To Kill a Mockingbird Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key characters, concepts, and events from Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

Simon Finch

A fur-trapping apothecary from Cornwall whose piety was exceeded only by his stinginess; he established Finch's Landing on the Alabama River.

Finch's Landing

The self-sufficient homestead established by Simon Finch, where the family lived off the land and made their living from cotton.

Atticus Finch

The father of Scout and Jem, a Maycomb lawyer and former state legislator known for his integrity and known as 'Ol' One-Shot' for his marksmanship.

Charles Baker Harris (Dill)

A small boy from Meridian, Mississippi, who visits his Aunt Rachel every summer; he is characterized by his snow-white hair and eccentric imagination.

Boo Radley (Arthur Radley)

A reclusive neighbor whom the town considers a 'malevolent phantom'; he later saves Jem and Scout's lives.

Calpurnia

The Finch family's cook, described as 'all angles and bones' and nearsighted; she is a mother figure who can read and speak both 'white-folks' talk' and 'colored-folks' talk'.

Miss Caroline Fisher

Scout’s first-grade teacher from Winston County, North Alabama, who was unfamiliar with Maycomb's ways and discouraged Scout from reading at home.

Dewey Decimal System

The name Jem incorrectly uses to describe the card-waving teaching method introduced by Miss Caroline in the first grade.

The Cunninghams

A large tribe of country folks from Old Sarum who are farmers; they never take anything they can't pay back and were hit hardest by 'the crash'.

Entailment

A legal condition regarding land ownership that affected Mr. Cunningham; Jem describes it as a condition of 'having your tail in a crack'.

Little Chuck Little

A first-grade student in Scout's class, described as a 'born gentleman' who did not know where his next meal was coming from but showed phenomenal patience.

Burris Ewell

A member of the Ewell family who attended school only the first day of each year and was described as 'the filthiest human' Scout had ever seen.

Hot Steams

According to Jem, individuals who can't get to heaven and wallow on lonesome roads; if you walk through one, you become one when you die and suck people's breath at night.

Miss Maudie Atkinson

A neighbor who loved everything that grew in God’s earth except nut grass; she was a widow who baked the best cakes in the neighborhood and supported Atticus.

Jewish Harp (Jew's Harp)

An instrument Atticus could play, which was one of several modest accomplishments Miss Maudie mentioned to Scout and Jem.

Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose

An elderly neighbor known for her 'wrathful gaze' and vicious interrogation; Atticus describes her as the bravest person he knew for her struggle to break a morphine addiction.

Tom Robinson

A 'black-velvet' Negro man and member of Calpurnia’s church who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell and defended by Atticus.

Bob Ewell

The father of Mayella Ewell who spent his relief checks on 'green whiskey' and held a permanent grudge against those involved in Tom Robinson's defense.

Indian-head Pennies

Items found by Scout and Jem in the knot-hole of a live oak tree on the Radley lot, dated 1906 and 1900.

Morphodite

The term Scout uses to describe the snowman she and Jem built, which was modified with Miss Maudie's sunhat and hedge-clippers after Atticus said it was a caricature of Mr. Avery.

First Purchase

The African M.E. Church in the Quarters, so named because it was paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves.

Linin'

The method used at First Purchase church to sing hymns, where Zeebo read a line and the congregation sang it back in simple harmony because they could not read.

Aunt Alexandra

Atticus's sister who moves in to provide 'feminine influence' for Scout; she is preoccupied with heredity, 'Streaks' in family bloodlines, and being a 'Fine Folk'.

Dolphus Raymond

A wealthy white man with a colored mistress and mixed children who pretends to be drunk on whiskey—secretly Coca-Cola—to give the town a reason for his lifestyle.

Judge Taylor

The white-haired, slightly ruddy-faced judge who presided over Tom Robinson's trial and was known for cleaning his fingernails with a pocket knife on the bench.

Mr. Gilmer

The circuit solicitor from Abbottsville who prosecuted the Tom Robinson case; he had a slight cast in one of his eyes.

Mayella Ewell

The nineteen-year-old daughter of Bob Ewell who grew red geraniums in chipped-enamel jars and accused Tom Robinson of rape.

Maycomb County: Ad Astra Per Aspera

The title of the Halloween pageant written by Mrs. Merriweather; the Latin phrase means 'From the mud to the stars'.

Snow-on-the-Mountain

A white, waxy, perfect camellia that Mrs. Dubose left for Jem in a candy box to signify that 'everything’s all right' after her death.

Enfield Prison Farm

The prison seventy miles away in Chester County where Tom Robinson was held and eventually shot seventeen times during an escape attempt.

Braxton Underwood

The owner and editor of The Maycomb Tribune who protected Atticus with a double-barreled shotgun from the second floor of his office.

Tim Johnson

A liver-colored bird dog who became a 'mad dog' in February and was shot by Atticus in the street.

Heck Tate

The thin, long-nosed sheriff of Maycomb County who concludes that Bob Ewell 'fell on his knife' to protect Arthur Radley from public exposure.

Sinkfield

An inn operator in early Maycomb history who manipulated surveyors to ensure the county seat was built at his tavern instead of in Winston Swamp.

Compromise

Defined by Atticus to Scout as 'an agreement reached by mutual concessions,' specifically used regarding her school attendance and their nightly reading.