The story of to kill a mockingbird. 7 Key Themes in To Kill a Mockingbird 2023-01-03

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

He has two young children, Jem and Scout. The children push their way forward. He asks why no doctor was called, and gets Ewell to write his name. Atticus handles her with his customary grace and sensitivity. Ewell, who is left-handed, beat Mayella himself when he caught Mayella touching Tom. Suddenly, numerous cars arrive, and men with rifles approach. He tells Atticus he is concerned that "people are saying you believed Tom Robinson's story agin ourn.

Why ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Keeps Getting Banned

That night, Jem shows Scout a cigar box filled with all sorts of little gifts that he had found in the tree. Will impartiality and reason prevail? Scout is horrified, but Atticus stifles his laughter. The day before the trial, a mob surrounds the jail where Tom is being held. Judge Taylor Paul Fix comes to ask Atticus to defend in a problematic case involving a man named Tom Robinson. After that he did lots of favors that she asked him to do, until one day she got him in the house and grabbed him and told him to kiss her.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Point of View

Jem breaks up the fight and invites Walter to have lunch at their house. Bob Ewell testifies that he returned from one of his fields to hear Mayella screaming, and that he saw who did it. But it does suggest that teachers should encourage their students to think critically about Atticus, not just the men who oppose him. At night, Dill prompts Jem to look in a back window of the Radley house. Over the last year, he says, there have been 36 reports of hate crimes in libraries. On the first day, her teacher, Miss Caroline, criticizes her for already knowing how to read and forbids her from writing in cursive. Atticus points out the lack of evidence, the fact that no doctor examined Mayella and that Mayella was beaten by someone left handed.

7 Key Themes in To Kill a Mockingbird

He recoils slightly when Atticus gently pulls the door away from him, allowing Scout to see his face. Throughout the book, though, he sees for himself that evil does often win out, especially when it grows out of ignorance, racism, fear, and hatred for people who are different or ideas that challenge the status quo. After all, laws are made by people. She wears it walking home with Jem after dark because she couldn't find her overalls after the performance was over. After a doctor has come to take care of Jem, Sheriff Tate investigates the scene where the kids were attacked and reports that Bob Ewell has been killed with "a kitchen knife. She recognizes a man named Mr. Into this manly realm with its scent of Old Spice and Aqua Velva, in the summer of 1960, tiptoed a young slip of a book with an artsy cover and the odd name To Kill a Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Plot Summary

He, Scout, and Jem grow more daring and sneak onto the Radley property one night to look in the window, but Nathan Radley sees them and thinks they're thieves. She only has limited detail but says she was saved from Ewell by a man she couldn't see very well. Now he is back at the town jail, and Heck Tate expects trouble. Dubose, a horrendous woman. The prosecutor rests, and Atticus calls Tom Robinson to the stand. Atticus runs out of the house yelling for Scout and she runs into his arms sobbing and babbling about what happened.

The Story Behind 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

Jem refuses when Atticus tells them to go home. Atticus tells Tom that he had told Helen they would "probably lose this one. Tom is dignified and articulate, but increasingly uncomfortable. The synopsis below may give away important plot points. As Scout stands on the Radley porch, she sees the world as Boo must see it and looks back on the experiences of her last few summers.

To Kill a Mockingbird eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 and rode the best-seller lists for over 80 weeks. Following the death of her sister Alice, it was announced that the manuscript of Go Set a Watchman had been found, a find that begat all the current news. Racial tensions in Maycomb flare. Even though Robinson was convicted, Ewell is furious that Atticus made him look like a fool in court. After more hoopla than a person could reasonably handle, Harper Lee avoided the spotlight while continuing to live in New York and regularly visiting her family in Monroeville. He relies on the family's black cook, Calpurnia, to help raise the kids.

He has spent the year in the Abbotsville jail, because the Sheriff thought he would be safer there. As one begins observing the reasons that make his defense far from easy, it becomes evident the reason lies in that no one in this town seems willing to believe in the innocence of an accused Negro. An adult woman is recalling formative events of her childhood in the small Alabama town of Macomb, that was "a tired old town even in 1932" when she "first knew it. Scout cannot see well from inside her costume, but she hears a loud grunt and sees the man in the baggy shirt carrying Jem to their house. Gilmer spoke to Tom.

At the end of the novel, when the trial is over and Bob Ewell attacks Scout and Jem on Halloween, Scout is once more at the center of events. Jem's overalls get caught in the chickenwire fence, and he has to leave them. Dill's Aunt Stephanie Alice Ghostly adds to the story. Atticus tells Tom to try catching it with his left hand, to which Tom replies he can't; his left arm is crippled because he caught in a cotton gin when he was twelve. When she asks about Boo Radley, Atticus reminds her that he has told them "to leave those poor people alone.