To Kill A Mockingbird -Chapter 1

In this chapter:

-Jem and Scout get in an argument as to who caused Jem's accident

-We get a brief family history of the Finches

-Scout and Jem meet Dill for the first time

-Scout and Jem tell Dill about the Radley place and the story of Boo radley

-Dill dares Jem to touch the Radley house and he does

This is the opening chapter to the book which, in any good book, will draw the reader in and make them want to read on. In my opinion, Harper Lee doesn't do this as successfully as many other authors that I like, such as the opening of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is intriguing and the reader becomes curious.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, I was not intrigued by the opening. On page 1, a long family history of Jem and Scout starts, which I think is not appropriate for the start of a book.  When i read it, I found myself switching off and I didn’t really take in the words on the page.

The action gets going when Dill is mentioned for the first time (excluding the brief mention on the first page). My first impression of Dill is that he is quite confident and that he wants to show off. In his first introductions to Jem and Scout he says “I can read”, without any mention of the subject. This shows that he wants them to know that he is clever, possibly under the impression that this is how to make friends.

Dill, Jem and Scout get talking and get on the topic of Boo Radley, a “malevolent phantom” that lives in a house near where Jem and Scout live. The description of the Radley house is, in my opinion, an excellent. Lee describes the house in a way that makes it really easy to picture and with just the right amount of detail.

At the end of the chapter, Dill dares Jem to touch the Radley House, which he does. For me, this is the turning point in a change of Jem’s character. My initial opinions of him were that he was a loving brother and a child who loves to play outdoors in the countryside. I think after the dare, he starts to become more like Dill, and starts to treat Scout differently, claiming that she is “gettin’ more like a girl every day”