To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird

Context

The story of To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the 1930s in a small town in Alabama in the southern United States - much like the town where the author Harper Lee herself grew up. To understand what the book is saying about racism, you need to know something of the history of race relations in the southern USA.

Plot

The novel is about three years in the life of the Finch family: Atticus and his son Jem and daughter Scout. They live in the town of Maycomb in Alabama, where whites are in control and blacks are second-class citizens.

Atticus is a lawyer and the central incident of the novel is when he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, against the charge of raping a white girl.

The story is told in the first person by Scout Finch, a young girl - so we see things through her eyes and from her point of view, and sometimes we need to reinterpret what she tells us.

Chapters 1 - 3

Jem (aged 10) and Scout (aged 6) meet Dill (aged 7), who has come to stay with his aunt in Maycomb during the summer vacation. Dill becomes interested in 'Boo' Radley, a recluse who lives next door to the Finches and whom they have never seen. A myth has grown up locally about Boo and the children are scared of him. It is Dill's idea to make Boo come out.

After that vacation, Scout starts school. Since she can already read and write, yet is told she is doing them wrongly by her inexperienced young teacher, she takes an immediate dislike to school. She gets into trouble when she tries to explain to her teacher why Walter Cunningham, from a very poor family, cannot borrow money for lunch as he will not be able to pay it back. Jem invites Walter to lunch with them.

Chapters 4 - 6

Jem and Scout find gifts, apparently left for them, in the knothole of a tree on the edge of the Radleys' property.

The following summer, Dill returns for the vacation. Jem accidentally pushes Scout in an old car tyre right into the Radleys' yard, which terrifies her. The three children act out spooky stories about Boo and Jem tries to deliver a note to Boo on the end of a fishing pole. Atticus stops them and tries to make them more considerate by thinking of things from another person's point of view.

However, on the last day of the holidays, the three sneak onto the Radleys' property at night. Nathen, Boo's older brother, shoots at them; as they make their escape, Jem loses his trousers. When he goes back for them, he finds them neatly mended and hung over the fence, as if waiting for him.

Chapters 7 - 8

That autumn, Scout and Jem find more presents in the knothole, including a watch, a spelling medal and two figures of the children carved from soap. They realise the gifts must be from Boo. Just when they are about to deliver a note of thanks, Nathan cements the hole up.

One very cold night there is a fire at their neighbour's, Miss Maudie. As Jem and Scout stand shivering outside, someone puts a blanket over Scout. Jem is convinced that Boo did it and tells Atticus about the presents and his mended trousers.

Chapters 9 - 11

Atticus takes on the defence of Tom Robinson, a Negro. Scout is taunted about this by various children, including her cousin Francis at a family Christmas gathering - he calls Atticus a 'nigger lover'. Jem and Scout's admiration for their father rises enormously, though, when he shoots a dangerous mad dog with one shot.

When old Mrs Dubose also insults the children because of Atticus' involvement in Tom Robinson's case, Jem is so furious that he beheads every camellia in her yard. As a punishment, Jem has to read to her every night for a month. When she dies, Atticus explains to the children that she was a morphine addict who was trying to break the habit and succeeded just before her death ' rather than hate her they should admire her courage.

Chapters 12 - 14

While Atticus is away on business, Calpurnia - the Finches' Negro cook - takes Jem and Scout to the black church. The community there honour the children's presence out of gratitude for all that Atticus is doing for Tom.

Aunt Alexandra - Atticus' sister - arrives to stay with the family, believing that Jem and Scout (particularly Scout!) need a mother figure. (Their own mother died when Scout was two.) There is a row when it is discovered that the children went to the black church and Aunt Alexandra forbids Scout from visiting Calpurnia's house.

Dill arrives in the middle of the night, having run away from his new stepfather.

Chapter 15

A deputation of local men tries to persuade Atticus not to take Tom's case, but he refuses. The night before his trial, Tom is brought to Maycomb jail and Atticus plans to sit outside during the night. Jem, Scout and Dill sneak out to check he is all right. A gang arrives to lynch Tom, but when the children burst into the ring of men and Scout, recognising one of the men as Mr Cunningham, asks him politely about Walter, the tension is diffused and the mob disperses

Chapters 16 - 21

Tom's trial begins. The whole town is in the courthouse. The children sit in the black balcony with the Reverend Sykes. It becomes clear through the testimonies of Heck Tate, Mr Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson, that Mr Ewell and Mayella are lying. Far from being raped by Tom Robinson, Mayella had actually led him on and when her father discovered her he had beaten her.

Taking a break from the trial, Dill and Scout talk with Mr Raymond outside the courthouse. He lives happily with a black woman, yet he pretends to everyone that he is permanently drunk in order to escape the pressure from townspeople who could not believe that he chooses to live in such a way.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that Tom is innocent, the all-white jury convicts him. All Negroes in the balcony stand as Atticus leaves the court, out of respect.
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Chapters 22 - 25

Town gossip continues after the trial. Mr Ewell spits at Atticus: although he 'won', he knows that he has been badly shown up by Atticus and wants to get him back. Jem and Scout are anxious that Mr Ewell will harm their father, but Atticus reassures them.

Jem has been badly shaken by the result of the trial and has difficulty in making sense of things.

Aunt Alexandra presides over a Missionary Society tea. Scout has to be there, wearing a dress and acting like a lady. Atticus comes with the ...

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