How is fear created in the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird?

How is fear created in the first chapter of To Kill a Mockingbird?
When describing Maycomb in the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee paraphrases Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Lee uses this quote to show that the people in Maycomb should be afraid of the fact they are afraid of something for no reason. This fear of change stems from prejudice: there are four kinds of folks in this world, there’s the ordinary kind like us, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams, the kind like the Ewells and the Negroes.” Lee has purposely created Maycomb as a town separated by race; by doing this she illustrates a small town during the depression of the early 1930s. The system of “four kinds of folks” does not leave room for individuality let alone breaking with the past and striking off in a new direction. The way things are in Maycomb are the way things have always been and there is not much anyone can do about it.
The theme of fear is shown in the first part of the book by Scout and Jem’s ability to create things of which to be afraid of “haints” and spirits and most of all anything to do with Boo Radley. However through their experiences and under the influence of Atticus, the children learn empathy and a more mature approach to fear. Lee switches the narrative between Scout as a child and Scout as an adult to show how her opinion of fear has changed has changed as she has grown up. Bringing the children into contact with real hostility and the threats of life (displayed in the second half) helps them to realise the things they thought were scary in the first half were fantasy and there are more important things to fear. However this recognition of humanity overcoming fears does not apply to Maycomb. The townsfolk still have a fear of change which causes them to fear the truth- shown in the trial of Tom Robinson.
Lee concentrates on making the setting of the Radley Place seem scary by using language that shows fear. For example: “The Radley place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end.” We can tell this is written from the adult Scout’s perspective as an eight year old would not commonly use words like “entity.” As this was the first mention of the Radley Place; Lee creates anticipation and mystery by not giving us the description of the “unknown entity.” Lee is creating mystery and fear, both of these techniques make the reader want to read on and find out why in a town like Maycomb, where everyone is related to each other, there is a mysterious self-contained family at the end of the street.