"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. 

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. 

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.

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.

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a rural town in Alabama, during the Great Depression. The author describes it as a "tired old town," surrounded by cotton fields and timberland. The town seems run-down, and the old courthouse "sagged in the square." The courthouse is surrounded by a square of stores, and Atticus's office is near the courthouse in the Maycomb Bank building. The Maycomb Tribune office is across from the courthouse. The farmers in the town still tie their mules to carts in the town square, and people do everything they can to beat the oppressive heat, including bathing before noon and after napping in the afternoon. As the author writes, "People moved slowly then." They had no reason to hurry, as they had no money to spend and nothing to do. 

Although Maycomb, Alabama, is a fictional town, in chapter one Harper Lee provides some geographical information to help the reader locate its whereabouts. Saint Stephens, Alabama, is a real town, located about 70 miles north of Mobile. Atticus's ancestor, Simon Finch, settled 40 miles north of Saint Stephens, or 110 miles north of Mobile along the Alabama River.

So Simon ... bought three slaves and with their aid established a homestead on the banks of the Alabama River some forty miles above Saint Stephens.

The Finches continued to live on that original homestead, called Finch's Landing. During the novel, Scout's Aunt Alexandra still lives at Finch's Landing. When Atticus studied law, he went to Montgomery, Alabama, which is 150 miles northeast of Saint Stephens. When he passed the bar exam, he returned home, but in order to practice in the county seat where the courthouse was, he moved to the town of Maycomb, which is 20 miles east of Finch's Landing. Maycomb County and the town are fictional. The actual county for Saint Stephens is Washington County, and the actual county seat is Chatom. Lee writes:

Maycomb, some twenty miles east of Finch's Landing, was the county seat of Maycomb County. 

Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Monroe County, Alabama. It is close to where her fictional town of Maycomb would be located if it were a real place. Because of Harper Lee's fame, Monroeville has become a tourist attraction and is known as the Literary Capitol of Alabama.

It seems that the question is looking for textual evidence for where Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. In chapter one of the novel, Scout Finch is giving the background of her family. Scout states that her family are Southerners and that Simon Finch (a trapper) established Finch's Landing forty miles from the Alabama River. Scout states that the men of the Finch family were to stay in Finch's Landing. Her father, Atticus Finch, is the only male to have stayed (his brother went to Boston for medical school).

The following section, the seventh paragraph of chapter one, states the town and county Atticus and his children (Scout and Jem) reside in.

When my father was admitted to the bar, he returned to Maycomb and began his practice. Maycomb, some twenty miles east of Finch's Landing, was the county seat of Maycomb County.

Therefore, this excerpt from the chapter provides the textual evidence needed to state where the novel takes place. The novel does, in fact, take place in Maycomb, Alabama.

Published in 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was an instant success.  Partially autobiographical, the story was successful because it came at the time of the Civil Rights movement.  The ideas presented coincided with the philosophy of equality, freedom, and justice. 

The story's characters are reminiscent of Harper Lee and her brother. Scout Finch narrates the story of her life with her brother and father Atticus.  Many other characters add to the realistic, humorous and poignant story.  The story spans three years in the life of Scout and Jem. Scout begins the first grade and is in the third grade when the story ends.

The setting of the story is Maycomb, Alabama, a small southern town based on Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.  The setting’s importance cannot be overstated. Everything stems from the small town people and their way of living.  

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it…People moved slowly then.  They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything…We lived on the main residential street in town… 

The importance of the Finch house's location provides the avenue for Boo Radley’s part in the story.  Since they live near to Boo, his presence is felt throughout the story.  Miss Maudie also lives across the street which also adds excitement to the story when her house burns.

Set in the 1930s, the great depression impacts the lives of these people.  Segregation finds a home in every town in the south.  African-Americans were considered inferior and sub-human.  The black people were even subservient to the “white trash” like the Ewell family.

Typical of most small southern towns, the rules of society are set and enforced.  To be a part of society, one must follow the rules.  Newcomers are looked at with suspicion. There are different rules which apply to the behavior of the white people and the blacks.

This was the setting for the titillating story of the Finch children and their event filled lives.

Where: Maycomb, Alabama (a small town that is home to working class people, as well as those whom the depression has hit even harder.) The streets are wide, hard packed earth. It is described as "sleepy" and there is a river that flows near it.

When: Depression; the story takes place over several  years, focusing on the summer months, but with flashbacks to other times/significant events.

This story takes place in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama.  Taking place during the depression era, not many people have work, such as the Cunningham family, and they live off the land through agricultural labors.  Others, such as Atticus Finch, are fortunate enough to have a job, as he is the town lawyer, and represents the county often at State legislative events.

Summers are hot, and winters are generaly mild, although there is an instance of the first light snow in nearly 100 years at one point in the summer.  Miss Maudie Atkinson complains because the frost might destroy her plants.

It is a poor town economically, but rich with culture and character.  The black members of the community live across the tracks in an area called "the quarters", while the white people live close by in town. 

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.

Maycomb Alabama during the 1930's sets To Kill A Mockingbird in such a way that the tension is not just read but felt by the reader. Although 65 years had past since the Civil War racial tensions still ran high, and then there was Atticus Finch. A man who defied the status-quo in Alabama so that a free man could remain free.

Many Civil Rights leaders and historians of the 20th century agree that Alabama was the most segregated state in the union. The story of To Kill A Mockingbird engages the reader in defining blind ignorance, racism, and the discovery of truth, while doing so in a place that offered little hope of success.  Although To Kill A Mockingbird is fiction, Harper Lee told the truth. The truth our nation deserved to hear.

Quite simply, the story is set in the little town of Maycomb, Alabama in the middle of the Great Depression (the mid-1930s).  In Lee's brilliant way, she doesn't reveal this setting immediately and allows her readers to slowly figure it out in the first few pages.  On the first page, Scout says,

"If General Jackson hadn't run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn't?" (Lee 3) 

Soon after she admits her family "being southerners" has certain shames associated with them.  Finally, after seven large paragraphs we hear this:

When my father was admitted to the bar, he returned to Maycomb and began his practice.  Maycomb, some twenty miles each of Finch's Landing, was the county seat of Maycomb County.  Atticus's office in the courthouse contained little more than a hat rack, a spittoon, a checkerboard and a n unsullied Cod of Alabama. (4)

This setting is incredibly significant in regards to Southern race relations of the time and the setting itself implies that there may be a significant amount of racial prejudice within the story, which turns out to be true.  The irony is that when Lee was writing this novel (in the 1960s) race relations hadn't improved much at all.  For example, the few changes that did happen (such as the Brown vs. Board of Education decision that ended segregation in 1954) were resisted sometimes violently by the masses in Southern towns, . . . towns just like Maycomb.   

Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is set in the mythical town of Maycomb, Alabama during the years 1933-1935, at the height of the Great Depression. Lee did use her own hometown of Monroeville, Alabama as the basis for Maycomb, however. Maycomb is a small conservative town with plenty of churches but no movie theatre. It is located in southern Alabama, near the Alabama River, and the county seat of Maycomb County. It is situated "twenty miles east of Finch's Landing," which was the first settlement in the area, founded by Scout's ancestor, Simon Finch, some time before the Civil War. Scout describes Maycomb as

     ... an old town, but it was a tired old town when I knew it.
     People moved slowly then...

The streets are unpaved, and the days are hot in the summer. Scout lives on "the main residential street in town," not far from the courthouse square, where most of the town's businesses are located. The Negro citizens of Maycomb live in an area known as the Quarters, just outside the southern city limits. Old Sarum is another area, mostly populated by poor farmers, in the northern part of the county.

Setting refers to time and place. 

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Several quotes characterize this town as completely affected by the conditions of the Great Depression:

Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it... Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer's day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square...

... There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.

The hints at the absence of money and the news that Maycomb had just been told some famous words help reveal the setting as during the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt coined the phrase about only fearing fear when trying to encourage the people of the United States to take heart and trudge through the difficulty of the Great Depression. The references to the heat also allude to that era because the US also experienced a great drought during the early to mid 1930s. 

Specific references to the town of Maycomb as well as the county paint the picture of a suburb. There were just enough establishments to help the people trade and keep order. 

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

To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, over a period of a few years during the Great Depression.

Maycomb is a “tired old town” full of interesting characters.  There is nowhere to go and no money to buy things with.  People amuse themselves by talking to each other, and the main recreation is going to church.  Everyone knows everyone else.  Even the town is poor.

In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. (ch 1)

The book opens the summer that Scout is about to start first grade.  She is six, and her father is a lawyer.  The town is deeply divided on racial lines and has a strong class hierarchy too.  This is one of the reasons why the case of Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a white woman, is so contentious.

To Kill a Mockingbird is set in a rural southern town (Maycomb, Alabama) in the 1930s. The story is narrated by Scout Finch and therefore the setting and story are told through her eyes, but looking back as an adult. Tom Robinson's trial is one of the major events in the novel. Since Tom is innocent but found guilty, racism is a key element in the novel and it was a noted problem in the American South during the 1930s. Schools were still segregated. This is also during the Great Depression and as such, elements of class and economics play a role in how Scout learns to see the social structure of Maycomb. 

This book is set in a town called Maycomb in Alabama.  The book is set in the early to mid 1930s.

The town in which the book is set is a very small town where everyone knows everyone else.  There is a very set social hierarchy in the town.  Everyone knows who is quality and who is not.  Very importantly, this is set in the time when white superiority is assumed and black people are expected to know their place in society and stay in that place.  This social and racial hierarchy is a very important part of the setting.