To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of the young narrator’s passage from innocence to experience when
her father confronts the racist justice system of the rural, Depression-era South. In witnessing the trial of
Tom Robinson, a black man unfairly accused of rape, Scout, the narrator, gains insight into her town, her
family, and herself. Several incidents in the novel force Scout to confront her beliefs, most significantly
when Tom is convicted despite his clear innocence. Scout faces her own prejudices through her
encounters with Boo Radley, a mysterious shut-in whom Scout initially considers a frightening ghost-like
creature. The novel’s resolution comes when Boo rescues Scout and her brother and Scout realizes Boo is
a fully human, noble being. At the same time, Scout undergoes an inevitable disillusionment as she is
exposed to the reality of human nature. The entrenched racism of her town, the unfair conviction and
murder of Tom Robinson, and the malice of Bob Ewell all force Scout to acknowledge social inequality
and the darker aspects of humanity. Throughout the book, her father, Atticus, represents morality and
justice, but as Scout becomes more sensitive to those around her, she sees the effect of his struggle to stay
purely good in a compromised world.
The book opens with a framing device that references Scout’s brother, Jem, breaking his arm when he
was thirteen. Scout says she will explain the events leading up to that injury, but is uncertain where to
start, raising the question of the past’s influence on the present. After tracing her family’s history and
describing how her father, Atticus, came to be the attorney for Maycomb, Alabama, she picks up her
narrative almost three years before the incident, when she is “almost six” and Jem is “nearly ten.” She
presents Maycomb as a sleepy, impoverished town still rooted in the rhythms and rituals of the past. Her
loving characterization of the town depicts it as an ideal place to be a child, where Scout and her brother
play in the street all day long during the summer. These opening scenes of safety and innocence are later
contrasted with her more mature, nuanced descriptions of the town’s darker aspects and the price of its
attachment to the past.
In the following chapters, Scout recounts a series of amusing stories introducing us to the main characters
in the book and establishing the town’s social order. At the urging of their friend, Dill, Scout and Jem try
to coax their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley, out of his house. Boo has lived as a prisoner in his own
home after getting into trouble as a teen; when he was in his thirties, he stabbed his father in the leg with a
pair of scissors. He has become a figure of local gossip and speculation, and the children are terrified and
fascinated by his seemingly monstrous, ghostly nature. When Scout enters school, we meet Walter
Cunningham, the son of a poor but proud family of farmers. When Walter comes to lunch at Scout’s
house, Scout is reprimanded for mocking his table manners, one of her first lessons in empathy. Another
child at school, Burris Ewell, introduces us to the Ewell family, who will figure prominently later in the
book. The Ewells are a mean, antisocial clan who rely on government assistance and only send their
children to school one day a year, to avoid the truant officer. Burris threatens the teacher with violence,
foreshadowing the violent attack by his father later in the book. Burris’s father, Bob, represents the racism
and violent past of the South, and is the book’s antagonist.
