The book To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It waspublished in 1960 then it went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and waslater made into an Academy Award winning film. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Todayit is regarded as a masterpiece of American Literature.
There are so many characters in this book that I can’t name all of them. Here are most of the characters. The Finch family contains of Atticus (The head of the household), AuntAlexandra (Atticus’s sister), (Jem) Jeremy (The oldest of Atticus’s twochildren), (Scout) Jean Louise (The youngest of the two . She also trys to be aboy by doing boy things).
And you can’t forget their black maid. Her name isCalpurnia. Miss Rachael is Dill’s aunt that lives in Maycomb. Dill is a friendswith Jem and Scout.
According to Scout they are married. (Boo) Arthur Radley isthe person that takes Jem back to his house after Jem gets hurt by Bob Ewell. Tom Robinson is a black man that was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Bob Ewellis Mayella’s father.
He is out for revenge on Atticus for what he did to him andhis daughter. Mayella is Bob’s daughter who supposedly got raped by Tom Robinson. Judge Taylor is the Judge of Maycomb County. Heck Tate is the county lawofficial. I think the protagonist in the story is Atticus Finch because he has themain part and he has the biggest decision to make.
The decision being whether todefend or not to defend Tom Robinson. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district inSouthern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depressionwhen poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States. The story begins during the summer when Scout and Jem meet a newplaymate named Dill who has come from Mississippi to spend the summer with hisAunt Rachael. Dill is fascinated by the neighborhood gossip about “Boo” Radley. Egged on by Dill, Jem and Scout try to think up ways to lure him out of hishouse.
Soon it is Summer again , and Dill returns for another visit. Thechildren’s plans for making contact with Boo Radley grew bolder this year, andon Dill’s last night they decide to sneak up onto the Radley porch and spy onBoo. Jem goes first, but just as he reaches the window, Nathan Radley catchessite of them and scares them off with a blast from a shot gun. Jem realizes that Boo is not a monster after all, but has been playingalong with them. Scout does not figure this out until the winter, on the nightthat the house of their neighbor burns to the ground.
While Scout is standingoutside in the cold, someone sneaks up behind her and places a blanket aroundher. Later, Scout and Jem realize that there was only one person in town who hasnot already at work fighting the fire and that was Boo. Now that Jem and Scout realize that Boo is basically a kind person,their interest in the Radley family begins to fade. In the meantime, they learnthat their father has become the defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, who is chargedwith raping Mayella Ewell.
As the trial of Tom Robinson grows nearer, the children become moreaware of the strong feeling it has aroused in everyone in Maycomb. One day theirhousekeeper takes Jem and Scout to visit her church, and the children realizefor the first time that the black parishioners are supporting Tom Robinson’swife. Two nights before the trial is to start, a group of men come to theFinch house to tell Atticus about threats against Tom Robinson’s life. Atticusspends the next night camped out at the jail to defend Tom from the mob.
Jem,Scout and Dill go downtown to check on Atticus and arrive at the same time as agroup of men, who have come to kill Tom. Scout recognizes one of the men in thegroup as Walter Cunningham. Her friendliness embarrasses the man so much that heand the mob leave. The next day, at the trial, Atticus” questions make it clear thatMayella and her father are lying about the rape. Neverless the jury convict himbecause their prejudices prevent them from taking a black man’s word against twowhites. Atticus is now a hero in the black community of Maycomb, but Bob Ewell,vows to “get” Atticus for showing him up as a liar in front of the whole town.
Tom Robinson has give n up hope and trys to flee the prison, but whiledoing it he gets caught and shot. By the time Halloween comes around, the Finch family has begun to putTom’s death behind them. There is a pageant planned and Scout much to her dismayhas been cast as a ham. After the pageant Scout decides to walk home stilldressed in her bulky costume, with Jem leading the way.
The cowardly Bob Ewell. seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Atticus through his children. He followsthe children down a dark street and tries to kill them. In the side. It is noneother than Boo Radley, who had seen the attack from his window.
Boo stabs BobEwell to death, and carries the wounded Jem home. The sheriff decides to file a report that Bob fell on his own knife anddied, thus sparing Boo the publicity that would be sure to follow. Scout never sees Boo again after that night, but she has learned that hewas a good man all along. She has learned a lesson about understanding andtolerance.
And through the sheriff’s action she sees that sometimes there can bejustice and compassion in the world. The title of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird is a key to some themes inthe novel. The title is first explained in Chapter 10 at the time that Jem andScout have just received air rifles for Christmas. Atticus tells his childrenthat it is a sin to shoot a mockingbird. Later Miss Maudie explains that Atticusmeant that Mockingbirds are harmless creatures who do nothing but sing forenjoyment. It is easy to see that the “mockingbird” in this story is Tom Robinson aharmless man who becomes a victim of racial prejudice.
Like the mockingbird, Tomhas never done wrong to anyone. Even the jurors who sentence him to death havenothing personal against him. They find him guilty mostly because they feel thatto take the word of a black man over two whites would threaten the system theylive under, the system of segregation. Tom himself is guilty of nothing butbeing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Category: English
