To Kill A Mocking Bird By Lee Essay Example For Students

To Kill A Mocking Bird By Lee Essay The book To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It was published in1960 then it went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and was later made intoan Academy Award winning film. Harper Lee always considered her book to be asimple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American Literature. There are so many characters in this book that I cant name all of them. Hereare most of the characters. The Finch family contains of Atticus (The head ofthe household), Aunt Alexandra (Atticuss sister), (Jem) Jeremy (The oldest ofAtticuss two children), (Scout) Jean Louise (The youngest of the two . She alsotrys to be a boy by doing boy things). And you cant forget their black maid. We will write a custom essay on To Kill A Mocking Bird By Lee specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Her name is Calpurnia. Miss Rachael is Dills aunt that lives in Maycomb. Dillis a friends with Jem and Scout. According to Scout they are married. (Boo)Arthur Radley is the person that takes Jem back to his house after Jem gets hurtby Bob Ewell. Tom Robinson is a black man that was accused of raping MayellaEwell. Bob Ewell is Mayellas father. He is out for revenge on Atticus for whathe did to him and his daughter. Mayella is Bobs daughter who supposedly gotraped by Tom Robinson. Judge Taylor is the Judge of Maycomb County. Heck Tate isthe county law official. I think the protagonist in the story is Atticus Finchbecause he has the main part and he has the biggest decision to make. Thedecision being whether to defend or not to defend Tom Robinson. To Kill aMockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in Southern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty andunemployment were widespread in the United States. The story begins during thesummer when Scout and Jem meet a new playmate named Dill who has come fromMississippi to spend the summer with his Aunt Rachael. Dill is fascinated by theneighborhood gossip about Boo Radley. Egged on by Dill, Jem andScout try to think up ways to lure him out of his house. Soon it is Summer again, and Dill returns for another visit. The childrens plans for making contactwith Boo Radley grew bolder this year, and on Dills last night they decide tosneak up onto the Radley porch and spy on Boo. Jem goes first, but just as hereaches the window, Nathan Radley catches site of them and scares them off witha blast from a shot gun. Jem realizes that Boo is not a monster after all, buthas been playing along with them. Scout does not figure this out until thewinter, on the night that the house of their neighbor burns to the ground. WhileSco ut is standing outside in the cold, someone sneaks up behind her and places ablanket around her. Later, Scout and Jem realize that there was only one personin town who has not already at work fighting the fire and that was Boo. Now thatJem and Scout realize that Boo is basically a kind person, their interest in theRadley family begins to fade. In the meantime, they learn that their father hasbecome the defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, who is charged with raping MayellaEwell. As the trial of Tom Robinson grows nearer, the children become more awareof 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 Robinsonswife. Two nights before the trial is to start, a group of men come to the Finchhouse to tell Atticus about threats against Tom Robinsons life. Atticus spendsthe next night camped out at the jail to defend Tom from the mob. Jem, Scout andDill go downtown to check on Atticus and arrive at the same time as a group ofmen, who have come to kill Tom. Scout recognizes one of the men in the group asWalter Cunningham. Her friendliness embarrasses the man so much that he and themob leave. The next day, at the trial, Atticus questions make it clearthat Mayella and her father are lying about the rape. Neverless the jury convicthim because their prejudices prevent them from taking a black mans word againsttwo whites. Atticus is now a hero in the black community of Maycomb, but BobEwell, vows to get Atticus for showing him up as a liar in front ofthe whole town. Tom Robinson has give n up hope and trys to flee the prison, butwhile doing it he gets caught and shot. By the time Halloween comes around, theFinch family has begun to put Toms death behind them. There is a pageantplanned and Scout much to her dismay has been cast as a ham. After the pageantScout decides to walk home still dressed in her bulky costume , with Jem leadingthe way. The cowardly Bob Ewell. seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Atticusthrough his children. He follows the children down a dark street and tries tokill them. In the side. It is none other than Boo Radley, who had seen theattack from his window. Boo stabs Bob Ewell to death, and carries the woundedJem home. The sheriff decides to file a report that Bob fell on his own knifeand died, thus sparing Boo the publicity that would be sure to follow. Scoutnever sees Boo again after that night, but she has learned that he was a goodman all along. She has learned a lesson about understanding and tolerance. Andthrough the sheriffs action she sees that sometimes there can be justice andcompassion in the world. The title of the book, To Kill a Mockingbird is a keyto some themes in the novel. The title is first explained in Chapter 10 at thetime that Jem and Scout have just received air rifles for Christmas. Atticustells his children that it is a sin to shoot a mockingb ird. Later Miss Maudieexplains that Atticus meant that Mockingbirds are harmless creatures who donothing but sing for enjoyment. It is easy to see that themockingbird in this story is Tom Robinson a harmless man who becomesa victim of racial prejudice. Like the mockingbird, Tom has never done wrong toanyone. Even the jurors who sentence him to death have nothing personal againsthim. They find him guilty mostly because they feel that to take the word of ablack man over two whites would threaten the system they live under, the systemof segregation. Tom himself is guilty of nothing but being in the wrong place atthe wrong time.