To Kill A Mockingbird Literature Report (summary)

LITERATURE REPORT ON TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD MAIN CARACTERS Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is the narrator and protagonist of the story. She lives with her father, Atticus, her brother, Jem, and their black cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb. She is intelligent but a little rebel for her time. She shows faith in the goodness of the people around hera kind of faith that is put to the test with Tom Robinson's trial. Scout eventually develops an adult outlook that enables her to appreciate human goodness without ignoring human evil. Atticus Finch is Scout and Jem's father and a lawyer in Maycomb. Atticus teaches his children his strong sense of morality and justice. Proves throughout the novel that he is committed to racial equality not matter what. He proves this when he agrees to defend the black man Tom Robinson, charged with raping a white woman, even though this exposes him and his family to the despise of the white community. With his strongly held convictions, wisdom, and empathy, Atticus functions as the novel's moral backbone. Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch is Scout's brother and a playmate at the beginning of the story. Four years older than Scout, he gradually separates himself from her games, but he remains her close companion and protector throughout the novel. Jem moves into adolescence during the story, and his ideals are shaken badly by the evil and injustice that he perceives during the trial of Tom Robinson. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a recluse who never sets foot outside his house and the aim for imaginations of Jem, Scout, and Dill. He is a powerful symbol of goodness wrapped in an initial cover of scariness, leaving little presents for

Scout and Jem and emerging at an opportune moment to save the children. An intelligent child emotionally damaged by his cruel father, Boo provides an example of the threat that evil poses to innocence and goodness. Charles Baker “Dill” Harris is Jem and Scout's summer neighbor and friend. Dill is a diminutive, confident boy with an active imagination. He becomes fascinated with Boo Radley and represents the perspective of childhood innocence throughout the novel. Bob Ewell is a drunken, mostly unemployed member of Maycomb's poorest family. In his knowingly wrongful accusation that Tom Robinson raped his daughter, Ewell represents the dark side of the South: ignorance, poverty, squalor, and hate-filled racial prejudice. Calpurnia is the Finches' black cook. Calpurnia is a stern disciplinarian and the children's bridge between the white world and her own black community. Aunt Alexandra is Atticus's sister, a strong-willed woman with a fierce devotion to her family. Alexandra is the perfect Southern lady, and her commitment to propriety and tradition often leads her to clash with Scout. Mayella Ewell is Bob Ewell's abused, lonely, unhappy daughter. She presents us with the mixed feelings of pity and disappointment: pity for her bad off relationship with her dad, and disappointment for accusing Tom Robinson.

Tom Robinson is the innocent black field hand accused of rape.

OTHER CHARACTERS Link Deas is Tom Robinson's employer. In his willingness to look past race and praise the integrity of Tom's character, Deas epitomizes the opposite of prejudice. Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is an elderly, ill-tempered, racist woman neighbor to the Finches. Opposite to Jem believing that Mrs. Dubose is a

thoroughly bad woman, Atticus admires her for the courage with which she battles her morphine addiction. Nathan Radley is Boo Radley's older brother. Scout thinks that Nathan is similar to the deceased Mr. Radley, Boo and Nathan's father. Heck Tate is the sheriff of Maycomb and a major witness at Tom Robinson's trial. Heck is a decent man who tries to protect the innocent from danger.

THEMES The coexistence of Good and Evil Throughout the novel Harper Lee shows the human world and its ever present drama of good and evil. He tries to show that to survive and carry on in life it is necessary to have the common sense of seeking good and bearing with evil, this being inside or outside oneself. Nobody shall succeed if not for handling both forces as they are. In the book we find smaller expressions of both of them. The work shows that to cope with the evil in others, one has to ‘climb up their skin and walk around in it.’ The importance of moral education In the same line of thought of the aforementioned theme, to understand the world and manage good and bad, there’s need of principles. Atticus proves to be a good moral figure and a fair moral trainer. His offhand approach to parenting antagonizes with that of his sister or the kid’s teacher at the beginning of the story. The teaching of a sympathetic attitude by means of headstrong standards and immobile values turns out to be the best way to teach morals. Social inequity

The time setting sets for a moment of economic hardship where some are more privileged than others even though this does not mean that a poor white, as in the case of Bob Ewell, cannot look down on a black person like Tom Robinson. The book shows a very good depiction of the rigid and sometimes stubborn social divisions in many a human community that end up being both utterly irrational and destructive.

PLOT This book presents an easy-to-follow, full of detail and imagination plot. The conflict that droves the story on is a mélange of the first events in which Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated with their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley and have an escalating series of encounters with him, and the fact that Atticus is assigned to defend a black man against the false rape charges brought against him. Watching the trial, Scout, and especially Jem, cannot understand how the case could end up for the Ewells. This creates the conditions when Despite Atticus's capable and impassioned defense, the jury finds Tom Robinson guilty. The verdict forces Scout and Jem to confront the fact that the morals Atticus has taught them cannot always be reconciled with the reality of the world and the evils of human nature, and that is the climax of the work. Finally, the resolution of the problem comes when word spreads that Tom Robinson has been shot while trying to escape from prison, Jem struggles to understand human justice. After making a variety of threats against Atticus and others connected with the trial, Bob Ewell assaults Scout and Jem as they walk home one night, but Boo Radley saves them and fatally stabs Ewell. The sheriff, knowing that Boo, like Tom Robinson, would be misunderstood and likely convicted in a trial, protects Boo by saying that Ewell tripped and fell on his

own knife. After sitting and talking with Scout briefly, Boo retreats into his house, and Scout never sees him again. The main conflict of To Kill a Mockingbird seems to be the trial of Tom Robinson but different and parallel stories relate to it some way; for example, the bad situations that Dill has to face in his broken home and Mrs. Dubose’s fate also show human nature, the inexplicable events of the fire, the mad dog, and the snow foreshadow that sometimes there are things that we cannot explain or understand and yet we have to deal with. Even the kids’ stuck admiration for Boo presents an enhancement of the main conflict. These events detail, for instance that, as Atticus shows, one does not need to fight stuff with physical force only like in the case of the mad dog; we also look forward to see what is going to happen about Boo as this also shows how a person doesn’t have to become all locked-up in his emotions no matter the bad comings he’s gone through. We also see an example of coping with what we cannot change in Dills case. The sub-plots mainly magnify by detail the moral of the entire book.

POINT OF VIEW It is Scout who narrates the story in retrospect. She tells what she saw and heard at the time and augments this narration with thoughts and assessments of her experiences. Although she is not an omniscient narrator, time has allowed her a bigger outlook on life so she often implicitly and humorously comments on the naïveté she displayed in her thoughts and actions as a young girl. Scout mostly tells of her own thoughts but also devotes considerable time to recounting and analyzing Jem's thoughts and actions. The novel is a success when it comes to make the reader reflect on human nature and all the times in

which one has had to face hardship: good setting, fine presentation and depiction of characters, great narrative, and superb story.

CHARACTER When it’s about principals, To Kill a Mockingbird makes sure that the reader remembers the overall moral. Lee presents it and then compares and contrasts it with what a certain character feels. He takes time to show, for example, what Atticus believes as good parenting and contrasts it with what Aunt Alexandra holds as true. The author creates a variable parallel and a shadow between Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. I say variable because it is Boo who foreshadows how a person can be misjudged long before the court says Tom is guilty; however, it is the verdict in Tom’s trial what forecast what can take place if Boo is tried for murder. Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are full of life and energy. They are intelligent, imaginative, committed to their cause whether this is right or not, self-conscious and for the most part moral. Even though pursuing different goals, the main characters are all aimed to get what they believe is right or in very broad terms the seek for justice. Justice for some characters will be to deal in stern terms or try to hide certain facts to get peace of mind; for others, it will be to be as plain an reasonable as possible and let the flow come to crash against a rock instead of trying to stop it with one’s body.

SETTTING The novel takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb in Alabama. If we take in to account that in to describe the social climate Scout says that they have been told “they have nothing to fear but fear itself” as said by President F.D. Roosevelt in 1932, we can easily infer that the story starts somewhere in the

middle of the summer of 1933. This reasoning is supported by the later reference of the defeat of the National Recovery Act in the Supreme Court in 1935

when she is eight, about two years after the account starts. Then, that would set the town during the hardships of the Great Depression which would explain the description of the generalized poverty and the common trade of goods for favors among other things. This setting is surely a good factor why the plot is plausible: the discontentment, the racial hatred and the instability.

STYLE As an overall, the work is an easy to follow drama with a childlike, humorous, nostalgic, and innocent tone; as the novel progresses, Scout grows increasingly dark, foreboding, and critical of society. It is exactly as the praise at the beginning of the book says: “once you finish you go to the first page.” Why? Because Scout fills you with so many details at the beginning that you hardly understand what she means until you have a broader viewpoint.

THEMES/PURPOSE/CRITIQUE We can consider that the work is still relevant and a you-must-read-it if you’re a lawyer, a reporter, a teacher or in any other field that involves social interaction. The story is full of moral lessons and it entails one of the most significant matters in the American history, color discrimination. Throughout the novel, we find different scenes that are significant; for example, in chapter 10, we find the dialogue from which the name of the novel comes. Atticus tells scout that “killing a mockingbird is a sin.” From this moment on, we read are redirected consciously or unconsciously to this quote. We also see the different times in which the kids openly disobey or defy Atticus’s commands. We could have been expecting that he reacted upset but

he never does it. Then, we also find the moment just at the end of the novel when Bob Ewell threatens people and finally assaults the kids. This shows the kind of feelings and grudge that some people harbor. Finally, we come to the scene when Scout has her chance to meet Boo and understands his point of view, “crawls up his skin and walks in it” so to speak.