To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a MockingBird
Chapter Summaries
Casie's Summaries
Chapter 2 Summary
In chapter 2, scout faces school for the first time. She was excited for it before she went but when she got there her opinion changed. Her teacher Miss Caroline found out that Scout's father Atticus had been teaching her to read before she went to school. Miss Caroline continues to make Scout feel bad that she already knew how to read. Throughout the rest of the day Scout deals with her teacher's bad attitude and lack of ability to deal with children. Miss Caroline then yelled at one kid named Walter Cunningham for not having a lunch. She offered him a quarter to got buy a lunch and to pay her back the next day but he declines it. Scout attempts to explain why Walter can't take the quarter because his family is too poor to pay her back but she gets yelled at once more. Scout changes her opinion about school, deciding she does not like it and doesn't want to go the next day.
In chapter 2, scout faces school for the first time. She was excited for it before she went but when she got there her opinion changed. Her teacher Miss Caroline found out that Scout's father Atticus had been teaching her to read before she went to school. Miss Caroline continues to make Scout feel bad that she already knew how to read. Throughout the rest of the day Scout deals with her teacher's bad attitude and lack of ability to deal with children. Miss Caroline then yelled at one kid named Walter Cunningham for not having a lunch. She offered him a quarter to got buy a lunch and to pay her back the next day but he declines it. Scout attempts to explain why Walter can't take the quarter because his family is too poor to pay her back but she gets yelled at once more. Scout changes her opinion about school, deciding she does not like it and doesn't want to go the next day.
Chapter 4 Summary
In chapter 4, while walking home from school Scout comes across a tree on the Radley property. She sees a hole and reaches into it. Surprised, she finds two pieces of gum. She puts both pieces into her mouth and begins chewing it. When she got home she told Jem about it. Jem worries and tells her to spit it out. Reluctantly she does. On the last day of school Scout checks the tree again. This time, her and her brother find two shiny pennies. After discussing it, they decide to keep them. Finally school is over and summer begins. Jem and Scout's friend Dill returns to Maycomb for the summer. The three start to act out the Boo Radley legend. Over time, it begins to become more complicated. After a while of playing time game Atticus sees them playing it outside. He asks if it had anything related to Boo Radley. They say no but then have second thoughts about the game later.
Chapter 14 Summary
In chapter 14, Jem lectures Scout about how she shouldn't disrespect her aunt Alexandra. Angered, Scout attacks Jem. Atticus finally walks in and breaks up the fight. The two stop fighting and go to bed. Scout then steps on something. Thinking it's a snake, she calls in Jem to help her get rid of it. When they turn the light on they see that it was not a snake, but their friend Dill. Dill had run away from his house and came to Maycomb to get away from his parents. Jem goes and tells Atticus that Dill has gotten into their house, and Atticus lets him stay for a bit. After eating a little, Dill goes to Scout's bed and wants to talk to her. They talk about random things and eventually end to conversation on the subject of Boo Radley.
Chapter 28 Summary
In chapter 28, Scout and Jem go to a Halloween party at school. Scout dresses up as a ham for a pageant and then falls asleep and missed her cue to go on. She runs onto the stage and tries to go on, but the pageant lady gets mad and yells at her. Jem and Scout are then too embarrassed to show their face when the crowd leaves the building so they wait backstage until everyone leaves. When they leave, they walk back all by themselves. They hear someone following them and they assume it’s just someone trying to scare them. But to their surprise someone starts running after them. Scout and Jem attempt to run, but Scout fell leaving her in a bad state. Jem then tries to help Scout get out safely but is pulled back by the attacker. She hears Jem’s arm break and goes to help him but is then pulled back. Scout tried to feel on the ground for Jem but finds a man. She tries to find her way home and sees Jem being carried home by someone. Once they got home, they told Atticus what happened. Scout’s Aunt called a doctor while Atticus calls Heck Tate and tells him what happened. The doctor says Jem is just unconscious and has a broken arm. Scout goes to see Jem and finds someone she doesn’t recognize in his room. Heck Tate tells Atticus that Bob Ewell is dead with a knife in his chest.
Alex's Summaries
Chapter 1 Summary
Chapter 1 begins with Scout foreshadowing some events that occur in the last chapter. In this chapter Jem and Scout find a young boy in the field behind Mrs. Rachel’s house. His name is Charles Baker Harris; he tells Jem and Scout that his name is too long, so he tells them to simply call him Dill. Jem and Scout quickly become friends with Dill. Jem and Scout decide to share with Dill the Radley house secret. Dill was obviously intrigued by the story and wants to investigate further. Dill comes up with a little dare for Jem to complete regarding the haunted house; he has to touch it. That’s all he had to do, but for Jem it was an extremely difficult decision. Jem was afraid of the ‘ghost’ of Boo Radley, but he also never turned down a dare; Jem was conflicted. He ponders if it was worth it for days, until he finally accepts, Jem throws the gate open and sprinted to the side of the house slapping it with his palm. Then he runs off the property as fast as he can, afraid that Boo would catch him! Luckily for Jem he touched house and hasn’t gotten caught, yet.
Chapter 8 Summary
Chapter 8 begins with Maycomb County having one of the coldest winters of their history! Jem and Scout see snow for the first time and decide that they want to build a snowman; they also decide that they want to make it resemble Mr. Avery! Atticus fondly scolds them about how much it looked like Mr. Avery, even though he thought it was quite funny! He also helped them change the snowman a little bit so it wouldn’t look so much like Mr. Avery. After this, Atticus woke Jem and Scout up at the early hours of the morning hurriedly, with no explanation. He had asked the children to wait outside on the curb while Atticus went to help with the raging fire that was consuming Mrs. Maudie’s house. (like this) Scout and Jem watched in horror as the town help get out all of the stuff they could while the house was falling apart. The only fire truck in the county comes to help put out the fire for Mrs. Maudie. When the truck came Atticus walked the kids back home. When Atticus pointed out that Scout had a blanket placed over her and that Boo Radley had put it there, Jem went crazy; telling Atticus about all of the times they tried to see Boo and saying that Mr. Radley stopped Boo from giving them gifts and he was very angry that Mr. Radley closed the hole in the oak tree where Boo was suspected to be giving them small gifts. Jem then goes on to say that Boo never hurt them and they just want to see him once, Atticus then promises that when they see him they’ll thank him for everything he’s done for them.
Chapter 12 Summary
In this chapter Jem and Scout go to Church with Calpurnia, their maid/practically mother. She dresses them up nicely in a suit and dress and they’re off! The Church has a beautiful steeple bell that was purchased with money earned from free slaves; judging from that you could probably tell that small white children don’t get the warmest of welcomes. A tall black woman named Lula lurked over them, asking, “I want’s to know why you bringin’ white chillun to niger church.” Calpurnia persistently argues that these kids were with her and she watches them during the week. Lula wouldn’t give up though, she is outraged that Calpurnia would even think about bringing white children into this black church! Then the garbage collector Zeebo decided that enough was enough! He convinced everyone that Jem and Scout had as much right to be here as they did, and so they went in. They were greeted by Reverend Skyes, who warmly welcomed them and lead them to the front of the church. The church didn’t have any hymn books, so reverend Skyes sang one line then the crowd sang them right back to them. It was a new experience for Jem and Scout because 1, they’ve never been near that many negro’s before and 2 because they have always had hymn books in their churches. After church Calpurnia, Scout and Jem went home only to find Aunt Alexandria sitting on their porch like she has been sitting there her whole life.
Chapter 17 Summary
Mr. Gilmer questions Mr. Heck Tate on what happened the 21st of November, the night Mayella was raped. He says that Bob Ewell had come to his work and told him that his daughter had been raped. Mr. Heck Tate said that he went and dragged Tom Robinson to the scene and she identified him as her rapist. Atticus then asks Mr. Heck Tate if a doctor was summoned; there was not. He also tells Atticus that the bruises were mostly forming on the right side of her face. Then, Bob Ewell was called to the stand. Bob Ewell and his children all live behind the dump and have trash all strone along their front yard, with only one spot of nice flowers that were cared for by Mayella. Bob says that he was coming back from the woods with kindling and he heard his daughter screaming. He ran up to the house and looked in the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her! Tom fled the scene, then Mr. Ewell went into the house to check if she was okay; then he ran to get the sheriff. Atticus then asks the same question to Mr. Ewell; why was no doctor called? Mr. Ewell says that it was too expensive and there was no need. Then he tells Ewell to write his name, and he writes it with his left hand. The jury then sees that he’s left handed; and a left handed man is more likely to leave bruises on the right of a girl’s face.
Chapter 1 begins with Scout foreshadowing some events that occur in the last chapter. In this chapter Jem and Scout find a young boy in the field behind Mrs. Rachel’s house. His name is Charles Baker Harris; he tells Jem and Scout that his name is too long, so he tells them to simply call him Dill. Jem and Scout quickly become friends with Dill. Jem and Scout decide to share with Dill the Radley house secret. Dill was obviously intrigued by the story and wants to investigate further. Dill comes up with a little dare for Jem to complete regarding the haunted house; he has to touch it. That’s all he had to do, but for Jem it was an extremely difficult decision. Jem was afraid of the ‘ghost’ of Boo Radley, but he also never turned down a dare; Jem was conflicted. He ponders if it was worth it for days, until he finally accepts, Jem throws the gate open and sprinted to the side of the house slapping it with his palm. Then he runs off the property as fast as he can, afraid that Boo would catch him! Luckily for Jem he touched house and hasn’t gotten caught, yet.
Chapter 8 Summary
Chapter 8 begins with Maycomb County having one of the coldest winters of their history! Jem and Scout see snow for the first time and decide that they want to build a snowman; they also decide that they want to make it resemble Mr. Avery! Atticus fondly scolds them about how much it looked like Mr. Avery, even though he thought it was quite funny! He also helped them change the snowman a little bit so it wouldn’t look so much like Mr. Avery. After this, Atticus woke Jem and Scout up at the early hours of the morning hurriedly, with no explanation. He had asked the children to wait outside on the curb while Atticus went to help with the raging fire that was consuming Mrs. Maudie’s house. (like this) Scout and Jem watched in horror as the town help get out all of the stuff they could while the house was falling apart. The only fire truck in the county comes to help put out the fire for Mrs. Maudie. When the truck came Atticus walked the kids back home. When Atticus pointed out that Scout had a blanket placed over her and that Boo Radley had put it there, Jem went crazy; telling Atticus about all of the times they tried to see Boo and saying that Mr. Radley stopped Boo from giving them gifts and he was very angry that Mr. Radley closed the hole in the oak tree where Boo was suspected to be giving them small gifts. Jem then goes on to say that Boo never hurt them and they just want to see him once, Atticus then promises that when they see him they’ll thank him for everything he’s done for them.
Chapter 12 Summary
In this chapter Jem and Scout go to Church with Calpurnia, their maid/practically mother. She dresses them up nicely in a suit and dress and they’re off! The Church has a beautiful steeple bell that was purchased with money earned from free slaves; judging from that you could probably tell that small white children don’t get the warmest of welcomes. A tall black woman named Lula lurked over them, asking, “I want’s to know why you bringin’ white chillun to niger church.” Calpurnia persistently argues that these kids were with her and she watches them during the week. Lula wouldn’t give up though, she is outraged that Calpurnia would even think about bringing white children into this black church! Then the garbage collector Zeebo decided that enough was enough! He convinced everyone that Jem and Scout had as much right to be here as they did, and so they went in. They were greeted by Reverend Skyes, who warmly welcomed them and lead them to the front of the church. The church didn’t have any hymn books, so reverend Skyes sang one line then the crowd sang them right back to them. It was a new experience for Jem and Scout because 1, they’ve never been near that many negro’s before and 2 because they have always had hymn books in their churches. After church Calpurnia, Scout and Jem went home only to find Aunt Alexandria sitting on their porch like she has been sitting there her whole life.
Chapter 17 Summary
Mr. Gilmer questions Mr. Heck Tate on what happened the 21st of November, the night Mayella was raped. He says that Bob Ewell had come to his work and told him that his daughter had been raped. Mr. Heck Tate said that he went and dragged Tom Robinson to the scene and she identified him as her rapist. Atticus then asks Mr. Heck Tate if a doctor was summoned; there was not. He also tells Atticus that the bruises were mostly forming on the right side of her face. Then, Bob Ewell was called to the stand. Bob Ewell and his children all live behind the dump and have trash all strone along their front yard, with only one spot of nice flowers that were cared for by Mayella. Bob says that he was coming back from the woods with kindling and he heard his daughter screaming. He ran up to the house and looked in the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her! Tom fled the scene, then Mr. Ewell went into the house to check if she was okay; then he ran to get the sheriff. Atticus then asks the same question to Mr. Ewell; why was no doctor called? Mr. Ewell says that it was too expensive and there was no need. Then he tells Ewell to write his name, and he writes it with his left hand. The jury then sees that he’s left handed; and a left handed man is more likely to leave bruises on the right of a girl’s face.