The setting of this section is an old town, Maycomb, during the Great Depression. In these chapters we are introduced to a variety of characters. Scout, six and Jem Finch, ten are the children of Atticus, a well-off lawyer in Maycomb County. Their mother died 4 years earlier, but their cook Culpurnia, an older black woman, does a good job helping parent them. Dill, their neighboring kid, comes to Maycomb every summer to visit his aunt. "Boo" Radley lives as a recluse in his house, the old Radley Place. The kids are fascinated, scared by stories of him, and attempt to make contact with him over the summer. Atticus doesn't approve of his children bothering Boo, so he tells them to knock it off. They don't really pay attention to him, and attempt to stick a note in his window via a fishing pole without success.
The next summer, Jem starts playing with Dill more and doesn't include Scout. Instead, Scout spends her time talking with Miss Maudie. Miss Maudie tells Scout that Boo's father was a very strict Baptist and this had a negative effect on Boo in his childhood. His brother Nathan takes care of Boo, and it is assumed that Boo has gone from a polite nice boy to a crazy recluse.
Throughout these chapters, we mainly follow Scout as she moves more into the adult world. She goes to school for the first time, and sort of learns what she can and cannot do, and what her expectations are. She gets scolded by Culpurnia about her manners when having guests for lunch.
During group discussions, we discussed what type of symbols we saw, how times were different, and connections we made. The two pennies found in the Radley tree may represent good luck. How the one kid needed to ask the teacher for a quarter and would never be able to pay it back just shows how hard times were. We think that Atticus, Jem, Scout, and Dill will be main characters throughout the book.
I think that how Jem and Dill start hanging out on their own instead of with Scout represents how friendships change over time. You start to make new friends, and inevitably leave some of your old ones behind, no matter how close you were.
