Chapter+One

= Chapter 1 =


 * Synopsis: ** The reader is introduced to the narrator, Scout, who describes her family's history and her town, Maycomb. She and her brother, Jem, are also introduced to Dill, and the children share stories and fantasies about the mystery man next door.

"...Jem's fears of never being able to play football were **assuaged**" (3).

**assuaged (vb.): to assuage** is to lessen or to calm. Therefore, if Jem's fears about being able to play football were **assuaged**, it means that he no longer feared that he wouldn't be able to play the sport.

"I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it had really begun with ** Andrew Jackson **" (3).

**Andrew Jackson:** 7th President of the United States (1829-1837). Find out **__ more about Andrew Jackson. __**

"Being southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the **Battle of Hastings"** (3).

**Battle of Hastings:** a decisive battle in the Norman Conquests of England in 1066. Find out more about the **__ Battle of Hastings. __**

"All we had was Simon Finch, a fur-trading **apothecary** from **Cornwall** whose piety was exceeded only by his stinginess" (p. 3).


 * apothecary ** (n.): an early form of a pharmacist, apothecaries could also prescribe drugs.
 * Cornwall: ** a country at the southwest tip of England.

"In England, Simon was irritated by the persecution of those who called themselves **Methodists** at the hands of their more liberal **brethren**" (3).

**Methodists** (n): members of a branch of a Protestant Christian denomination. Find out more about the **__ United Methodist Church. __**


 * brethren (n.): ** in this case, members of a particular church or sect

"Mindful of **John Wesley's strictures"** (4).


 * John Wesley: ** (1702-1791) Founder of the Methodist Church.


 * strictures ** (n.): conditions or rules

"So Simon, having forgotten his teacher's **dictum** on the possession of **human chattels,** bought three slaves" (4).
 * Dictum ** (n.): in this case, a formal statement of principle


 * human chattels **(n.): slaves

Simon would have regarded with **impotent** fury the disturbance between the North and the South" (4).


 * Impotent (adj.): powerless ** . Simon's fury and anger regarding the Civil War impotent would certainly have been impotent because there would have been nothing he could have done about it.

"She married a** taciturn **man" (4).


 * Taciturn ** (adj.): almost always silent. Apparently, Aunt Alexandra's husband was a very quiet man.

"Atticus's office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a **spittoon,** a checkerboard..." (4).


 * spittoon ** (n.): a jarlike container to spit into; usually used to spit tobacco juice into.

"The Haverfords...we** re imprudent **enough to do it in the presence of three witnesses" (5).
 * Imprudent ** (adj.): To be imprudent is to be foolish or unwise. Since the Haverfords did something illegal in front of witnesses, Lee rightfully describes them as imprudent.

"There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and **no money to buy it with"** (5).


 * no money to buy it with: ** an allusion to the Great Depression. Find out about the **__ stock market crash __** that led to the Depression, and see a **__ timeline for the Great Depression. __**

"Maycomb County had recently been told that it had **nothing to fear but fear itself** " (6).
 * nothing to fear but fear itself: ** an allusion to __President Franklin D. Roosevelt's__ first Inaugural Address. To watch an excerpt of the speech, [|**click here.**]

"Dill had seen **//Dracula"//** (7).


 * // Dracula //**// : // the 1931 film version of the famous vampire story. [|**Click here**] to see a preview for the movie.

"Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket** Merlin **" (8).
 * Merlin: ** King Arthur's adviser, prophet and magician.

"But by the end of August our **repertoire was vapid** from countless reproductions" (8)
 * repertoire was vapid: ** (n. + adj.): a repertoire is all the special skills a person has; vapid, in this case, means boring or uninteresting. So, when Scout says that their repertoire was vapid, she means that the games they had invented to pass the time had become old and had lost their interest.

"Inside the house lived a **malevolent** phantom" (8).
 * malevolent ** (adj.): evil

"The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a **predilection** unforgivable in Maycomb" (9).
 * predilection ** (n.): a predilection is a preference, or a preferred way of doing something. Thus, the Radley's preferred way of spending a Sunday afternoon was to keep the doors closed and not receive visitors

"An enormous and confusing tribe **domiciled** in the northern part of the county" (10).


 * Domiciled ** (vb.): A domicile is a house or a place where a person lives. If you are domiciled somewhere, that is where you live. The Finch family lived in the northern part of the county.

"They experimented with **stumphole whiskey**" (10).


 * stumphole whiskey: ** illegally made and sold whiskey that would be hidden in the holes of tree stumps.

"The boys backed around the square in a borrowed **flivver"** (10).


 * flivver: ** another name for a Model-T Ford

"Maycomb's ancient **beadle,** Mr. Conner" (10).


 * beadle ** (n.): a minor city official, lower in rank than either a sheriff or a policeman, whose main duties revolve around preserving order at various civil functions such as trials and town hall meetings.

__ "So Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood **scold"** (11). __

__** Scold ** (n.): A scold is a person who scolds; that is, someone who often finds fault with people or things (and usually lets you know about it under no uncertain terms) __

__Boo's transition from the basement to back home was** nebulous **in Jem's memory" (11)."__

__** nebulous: ** having an uncertain meaning. In this case, Jem isn't exactly sure how and why Boo was transferred from the courthouse basement to home. __
 * __**

"Not waiting to see if his **foray** was successful" (15).


 * Foray ** (n.): When you make a foray, you go somewhere or do something that is unusual or not normal for you. It was certainly not Jem's usual behavior to go near the Radley house; thus, doing so was a foray for him.