To Kill A Mocking Bird Chapters 4-7

What does Scout find in the knothole first (Ch. 4)? | Chewing gum; Jem makes her spit it out

What else does Scout find in the knothole in Ch. 4? | Two Indian-head pennies, which Jem keeps

How does Scout end up in the Radley yard in Ch. 4? | Jem rolls her in a tire and she crashes onto the Radley steps; Jem runs back to get the tire

What does Scout hear from inside the Radley house in Ch. 4? | Laughter

What is the knothole? | Hole in the Radley oak tree where Boo leaves gifts for the children

Who is Miss Maudie? | Kind neighbor who befriends Scout, defends Boo, and explains his history

Why does Miss Maudie say Boo stays inside? | His father was a harsh, strictly religious man (a "foot-washing Baptist"), and Boo has stayed in the house

Miss Maudie on Atticus (Ch. 5) | "Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets."

What does Dill do in Ch. 5 that annoys Scout? | He proposes to her, then ignores her

How do the children try to contact Boo in Ch. 5? | Jem and Dill try to pass a note to him with a fishing pole

How does Atticus react to the note plan? | He catches them and tells them to stop

Why does Atticus object to the children's Boo Radley game? | It treats a real person's life as entertainment and invades his privacy

What do the kids do in Ch. 6? | Sneak into the Radley yard at night to look through a window

Who shoots a shotgun in Ch. 6? | Nathan Radley, Boo's older brother

What does Jem lose in Ch. 6? | His pants, caught on the fence as he escapes

Why does Jem go back for his pants? | He is afraid of what Atticus will think if they are missing

How does Dill explain the missing pants to the neighbors and Atticus? | He claims he won them from Jem in a game of strip poker

What does Jem find in Ch. 7 where he left his pants? | They are mended and folded, as if someone had been expecting him

What does Jem take the mended pants to mean? | Someone, Boo, helped him and was watching over him

List the gifts found in the knothole in Ch. 7. | Gray twine, soap figures of a boy and girl, medals, a broken watch with a knife

Why do the soap figures matter? | They look like Jem and Scout, showing Boo is paying attention to them

Why do the children write a note to Boo? | To thank him for the gifts

How does Nathan Radley stop the gifts? | He fills the knothole with cement

What reason does Nathan give for sealing the hole? | He says the tree is sick

How does Atticus respond to Nathan's claim? | He says the tree looks healthy

Why is Jem upset at the end of Ch. 7? | He realizes Boo was trying to connect with them and has been cut off

Who is Arthur "Boo" Radley? | Reclusive neighbor the children fear at first and later see as kind and gentle

Who is Nathan Radley? | Boo's older brother who guards the Radley place, fires the shotgun, and seals the knothole

Who is Dill? | Imaginative friend who spends summers in Maycomb and drives the plans to see Boo

Who is Atticus? | Lawyer and father who teaches the children to respect other people's privacy

Theme: Empathy | Understanding other people by seeing things from their point of view

Theme: Rumor and prejudice | Gossip shapes how the town sees Boo before anyone knows him

Theme: Growing up | Jem begins to understand more than Scout about Boo's kindness and Nathan's cruelty

What do Boo's gifts and the mended pants suggest about him? | He is gentle and caring, not the monster of the rumors