To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Summary :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

CH. 1 Scout, the narrator, remembers the summer that her brother Jem broke his arm, and she looks back over the years to recall the incidents that led to that climactic event. Scout provides a brief introduction to the town of Maycomb, Alabama and its inhabitants, including her widowed father Atticus Finch, attorney and state legislator; Calpurnia, their â€Å"Negro† cook and housekeeper; and various neighbors. The story starts with the first summer that Scout and Jem meet Dill, a little boy from Meridian, Mississippi who spends the summers with his aunt, the Finch’s next-door neighbor Miss Rachel Haverford. From the children’s point of view, their most compelling neighbor is Boo Radley, a recluse whom none of them has ever seen. Dill’s fascination, in particular, leads to all sorts of games and plans to try and get Boo to come outside. Their attempts culminate in a dare to Jem, which he grudgingly takes. Jem runs into the Radley’s yard and touches the outside of the house. CH. 2 - 3 Dill goes back to Mississippi for the school year, and Scout turns her attention to starting first grade—something she’s been waiting for all her life. However, Scout’s first day at school is not at all the glorious experience she’d been expecting from the winters she spent â€Å"looking over at the schoolyard, spying on multitudes of children through a two-power telescope . . . learning their games, . . . secretly sharing their misfortunes and minor victories.† Scout’s teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher, is new to teaching, new to Maycomb, and mortified that Scout already knows how to read and write. When Miss Caroline offers to lend Walter Cunningham lunch money, Scout is punished for taking it upon herself to explain Miss Caroline’s faux pas to her. (Walter refuses to take the money because his family is too poor to pay it back.) Scout catches Walter on the playground, and starts to pummel him in retaliation for her embarrassment, but Jem stops her and then further surprises her by inviting Walter to have lunch with them. Scout is then punished by Calpurnia for criticizing Walter’s table manners. Back at school, Miss Caroline has a confrontation with Burris Ewell about his â€Å"cooties† and the fact that he only attends school on the first day of the year. That evening, Scout tells Atticus about her day, hoping that she won’t have to go back to school—after all, Burris Ewell doesn’t. Atticus explains why the Ewells get special consideration and then tells Scout, â€Å"‘You never really understand a person .