(Jem breaking his arm), and then goes on to describe the entire family history of the Finches.  One of the things we learn as we read the book is that family history means everything to some people in Maycomb.  It is that deep-seated sense of tradition that makes it so hard to overcome prejudice.

When an older Jem and Scout look back on the events that shaped the most meaningful part of their childhood, Scout considers family history a large part of what happened.

I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. 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? (ch 1)

The Finches are considered an important family because although they can’t trace their roots back to the Battle of Hastings, they have had the same land for a long time.  Later, Aunt Alexandra convinces Atticus to instill family pride in his children.  He tries to explain “the facts of life” to Scout and Jem.

Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was. (ch 13)

Clearly, Atticus has taught his children that people should be judged by their character, while Alexandra believes they should be judged by their social class.  This is an important aspect of Southern culture that is crucial to an understanding of the book.

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird depicts the small-town depression-era south through the eyes of a six-year-old girl, Scout Finch. To give the reader the full flavor of this setting, Lee describes in some detail the how the Finch family came from England and settled in the United States. Then she traces her lineage down through her father, Atticus Finch. This family characterization helps the reader get to know the various Finch family characters.

The family patriarch, at least their American patriarch, is Simon Finch, the first Finch to come to America. In the following passage, the narrator, Scout Finch tells the reader how Simon became established in the South. Note the satirical tone of her observations:

Mindful of John Wesley’s strictures on the use of many words in buying and selling, Simon made a pile practicing medicine, but in this pursuit he was unhappy lest he be tempted into doing what he knew was not tor the glory of God, as the putting on of gold and costly apparel. So Simon, having forgotten his teacher’s dictum on the possession of human chattels, bought three slaves and with their aid established a homestead on the banks of the Alabama River some forty miles above Saint Stephens.

Much of the charm of To Kill a Mockingbird derives from the narrator’s perspective. Early in the novel, as we read her account of the family’s history in America, we get our first taste Harper Lee’s writing style.  The reader gets the story from a grown-up Scout Finch, but she describes the events in the story through the eyes of six-year-old Scout Finch. The contrast between adult-Scout’s considerable writing and observational skills with child-Scout’s view of the world and place in society create the novel’s humorous and sometimes bitingly sarcastic tone. The world often does not make sense to young Scout, and the reader has to admit that in many cases, she’s right—there’s a lot of nonsense in our lives that could stand some improving.

Lee uses this opportunity early in the story to tell the reader what the Finch family is like, and to introduce us to the narrator’s tone, which she will maintain throughout the story.

At the beginning of the novel, Scout elaborates on her family's history. This is significant to the exposition of the story and reveals important background information about her family's status in the small town of Maycomb. Scout discusses how her ancestor, Simon Finch, immigrated from England and established a homestead named Finch's Landing on the banks of the Alabama River. Following the Civil War, the Finch family lost much of their wealth but managed to save their homestead. Though Atticus chose to travel to Montgomery to study law and his brother moved to Boston to study medicine, Alexandra remained on Finch's Landing, where the family gathers each Christmas. Atticus ended up moving back to the small town of Maycomb, where he became a well-known lawyer. Scout's family history not only identifies their revered social status in the community, it also corresponds to Aunt Alexandra's obsession with heredity. Scout's description of her family's history explains Alexandra's affinity for heredity and sense of familial pride. One of the main themes Harper Lee explores throughout the novel is social class and status. By elaborating on Scout's family history at the beginning of the story, Harper Lee subtly begins to emphasize the themes of social status and class.

The purpose seems to be to show how far her family has come since her ancestor Simon Finch made the trip from England to the promised land of America.

Scout describes Simon Finch in rather negative terms, saying that "his piety was only exceeded by his stinginess" and that, despite his religious beliefs, he bought three slaves to work his land.

Subsequent generations were expected to work at the homestead, so it is source of pride for Scout that her father, Atticus, broke with tradition and became not only a lawyer but a good man. She may feel that the family's status was not truly earned, but at least she can say that her father had the strength of character to break with tradition and take his family in a more positive direction.

I believe that Scout, as the narrative voice for this piece, needs to give us the history of her family in order to place us in the context of Maycomb. We are entering a world that is unfamiliar to many of us due to time period as well as the small-town nature Maycomb is a place where your family's "history" is important to who you are in the town - the idea of coming from a "good" family is important to the people of the south at this time. The family that you are born into determines what is expected of you in life. This is important in two ways - it gives us a feel for what is expected of Scout (who then defies expectations on a routine basis - particularly in her refusal to become more of a "girl" and her preference for independence and independent thought) and it gives us expectations for Atticus (who also goes against them in defending Tom Robinson). We are establishing from the start a town in which stereotypes will rule, and then we are also establishing that it IS possible to break those thought patterns.

In my opinion, the reason for this is to give us a good idea as to how the Finch family fits in with the rest of the society in Maycomb.

As we see later in the book, the structure of the society in Maycomb is very important.  Various kinds of people are expected to take on very different roles in the society.  People like the Ewells are expected to be the scum of the society, people like the Finches are expected to be the cream (sort of how Aunt Alexandra acts).

By telling us who the Finches are, the author gives us a sense of where they fit in.  At the same time, she gives us an understanding of how Atticus is something of a rebel because he does not take his expected role in society -- he doesn't act like part of the elite.

There are at least two good reasons: first, author Harper Lee wants to establish a strong historical background of the Finch family ancestry in her exposition during Chapter 1. She shows a connection between Finch's Landing and Maycomb, establishes that the Finches are among the oldest and most respected families in Maycomb, and illustrates the family's connection with the Radleys. Secondly, Harper introduces all of the major characters while employing the literary device of flashback to show that all of the events of the novel have happened in the past--

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken..." (Chapter 1)

Scout's narration will be primarily in retrospect from a more adult perspective; we find that Jem, Scout and an elderly Atticus are all still alive when the story is being retold.

"We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. He said we were both right." (Chapter 1)

The historical background of the founding father of the Finch family in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird helps to establish a history of the area as well as the background and importance of Atticus' standing in the community. It is a classic example of literary exposition, telling the story of Simon Finch and the birth of Finch's Landing, about 20 miles east of Maycomb. Simon's humble beginnings and strong work ethic left him rich, and the homestead was profitable and self-sufficient. Sadly, the Civil War stripped the family of all of its wealth but the land, leaving Atticus and his siblings little but the property that Simon had built from scratch. Atticus moved to Maycomb to make a life--and name--for himself, leaving Finch's Landing to his sister Alexandra. It illustrates Atticus' own independent nature: He sets out on his own to build a family away from the home which would by all rights be his as eldest heir. He becomes a friend of Maycomb's black citizenry in contrast to Simon's own slave-owning past. He works for the people, earning barely enough to support the family, until his reputation among Maycomb townspeople surpasses the heights once enjoyed by Simon Finch himself.