To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird
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Author	Harper Lee
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Historical novel, Social Issues
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	1960
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	336 (Hardcover 40th Anniversary edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-06-019499-5 (Hardcover 40th Anniversary edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1960 novel by Harper Lee, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. Lee's only novel, a coming-of-age story, is told from the point of view of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, the young daughter of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, a fictional small town in the Deep South of the United States. She is accompanied by her brother Jem and their mutual friend Dill.

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in the sleepy Alabama county of Maycomb. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Charles Baker Harris (Dill), who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer, and the trio acts out stories together. Eventually, Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place. The house was owned by Mr. Radley, who had two sons, Nathan, who takes over the household after Mr. Radley's death, and Arthur (nicknamed Boo), who has lived there for years without venturing outside in daylight.

Scout goes to school for the first time that Fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the following summer, and he, Scout, and Jem begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another person's perspective before making judgments. But on Dill's last night in Maycomb for the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley property, where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Mr. Radley eventually plugs the knothole with cement.

To the consternation of Maycomb's racist white community, Atticus agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Because of Atticus's decision, Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse from other children, even when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch's Landing. Calpurnia, the Finches' black cook, takes them to the local black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the children.

Atticus's sister, Alexandra, comes to live with the Finches the next summer. Dill, who is supposed to live with his "new father" in another town, runs away and comes to Maycomb. Tom Robinson's trial begins, and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the trial. Jem, Dill, and Scout, who snuck out of the house, soon join him. Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into dispersing the mob.

At the trial itself, the children sit in the "colored balcony" with the town's black citizens. Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying: in fact, Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught by her father, and then accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides impressive evidence that the marks on Mayella's face are from wounds that her father inflicted; upon discovering her with Tom, he called her a whore and beat her. Yet, despite the significant evidence pointing to Tom's innocence, the all-white jury convicts him. The innocent Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot to death. In the aftermath of the trial, Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken, and he lapses into despondency and doubt.

Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have made a fool out of him, and he vows revenge. He menaces Tom Robinson's widow, tries to break into the judge's house, and finally attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween pageant at their school. Boo Radley intervenes, however, saving the children, and carries the wounded Jem back to the Finch home. Atticus at first believes that Jem fatally stabbed Mr. Ewell in the struggle, but the sheriff insists that Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. It is evident (although unsaid) that the sheriff wishes to protect the reclusive Boo from the publicity certain to follow from the towns people if they learned the truth of Boo's involvement. After sitting with Scout for a while, Scout is asked to walk Boo home. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines many past events from Boo's perspective and feels sorry for him because she and Jem never gave him a chance, and never repaid him for the gifts that he gave them.

Primary Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird

For a more complete list of characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, see Other characters in To Kill a Mockingbird

Jean Louise "Scout" Finch is the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is a 6 year old girl and a tomboy, possibly due to her closeness with her older brother, and from the lack of a mother as a female role model. She is an avid reader and unlike many other children of her age, is literate before she enters school, having been taught by Calpurnia, the black cook and housekeeper of the Finch household, and Scout's father, Atticus. However, she is initially held back by her teacher's teaching methods. She enjoys playing with her brother Jem and neighbor Dill Harris, a character based on Lee's lifelong friend, author Truman Capote.

Jeremy Atticus "Jem" Finch is Scout's older brother. Jem undergoes crucial transformations in the work as he becomes a teenager. The trial of Tom Robinson is Jem's first real encounter with injustice, and the realization of its existence drives him into a sullen state. Prior to this, he had viewed the world innocently, thinking of people as one-sided. He viewed Boo Radley, for example, as a frightening figure. Jem was able to overcome his sullenness due to the strong presence of Atticus in his life, and became a bigger person as he achieved a greater understanding of the world and how to view and treat other human beings. He also grew distant from Scout, as opposed to their closeness at the beginning of the novel, who he often asked to act more like a lady as the book progresses.

Atticus Finch is the father of Scout and Jem, and a lawyer who defends Tom Robinson, a black man being tried for rape. He does this because he feels that not doing so would make him a hypocrite, and his sense of morality tells him that he should try his best to try to save Tom Robinson from unfair prosecution. Atticus serves as a guiding light for his children, always calm and patient. He teaches them that one should not dwell on the fact that evil exists, but that they should instead realize that the existence of this evil is a sign that there is work to do, and progress to make. He provides a strong influence on his children, informing and preparing them on the harsh realities of the world. Atticus provides the moral backbone of the story. He is not only a very effective and just lawyer, but holds kindness and empathy as the highest traits a person can have. Scout and Jem call Atticus by his first name instead of an honorific title such as "father", "dad", "papa", "pop", etc.

Lee has taken care in choosing her characters' names. Atticus was the name of a Roman philosopher, Titus Pomponius Atticus, who never took sides in arguments.

Arthur "Boo" Radley symbolizes tortured innocence. A gentle creature, he is viewed with fear by the children, as he was by the townspeople in general. The children do not come to a better understanding of him until the end of the work. He does several heroic things, including giving Scout a blanket during a neighborhood fire, and saving the children from attempted murder. His misconceived good nature testifies to the message of the story, one of kindness and the notion that people should not make judgments on others, since human beings are not that simple. Arthur Radley is one of the "mockingbirds" in the story. It is said that he was a good person, scared by the world.

Tom Robinson is cursed with a withered left arm, he accidentally caught his arm in a cotton gin during his youth, and is important to the novel for many different reasons. Firstly, he acts as a scapegoat in the novel – allowed to take the blame for something he didn't do (raping Mayella Ewell). He represents the 'mockingbird,' doing nothing but good (helping Mayella with various tasks and expecting no payment in return). In addition, his case shows that many white people are prejudiced against the black people of Maycomb, but they hide it behind a veil of hypocrisy. Although Scout is too young to understand the basic principle of racism, her description of the trial of Tom lets the readers know that the author is against racism. The book is an example of a Bildungsroman – showing how she and Jem are growing up.

Robert "Bob" Ewell is the father of a number of children, including Mayella and Burris Ewell. He is a racist character who spits on Atticus after Tom Robinson's court case. Bob Ewell and his family are the town embarrassment, exemplary of "white trash". He swears revenge against Atticus, who dismisses it, deciding to consider things from Ewell's perspective. However, Atticus underestimates the true extent of Ewell's hatred and he tries to kill Atticus's children in a surprise attack at night, but is presumably killed by Boo Radley.

Mayella Violet Ewell is Tom Robinson's 19 year old accuser. She is the eldest daughter of Bob Ewell and has to take care of her siblings since all Ewell children go to school only on the first day of each year, and their father spends his unemployment money on alcohol. Mayella's mother died when Mayella was a child or adolescent and since the mother's untimely passing her daughter has become her widower's surrogate wife and children's mother. She was continually physically abused by her father; Atticus politely and indirectly proves this by mentioning the bruises concentrated on her right side. Mayella cannot attend school because she must stay home, take care of her siblings, and clean. She is isolated from her peers and very lonely. Indeed, she is so lonely that when Atticus asks her if she has any friends, she becomes confused because she does not know what a friend is. She wants a better life for herself and lovingly grows red geraniums, but a change in her situation is unlikely. To get the human contact that she so craves, she attempts to seduce a black man, but her father sees this and beats her up, calling her a whore, then he finds the sheriff and tells him that his daughter has been raped, even though there is absolutely no proof of this. By testifying against Tom she contributes to the racism that divides the town and the situation escalates to the point where everyone is involved.

Literary significance & criticism

Truman Capote frequently implied that he himself had written a considerable portion of this novel, and some have said he ghosted the entire novel. At least one person – Pearl Kazin Bell, an editor at Harper's – has gone on record as believing his assertions were true. Many people believe, however, that Capote would likely have been much more aggressive in claiming credit for the novel's Pulitzer Prize had he been the real author, since he never achieved a Pulitzer for his own work. His persona was far more flamboyant than Lee's, and their writing styles reflect this difference. A letter (dated July 9, 1959) from Capote to his aunt indicates that Harper Lee did indeed write the entire book herself [1]. However, in one respect, his influence on the work is inescapable: he was the model for the major character of Dill. Mrs.Dubose

Additionally, To Kill a Mockingbird is number 41 on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.[2]

Allusions/references from other works

For more references from other works, see To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture

Since To Kill a Mockingbird's publication in 1960, there have been many references and allusions to it in popular culture.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The book was made into the well-received and Academy Award-winning film with the same title, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1962. The novel was adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel as a two act play in 1960.

Trivia

Demi Moore and Bruce Willis named their daughter Scout after Jean Louise Finch.
American actor Jake Gyllenhaal named his German Shepherd Atticus and his Puggle Boo Radley after characters from the novel.
The city of Monroeville, Alabama was the author's birthplace and is believed to be the source of the setting of "Maycomb" for the book; the town promotes itself as such.
In the book Dill's aunt is called Miss Rachel Haverford and the town gossip is Miss Stephanie Crawford, whereas in the film version Miss Stephanie Crawford is the name of Dill's aunt.
In the 1990s, there was a hiphop artist named Tequila Mockingbird.

External links

Reading guide and book excerpt (Official publisher web page)
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields, 2006

Preceded by Advise and Consent by Allen Drury	Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 1961	Succeeded by The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor