What is the setting of Chapter 2 in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Chapter 2 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the Maycomb school. In this chapter, Scout attends school for the first time, where she meets her teacher, Caroline Fisher. Scout describes her as having "bright auburn hair and pink cheeks" and looking like and smelling like "a peppermint drop." Most of the children in the classroom, on the other hand, are "ragged, denim-shirted and floursack-skirted." The children in Maycomb are largely from poor farming families, and Ms. Caroline, an outsider, doesn't really understand them. 

Ms. Caroline tells Scout that her father, Atticus, should not teach her to read, as it interferes with her learning. Ms. Caroline doesn't understand that Scout has picked up reading naturally. Ms. Caroline also tells Walter Cunningham that he can borrow a quarter for lunch and pay her back tomorrow, not understanding that Walter comes from a very poor family and could never pay her back. When Scout attempts to explain the situation to Miss Caroline, the teacher slaps her with a ruler. In this chapter, Scout interacts with the larger Maycomb community and realizes that she doesn't always understand the world around her. 

What is the setting of chapter 2 in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The setting for Chapter 2, as for the rest of the novel, is Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s.

In terms of the specific timing of chapter two and its impact on the narration, the setting of chapter two is one of a transition, excitement, and disappointment. 

There is a transition going on, as summer is over, and school is about to start. For Scout, this means that Dill is gone and she will start school. 

Second, this prospects of school is something that Scout is excited about. She has been looking forward to this day for a long time. Scout is a precocious child and wants to learn. Here is what she says in her own words: 

"I never looked forward more to anything in my life."

Finally and quickly disappointment settles. When Scout meets Miss Caroline, it seems that all of Scout's attempts at being helpful or good fail. Scout gets in trouble for knowing how to read. When Scout tries to explain that Walter Cunningham is poor and cannot afford to bring lunch, Miss Caroline is annoyed. Finally, Miss Caroline punishes Scout with a few slaps with a ruler. 

What is the setting of chapter 2 in To Kill A Mockingbird?

Chapter two begins with Scout describing how much she had looked forward to the beginning of school. Dill has returned home to his family and Scout will now be joining Jem at school and she is very excited. She describes climbing up into a treehouse the year before to use a telescope to spy on the children and learn everything she could about the school and what kids did there.

Then she gets to school and meets her teacher Miss Caroline. Miss Caroline starts off on the wrong foot when she tells the class she is from North Alabama, which Scout tells the reader is a place where people of no background are from. This is not a good sign.

Things quickly deteriorate when Miss Caroline tells Scout that her father ought to stop teaching her things because he will likely do it wrong and she quickly finds that school is not a place where she is going to have the fun that she imagined.

What two details in To Kill a Mockingbird, chapter 8, reveal the setting?

One of the outstanding details in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird that reveal the setting, found in Chapter Eight, is the snowfall.

Next morning I awoke, looked out the window and nearly died of fright. My screams brought Atticus from his bathroom half-shaven.

"The world's endin', Atticus! Please so something—!" I dragged him to the window and pointed.

"No it's not," he said. "It's snowing."

This scene is indicative of the southern setting of the novel: in Alabama, Scout has never seen snow in all of her life. Neither has Jem. Eula May, "Maycomb's leading operator," calls, as Atticus says, to announce:

And I quote—'It has not snowed in Maycomb County since 1885, there will be no school today.'

Of the light snow that does fall, Jem and Scout do their best to make a snowman (borrowing some of Miss Maudie's snow from her yard), which ends up being a little part snow and a larger part mud. It is quite an accomplishment when they are finished and Scout tells Jem it is "lovely." She is sure it looks real enough to talk. Jem, shyly embarrassed and yet pleased, agrees. However, Atticus quickly notes that while it is a masterpiece (which makes Jem again proud but embarrassed), it looks too much like their neighbor Mr. Avery. Atticus has the children dress the figure up to change its appearance so Mr. Avery is not offended by their "caricature."

The second detail that takes on significance with regard to the story's setting is the temperature. Before Scout goes to sleep that night, Atticus tries to warm her room up:

...Atticus put more coal on the fire in my room. He said the thermometer registered sixteen, that it was the coldest night in his memory, and that our snowman outside was frozen solid.

Atticus is not as ancient as the children believe, but he did have children later in life than most of Jem and Scout's friends (and they think he is "feeble" for it), something that comes into question when he surprises his children with what an excellent marksman he is in Chapter Ten in his encounter with Tim Johnson (simply out of necessity, for Atticus is never one to brag). We learn Atticus is fifty (as Miss Maudie mentions in the same chapter), and that it has been at least the length of Atticus' life since it has been so cold, for it has not happened before as best as he can remember. This sudden drop in temperature is another detail that provides the reader with information about the story's setting, as presented in Chapter Eight.

What are some examples of setting in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Harper Lee vividly describes setting in To Kill a Mockingbird to establish mood. Multiple examples can be seen throughout. The first occurs in the opening chapter.

Within in the first few pages of the book, Lee has Scout the narrator describe the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, as a "tired old town." She further describes it as a very agrarian town. Since not all of the roads are paved, when it rains, the "streets turned to red slop." In addition, as an agrarian town that is not as well kept up as a metropolis, grass grows in the cracks of the sidewalks and the "courthouse sag[s] in the [town] square."

After describing what Maycomb looks like in general, she proceeds to describe the time period and the people of Maycomb, which are also factors of the setting. We know the story unfolds during the Great Depression due to Scout's reference to "Hoover carts," which are horse-drawn carts that the poor can actually afford as opposed to the automobiles of the rich. We also know that the people of Maycomb adhere to very strict social customs. For example, men wear "stiff collars" and "ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum." In addition, due to the Great Depression, Scout expresses that it seemed that people "moved slowly" in those days because "there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside of the boundaries of Maycomb County."

Scout's multitude of descriptions about the setting leaves the reader with many impressions about what the people of Maycomb are like as a whole, which helps establish the main mood for the entire book.

Due to Scout's descriptions, we know that the town of Maycomb is a bit rugged and home to some rugged people. But these rugged people are also rather calm and laid back while also being rigid in upholding what they view as their principles. The calmness/comfort coupled with the ruggedness and strictness of Maycomb's people helps identify the generally conflicting mood that dominates the book. Scout's descriptions paint a generally serene atmosphere and mood while also incorporating a contradictory rough and hostile mood. Scout's descriptions of the setting position the reader for a conflicting and emotional story about townspeople who are generally decent but are stuck in their racist, bigoted, hypocritical ways.

What is an example of a historical setting in To Kill a Mockingbird?

A good example comes during Miss Gates' lesson on Adolph Hitler and his treatment of the Jews in Germany. This takes in 1935 (we know this since Atticus states in his summation to the jury that it is "in this year of grace, 1935..."), and Hitler's anti-Semitic persecution was in its early stages.

Other examples of historical allusions include:

• References to the Great Depression and the stock market crash of 1829.
• References to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (and his wife, Eleanor) and the various New Deal programs such as the WPA.
• References to the Civil War (Appomattox) and several Confederate generals (Stonewall Jackson, Joe Wheeler, John Bell Hood).
• Dill's viewing of the film Dracula (1931).
• Scout's joking mention of Bullfinch, as in Bullfinch's Mythology.

For an excellent listing of historical allusions in TKAM, check out the link below:

http://fcweb.sd36.bc.ca/~ross_melody/04CEB84B-009867AD.O/TKAM_Allusions%20and%20Illusions.pdf