FREE ESSAY ON TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Jean Louise Scout Finch and her brother, Jem, live with their single lawyer father,
Atticus who is extremely bright and fair. One summer, they meet and become friends with a
boy named Dill, and the three kids portray stories together. Eventually, Dill becomes
interested with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place, owned by Mr.
Nathan Radley, whose brother Arthur Boo Radley has lived there for years without ever
leaving the house. Scout goes to school for the first time that fall, and despises it.
She and Jem find presents and gifts, obiously left for them, in a knot-hole of a tree on
the Radley property. That summer Dill returns, and they begin to act out the story of Boo
Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their acts and potrayals, but on the last day of summer,
the three sneak onto the Radley property and are shot at by Mr. Nathan Radley with his
shotgun. Jem loses his pants in his escape, and when he returns for them, he finds them
mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, they find more presents in the tree, but
eventually Nathan Radley plugs the hole with cement. Shortly after that, there is a fire
in their neighbor's house, and while the fire is raging someone slips a blanket on
Scout's shoulders as she watches the blaze. Jem is convinced that Boo did it, and tells
Atticus about the mended pants and the presents and gifts. Atticus agrees to defend an
African-American man named Tom Robinson accused of raping a white woman. Because of his
decision, Scout and Jem are subjected to abuse and torment from other children, even when
they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch's Landing. Their Aunt Alexandra
comes to live with them the next summer, and Dill--who is supposed to live with his new
stepfather in another town--runs away and comes to Maycomb. Tom Robinson's trial arrives,
and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus
faces them down the night before the trial, and then his children, who have sneaked out
of the house, join him; Scout's innocence shames the mob into dispersing. At the trial
itself, Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father
Bob, are lying: in fact, Mayella propositioned the black man, was caught by her father,
and then accused him of rape to cover her shame and guilt. However, the all-white jury
convicts Tom despite the evidence; and Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot.
Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge made a fool out of him
and vows revenge. He menaces Tom Robinson's wife, tries to break into the judge's house,
and finally attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween party. They are
saved by Boo Radley, who kills Ewell, picks up and carries the wounded Jem home, sits
with Scout for a while, and then disappears again into the Radley house.This story
presented to America the injustice and racism of the southern whites during the
mid-1900's.