To Kill a Mockingbird’s opening sentence discusses this theme, but the rest of the novel expands on it. Harper Lee‘s novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960. It has been translated into over 40 languages and has sold over 40 million units worldwide.
And is one of the most frequently assigned novels in American curricula. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The work was lauded for depicting a child’s indoctrination of racism and inequality in the American South in a compassionate manner.
To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, the novel’s heroine, is a six to nine-year-old brilliant but weird young girl. Atticus Finch, her widowed father, educates her and her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”).
To Kill a Mockingbird Book Summary
He is an established lawyer who inculcates compassion and justice in his children. He famously tells students that “killing a mockingbird is a catastrophe,” referring to the birds’ purity and innocence.
Despite community threats, Atticus agrees to defend one of the town’s Black citizens, Tom Robinson, who is wrongfully accused of raping a white lady, Mayella Ewell. He is attacked by a mob intent on murdering his client at one point, but he refuses to forsake him. Scout inadvertently defuses the situation.
Despite Atticus’ defence, which implies a more rational explanation of the evidence—that Mayella was assaulted by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is condemned and subsequently killed while fleeing. A man likens his death to an “unnecessary slaughter of songbirds,” repeating Atticus’ statement about the mockingbird.
Meanwhile, when they become obsessed with Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, a reclusive acquaintance and local legend, the youngsters create their own micro of prejudice and superstition. They have their own ideas about him and can’t resist the urge to trespass on Radley’s estate.
Their delusions thrive as a result of their elders’ dehumanization of them. Atticus, on the other hand, chastises them and attempts to persuade them to be more sensitive. Boo’s presence is noticed indirectly through a series of good deeds, culminating with his participation when Bob Ewell scares Jem and Scout. Heck Tate, the sheriff, believes it is wiser to declare that Boo killed Ewell by tripping on his own knife, so hiding the shy Boo from unwelcome attention.
What happened to Jem when he was nearly thirteen?
“My brother Jem got his arm badly crushed at the elbow when he was approximately thirteen,” the book begins. (Lee 3) Harper Lee introduces Scout as the narrator, saying she and Jem reminisce on the circumstances that led to him fracturing his elbow on occasion. The rest of the book follows the events and situations in the Ridley children’s lives that lead up to Jem breaking his elbow.
As scout and Jem grew older, the two siblings pondered on the circumstances that led to Jem’s fractured arm. Jem assumed it all started with their adolescent attempt to get their strange neighbor, Boo Radley, to abandon his house. The stories about Boo are crucial to the lives of the Finch children since Jem would not have fractured his arm if it hadn’t been for Boo. He would most likely have perished that night instead.
Jem and Scout travel home through the woods in the dark after the Halloween program at school. Bob Ewell attacks them. He has warned Atticus Finch with retribution for defending Tom Robinson and revealed in court that he, not Robinson, beat Mayella.
Despite the fact that Robinson had been wrongfully convicted of rape, the trial made the public dislike Ewell even more. On the night of the Halloween performance, Ewell was intoxicated and carrying a knife when he followed the children into the woods; if Boo Radley had not been present to defend them, he would have massacred both children.
Bob Ewell meets Jem and Scout on their way back home from Maycomb’s Halloween celebration in Chapter 28. Bob wants Atticus to pay for the damage he caused during the Tom Robinson trial. Throughout the assault, the Finches’ eccentric neighbor, Arthur “Boo” Radley, saves and defends the children.
During the battle, Boo Radley is able to use Bob Ewell’s dagger against him and stabs Bob. Boo Radley drags Jem to his home after the fight is ended and Bob Ewell is dead. Jem was knocked out, and his arm was shattered at the elbow during the assault.
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