QUESTIONS A

  • What message do you think is being conveyed about education in chapters 1-4?
  • Compare and Contrast this to your views of today’s public education. What were your findings?
  • Why do you think Boo has the reputation he does?
  • What events in the story, so far, make you realize these rumors are possibly not true? In other words, how is the view of “idea” of who Boo is changing and what are your views on this?
  • Based on the info you have been given in the novel, however true it may or may not be, what do you think went on behind closed doors of the Radley House? with Mr. Radley, with Mrs. Radley, with Boo, with Nathan.

How do you think the family situation was with husband and wife, with mom

and her kids, or with dad and his kids?

QUESTIONS B

  • Analyze Atticus’s following statement towards the end of chapter 3: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
  • What is another phrase we may use today to mean the same?
  • Do you think Scout truly understand this when Atticus says this to her? Does she eventually display an understanding of this in the first 8 chapters? Explain and if your answer is yes, then state when this “maturity” or understanding occurs. What does this say about Scout and how she views Atticus and his advice on life?
  • Can we really understand others’ feeling and/or points of view if our experiences are completely different or do we have to experience it for ourselves? In other words, if someone tries to give us relationship advice that would be the right avenue to take, do we take it or do we really have to experience it ourselves to understand, even if the outcome ends up being more painful? Explain.

QUESTIONS C

  • Contrast Miss Stephanie to Miss Maudie based on their personalities, how the town views each lady, and what you think
  • How typical is she of Maycomb’s women?
  • What were your views of Dill when you first met him, by chapter 4, by chapter 8? Did they change drastically, a little, or not at all? Explain.
  • Why do you think he is such a big fibber?
  • Do you feel sorry for him or not? Explain

QUESTIONS D

  • On page 56, Miss Maudie Atkinson describes nut grass as a weed that has to be poisoned and destroyed quickly or it can rapidly spread to other yards. Explain how this could have a deeper thematic meaning in the town. This will also continue to become more significant in part two of the novel.
  • In chapter 6, it was mentioned that there was a lady in the moon in Maycomb who sat at her dresser combing her hair versus the typical statement of “the man in the moon.” Why do you think Harper Lee uses this visual or expression instead of the more common one? What does this say about Maycomb County and the view of women during this time period?
  • Why does being called “a girl” bother Scout so much? What are her views on what it means to be female?
  • How are the kids, Jem especially, getting braver in regards to interacting with the Radley yard/lot? How are they displaying they are still believing the rumors over the years?
  • Why are children oftentimes more gullible and more imaginative in their beliefs than adults? Or do you disagree with this assumption? Explain

QUESTIONS E

DISCLAIMER—THESE QUESTIONS PERTAIN TO RELIGIOUS VIEWS THAT ARE VISIBLE IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AND WILL STIMULATE DISCUSSION AND HEALTY DEBATES TO DEVELOP A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE THEMES IN THE NOVEL PERTAINING TO SMALLTOWN VIEWS, RACISM, AND FIGHTING FOR WHAT ONE BELIEVES IS RIGHT.

  • What is a foot washing Baptist allude to in biblical history and what does Miss Maudie mean when she refers to Mr. Radley as one?
  • If you have ever heard the term Southern Baptist, based on what you have heard or know first hand, what is the difference between a Baptist and a Southern Baptist?
  • Do you think not going to church means a person cannot be devout? Answer this question as a member of Maycomb County in this novel, as a member of a small farming town in Ohio today, as a member of a small town in Alabama today, and as a member of an urban city such as Cleveland, Atlanta, or even New York City.
  • Based on Maycomb County, explain the phrase “Matches were dangerous, but cards were fatal” stated when Dill said he won Jem’s pants during a gambling card game (Lee 73). How can this phrase be a stereotypical small-town religious view? How is this humorous or ironic? Does your group agree or disagree with the statement? Why or why not?

QUESTIONS F

DISCLAIMER—THESE QUESTIONS PERTAIN TO RELIGIOUS VIEWS THAT ARE VISIBLE IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AND WILL STIMULATE DISCUSSION AND HEALTY DEBATES TO DEVELOP A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE THEMES IN THE NOVEL PERTAINING TO SMALLTOWN VIEWS, RACISM, AND FIGHTING FOR WHAT ONE BELIEVES IS RIGHT.

  • Miss Maudie makes a comment that some people automatically consider women to be directly connected to sin or “are a sin by definition” (Lee 59). Based on biblical views, why would that be? Based on the time period when the novel was written, why could that possibly be? How are women viewed today? Do these views vary? Is there a view of women in today’s society that would slightly resemble those views of women to which Miss Maudie is referring? Explain
  • Explain what Miss Maudie means in the following quotes:

“…but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one hand is worse than a whiskey

bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father” (Lee 60).

“There are just some kind of men who—who’re so busy worrying about the

next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down

the streets and see the results” (Lee 60).

Explain the quotes above in connection to the novel. Then, discuss, as a

group what you think about these quotes in general or in connection to if

people behave or behaved these ways in today’s society.

  • “…it is not until one reached the sixth grade that one learned anything of value” (Lee 79). Do you agree with Jem’s views he bestowed upon his sister or not? Base your answer on your own education and when you truly felt like learning was truly happening in the classroom.

QUESTIONS G

  • Explain how Jem is changing. Yes, he is growing up, but what events have you noticed have caused him to analyze, to understand the bigger picture, to become upset, etc?
  • “Can’t anybody tell what I’m gonna do lest they know me, can they, Scout?” (Lee 78). This quote stated by Jem was based on finding his pants neatly folded and mended, although unprofessionally, which freaks Jem out because he feels no one can figure out what he is going to do unless they really know him like a close friend or a family member. So why does this upset him? What deeper meaning or bigger picture does this statement actually convey? Who do you think mended his pants and left them neatly folded for Jem to find?
  • After discovering many gifts in the knothole in the tree, Jem begins to ponder something that we later can infer what he discovered. He and Scout decide to write a letter and put in the tree; however, their plan is foiled by Nathan Radley who admits, when he is asked by Jem, that he plugged up the tree. This would stop the gift giving. Nathan tells Jem that when a tree is dying or is sick, one has to plug up the tree’s holes with cement. Later, we discover the tree, according to Atticus, was not dying. Who could this tree be metaphorically and why would Nathan want to plug up the holes? Dig deeper. What do you think is actually happening here?