To Kill a Mocking Bird - Chapter 1, summary (and interpretation)

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mocking Bird" is told from the perspective of Jean Luise Finch, nicknamed Scout, who lives together with her brother Jem (four years her senior) and her father Atticus, a lawyer. The story takes place in the 1930ies in Maycomb, Alabama - the time of the Great Depression.
At the start of the story Scout is six years old, although everything is told in the form of a flashback, so there is a grown-up Scout telling us about her past through the ey...