people?
7. What unpleasant surprise do the children receive when they return home after church?
Chapter 13
1. Why has Aunt Alexandra come to stay with the Finch family?
2. How does Aunt Alexandra fit in with Maycomb’s community?
Chapter 14
1. What does Aunt Alexandra suggest about Calpurnia?
2. Why does Alexandra want Calpurnia sent away? Do you think she would do all the work if Cal was gone?
3. When does Atticus say Scout will have to listen to Jem?
4. What does Scout find in her bedroom when she is sent to bed?
5. What does Scout mean when she says, “Jem broke the remaining code of our childhood?”
6. Compare and Contrast Scout’s home life with Dill’s.
Chapter 15
1. In Maycomb, what does it mean when grown men stand outside in the front yard to talk instead of coming into the house?
2. What side does Aunt Alexandra take concerning the trial?
3. When he goes and sits in front of the jail, what is Atticus worried might possibly happen?
4. How did Jem react towards the crowd?
5. What role did the children play in the jail incident?
6. How does Scout help the people in the mob to “crawl around in Atticus’s skin?”
Chapter 16
1. What does Atticus say about a mob?
2. Is Miss Maudie the kind of woman who would go to the trial just out of curiosity? Is Miss Stephanie Crawford? Explain your answer.
3. What is different about Mr. Dolphus Raymond?
4. What is the Idler’s Club?
5. One of the idler’s says, “You know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.” The other one says, “Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.” What is the meaning of this? Be sure to consider the time period.
6. Where do Jem and Scout sit to watch the trial? What is the significance of this?
Chapter 17
1. What position does Heck Tate hold in Maycomb? Describe Heck Tate’s testimony. Be specific.
2. What kind of people are the Ewells?
3. What is Mr. Ewell’s testimony?
4. What does Atticus have Mr. Ewell do? Why is this important?
Chapter 18
1. Through Mayella Ewell’s testimony, what impression about her home and family life does Atticus convey?
2. Describe Mayella’s testimony.
3. What is peculiar about Tom, which would lead one to believe he would find it difficult to grab, beat, and rape a woman?
4. What point 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. Why didn’t she pay him for the work that he did for her?
3. Describe Tom Robinson’s testimony.
4. What kind of man is Tom Robinson?
5. What is the fatal mistake that Tom makes in his testimony? Why is this such a horrendous mistake?
6. What is it that makes Dill feel sick? Why doesn’t this bother Scout and Jem?
Chapter 20
1. After Dill feels sick, whom do the children meet outside the courtroom?
2. What does Mr. Raymond drink from a paper bag?
3. Why does he want people to think that he’s a drunk?
4. Why did he let the children in on his secret?
5. In his speech to the jury, Atticus says he feels pity for the chief witness. Who is this and why does he pity this person?
6. Who beat Mayella Ewell? Why?
Chapter 21
1. Why does Calpurnia come into the courtroom? Why does this worry Atticus so much?
2. How does Scout know the verdict as soon as she sees the jury coming in?
3. Why does everyone in the balcony 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 that way for them, they night as well learn to cope with it?”
3. What has happened that makes Jem say, “It’s like being a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s what it is- like somethin’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, at least that’s what they seemed like.”?
4. Why does Dill ay he is going to be a clown when he grows up?
Chapter 23
1. What happens that seriously worries the children?
2. Does Atticus feel that he is in danger? Why or why not?
3. Does Atticus believe in the jury system? Be specific.
4. Does Atticus believe in capital punishment? Be specific.
5. What man on the jury took the longest to be convinced that Tom was guilty? Why is it so hard to believe that this is the man that tried to get Tom acquitted?
6. Why won’t Aunt Alexandrea allow Scout to have Walter Cunningham over for another dinner?
7. What does Jem believe that “background” is? Be specific. How would the following groups be rated and why: African Americans, Cunninghams, Ewells, and the Finchs & their neighbors.
8. What does Jem say about understanding Boo Radley?
Chapter 24
1. Why does Scout attend her aunt’s meetings and teas?
2. What is it about the ladies that seems amusing and ridiculous? Consider what they are concerned about.
3. What news is received about Tom Robinson?
4. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says, “They are paying the highest tribute to Atticus that they can pay to a man by trusting him to do right.”?
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 to tell Helen Robinson of her husband’s death?
3. Why is it that Mr. Underwood can say whatever he wants to in his newspaper?
4. Why is the book titled as it is?
5. What worry keeps cropping up for the children?
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 not persecuting anybody?
4. Why is Jem cross whenever the trial is mentioned?
Chapter 27
1. Why is Bob Ewell still causing trouble for everybody connected with the case? Explain some of the things that he has done.
2. What is to be different about Halloween this year? Why did this change come about?
3. What is Scout’s part in the Halloween pageant?
4. What is her costume made out of?
Chapter 28
1. What route do Jem and Scout take to go to the pageant?
2. What fright do Jem and Scout receive when they are on their way to the school?
3. Why do the children wait backstage until the audience has left the school?
4. Why does Scout have to wear her ham costume home?
5. What happens in the dark?
6. Who had attacked the children in the woods?
7. What happened to him?
Chapter 29
1. What saved Scout from being stabbed?
2. Who is the man in the corner who had saved the children and stabbed Bob Ewell?
3. Why is it logical that this man is the one to save the children? Consider his religion and what he would have been doing, the location, and why Atticus and the others would not have heard anything.
Chapter 30
1. What fantasy of Scout’s comes true in this chapter?
2. Whom does Atticus think stabbed Bob Ewell? Why is this not possible?
3. Whom does Heck Tate think stabbed Bob Ewell? Why is it logical that this is the person who did it? Consider everything.
4. Why do the two men, Heck and Atticus, agree to say that the stabbing had been accidental (Ewell falling on his knife)? How does this relate to the title of the book?
Chapter 31
1. What does Scout realize as she stands on the porch after Boo goes in?
2. What does this teach us about “walking around in other people’s skin”?
1. What is the relationship between Scout and Atticus?
2. How old was Scout when her mother died?
3. Describe the Radley place.
4. What were the legal charges the boys were charged with? Which one was unusual?
5. What was the punishment for the boys going to be? Why is it that during this time period this may not have been such a bad punishment?
6. Why does Mr. Radley’s boy stay gone for fifteen years?
7. What did Boo Radley do when he was 33? How was he punished? Describe the first and second stage of his punishment, and the necessity of the second stage.
Chapter 2
1. Where is Miss Caroline Fisher from? What is the significance of this region?
2. What was the children’s reaction to the story that Miss Caroline read? Explain why they reacted this way.
3. What has Atticus done that Miss Caroline does not approve of? How does this make a point for the importance of reading to young children?
4. Why doesn’t Walter Cunningham borrow the quarter from Miss Caroline?
5. Describe the Cunningham family.
Chapter 3
1. During lunch, what lesson does Scout learn about company?
2. What happens between Miss Caroline and Burris Ewell?
3. Describe the Ewell family.
Chapter 4
1. What did Scout find in a tree?
2. Why did Cecil Jacobs walk a mile per school day?
3. Why does Scout end up in the Radley’s yard?
4. What do Jem, Scout, and Dill start playing?
Chapter 5
1. What do foot-washer Baptists believe?
2. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says, “…sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hands of oh, of your father.”?
3. What plan do Dill and Jem devise to get Boo Radley to come out of the house?
4. Dill is lying about his daddy. Why would he make up lies about his father? Consider the time period.
Chapter 6
1. What do Dill, Scout and Jem decide to do on Dill’s last night in Maycomb?
2. Who does Mr. Radley say he shot at? What makes us think Mr. Radley knew who he was really shooting at?
3. What happened to Jem’s pants? How does he explain this to Atticus?
4. Why does Jem sneak out of the house later that night?
Chapter 7
1. Who do you think is leaving the items in the tree?
2. Why does Mr. Radley say he plugged the hole with cement? Does this seem like it is true, why or why not? What do you think the real motivation is?
Chapter 8
1. Who died that winter?
2. Why does Scout think the world is coming to an end?
3. On the coldest night of the winter, what happened in the middle of the night?
4. What was Miss Maudie most worried about?
5. Where did the third truck come from?
6. Who put the blanket around Scout?
Chapter 9
1. Why does Scout get in 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 Atticus expect to win the case? Be very specific.
5. How does Alexandra feel about the way Scout and Jem are being brought up?
6. Why does Scout get into a fight with her cousin Francis?
7. What lesson did Uncle Jack learn?
8. Atticus says,”…I hope I can get Jem and Scout through this without bitterness, and most of all without catching Maycomb’s usual disease.” What is Maycomb’s usual disease?
Chapter 10
1. What does Scout wish were different about Atticus?
2. What does Atticus say about mockingbirds? Be very specific.
3. What does Atticus do that makes him a hero in the eyes of his children?
4. Why was Atticus the person to do this and not Heck Tate?
5. Why had Atticus given up shooting?
6. How does Jem feel about his father after the incident with the mad dog?
Chapter 11
1. What kind of woman is Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose?
2. How does Atticus expect the children to treat Mrs. Dubose?
3. What makes Jem so angry that he beats down Mrs. Dubose’s camellias?
4. What are Jem’s punishments for this act? How long was it supposed to last and how long did it last?
5. How does Atticus explain “nigger lover” to Scout?
6. How do the reading sessions finally end?
7. After her death, what does Atticus tell Jem about Mrs. Dubose? What was the point in the reading sessions?
Chapter 12
1. How old are the children at this point in the story?
2. What is disappointing about this summer?
3. Where does Calpurnia take the children on Sunday? Is this usual for them? Were they welcomed by everyone? Would this have been different if they were anyone else’s children?
4. What does Scout find unusual about the church that Calpurnia attends?
5. How did Calpurnia learn to speak proper English?
6. Why doesn’t Calpurnia speak proper English when speaking with other colored people?
7. What unpleasant surprise do the children receive when they return home after church?
Chapter 13
1. Why has Aunt Alexandra come to stay with the Finch family?
2. How does Aunt Alexandra fit in with Maycomb’s community?
Chapter 14
1. What does Aunt Alexandra suggest about Calpurnia?
2. Why does Alexandra want Calpurnia sent away? Do you think she would do all the work if Cal was gone?
3. When does Atticus say Scout will have to listen to Jem?
4. What does Scout find in her bedroom when she is sent to bed?
5. What does Scout mean when she says, “Jem broke the remaining code of our childhood?”
6. Compare and Contrast Scout’s home life with Dill’s.
Chapter 15
1. In Maycomb, what does it mean when grown men stand outside in the front yard to talk instead of coming into the house?
2. What side does Aunt Alexandra take concerning the trial?
3. When he goes and sits in front of the jail, what is Atticus worried might possibly happen?
4. How did Jem react towards the crowd?
5. What role did the children play in the jail incident?
6. How does Scout help the people in the mob to “crawl around in Atticus’s skin?”
Chapter 16
1. What does Atticus say about a mob?
2. Is Miss Maudie the kind of woman who would go to the trial just out of curiosity? Is Miss Stephanie Crawford? Explain your answer.
3. What is different about Mr. Dolphus Raymond?
4. What is the Idler’s Club?
5. One of the idler’s says, “You know the court appointed him to defend this nigger.” The other one says, “Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it.” What is the meaning of this? Be sure to consider the time period.
6. Where do Jem and Scout sit to watch the trial? What is the significance of this?
Chapter 17
1. What position does Heck Tate hold in Maycomb? Describe Heck Tate’s testimony. Be specific.
2. What kind of people are the Ewells?
3. What is Mr. Ewell’s testimony?
4. What does Atticus have Mr. Ewell do? Why is this important?
Chapter 18
1. Through Mayella Ewell’s testimony, what impression about her home and family life does Atticus convey?
2. Describe Mayella’s testimony.
3. What is peculiar about Tom, which would lead one to believe he would find it difficult to grab, beat, and rape a woman?
4. What point 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. Why didn’t she pay him for the work that he did for her?
3. Describe Tom Robinson’s testimony.
4. What kind of man is Tom Robinson?
5. What is the fatal mistake that Tom makes in his testimony? Why is this such a horrendous mistake?
6. What is it that makes Dill feel sick? Why doesn’t this bother Scout and Jem?
Chapter 20
1. After Dill feels sick, whom do the children meet outside the courtroom?
2. What does Mr. Raymond drink from a paper bag?
3. Why does he want people to think that he’s a drunk?
4. Why did he let the children in on his secret?
5. In his speech to the jury, Atticus says he feels pity for the chief witness. Who is this and why does he pity this person?
6. Who beat Mayella Ewell? Why?
Chapter 21
1. Why does Calpurnia come into the courtroom? Why does this worry Atticus so much?
2. How does Scout know the verdict as soon as she sees the jury coming in?
3. Why does everyone in the balcony 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 that way for them, they night as well learn to cope with it?”
3. What has happened that makes Jem say, “It’s like being a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s what it is- like somethin’ asleep wrapped up in a warm place. I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, at least that’s what they seemed like.”?
4. Why does Dill ay he is going to be a clown when he grows up?
Chapter 23
1. What happens that seriously worries the children?
2. Does Atticus feel that he is in danger? Why or why not?
3. Does Atticus believe in the jury system? Be specific.
4. Does Atticus believe in capital punishment? Be specific.
5. What man on the jury took the longest to be convinced that Tom was guilty? Why is it so hard to believe that this is the man that tried to get Tom acquitted?
6. Why won’t Aunt Alexandrea allow Scout to have Walter Cunningham over for another dinner?
7. What does Jem believe that “background” is? Be specific. How would the following groups be rated and why: African Americans, Cunninghams, Ewells, and the Finchs & their neighbors.
8. What does Jem say about understanding Boo Radley?
Chapter 24
1. Why does Scout attend her aunt’s meetings and teas?
2. What is it about the ladies that seems amusing and ridiculous? Consider what they are concerned about.
3. What news is received about Tom Robinson?
4. What does Miss Maudie mean when she says, “They are paying the highest tribute to Atticus that they can pay to a man by trusting him to do right.”?
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 to tell Helen Robinson of her husband’s death?
3. Why is it that Mr. Underwood can say whatever he wants to in his newspaper?
4. Why is the book titled as it is?
5. What worry keeps cropping up for the children?
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 not persecuting anybody?
4. Why is Jem cross whenever the trial is mentioned?
Chapter 27
1. Why is Bob Ewell still causing trouble for everybody connected with the case? Explain some of the things that he has done.
2. What is to be different about Halloween this year? Why did this change come about?
3. What is Scout’s part in the Halloween pageant?
4. What is her costume made out of?
Chapter 28
1. What route do Jem and Scout take to go to the pageant?
2. What fright do Jem and Scout receive when they are on their way to the school?
3. Why do the children wait backstage until the audience has left the school?
4. Why does Scout have to wear her ham costume home?
5. What happens in the dark?
6. Who had attacked the children in the woods?
7. What happened to him?
Chapter 29
1. What saved Scout from being stabbed?
2. Who is the man in the corner who had saved the children and stabbed Bob Ewell?
3. Why is it logical that this man is the one to save the children? Consider his religion and what he would have been doing, the location, and why Atticus and the others would not have heard anything.
Chapter 30
1. What fantasy of Scout’s comes true in this chapter?
2. Whom does Atticus think stabbed Bob Ewell? Why is this not possible?
3. Whom does Heck Tate think stabbed Bob Ewell? Why is it logical that this is the person who did it? Consider everything.
4. Why do the two men, Heck and Atticus, agree to say that the stabbing had been accidental (Ewell falling on his knife)? How does this relate to the title of the book?
Chapter 31
1. What does Scout realize as she stands on the porch after Boo goes in?
2. What does this teach us about “walking around in other people’s skin”?