To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."[1] As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in English-speaking countries with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. Scholars also note the black characters in the novel are not fully explored, and some black readers receive it ambivalently, although it has an often profound effect on many white readers. Reception to the novel varied widely upon publication. Literary analysis of it is considerably sparse compared to the number of copies sold and its use in education. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of the book by several authors and public figures, calls To Kill a Mockingbird "an astonishing phenomenon".[2] In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".[3] It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To date, it is Lee's only published novel, and although she continues to respond to the book's impact, she has refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964.

Plot summary
The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. It focuses on six-year-old Scout Finch, who lives with her older brother Jem, their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer, and Calpurnia, the Finches black cook. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who visits his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur (nicknamed Boo) Radley. They feed each other's imagination with rumors about his appearance and fantasize about how to get him out of his house.

Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Nathan Radley eventually plugs the knothole with cement. Several times, the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, never appears in person. Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus' actions. Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. For his part, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into dispersing the mob. Scout, Jem, and Dill watch in secret from the `coloured balcony`. Atticus establishes that the accusersMayella and her father, Bob Ewell, are lying. It also becomes clear that Mayella was making sexual advances towards Tom and her father caught her and beat her badly. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken, as is Atticus', when a hopeless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. Humiliated by the trial, Bob Ewell vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face on the street, tries to break into the presiding judge's house, and menaces Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween party. Jem's arm is broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley. Maycomb's sheriff arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has been killed in the struggle. Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears again. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around a small family of three -- Atticus Finch, an attorney, and his two children, Scout and Jem. The novel is set is the quiet town of Maycomb. Jem and Scout go to school together. On their way to school, they pass the Radley house; it is a terrifying place to them, for it houses Boo Radley, who has been labeled a lunatic. At the same time, their curiosity pushes them to try out ways to make Boo come out of the house. Their overtures are, however, suppressed by Atticus who does not want them to torment Boo. The main plot of the novel revolves around the trial in which Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black, who has been accused of having molested a white girl, Mayella Ewell. She is part of the white-trash community. The children follow the case proceedings avidly and are inconsolable when their father loses the case. The case is lost simply because it was still impossible (despite statutory laws protecting them) for a black man to attain victory over a white in the South. This amply reveals the deeply ingrained racial prejudices still prevalent among the white society which cannot give an equal status to a black.

The relation between the children and Boo Radley resurfaces at the end, when it is Boo who saves them from imminent death at the hands of the vicious Bob Ewell. It is ultimately revealed that Boo is not a lunatic, but a simple-minded person with failing health and a childish attachment for Scout and Tom. The story of the mockingbird recited by Atticus is linked to the theme of the novel. It is considered a sin to kill a mockingbird, since it is a harmless bird which only sings to please others. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are also harmless people. By letting Tom die, the sin of killing a mockingbird has been committed. But by not revealing the facts of Boos heroism in rescuing the children, the sin is avoided, and Boo is left to his seclusion. Toms death is a defeat of justice and an insult to humanity, and the readers can judge for themselves how much of a sin it is. The maturing of Scout and Jem is portrayed as well as the exemplary character of Atticus, who is without any racial prejudices or biased views. He is a highly ethical character, who chooses to fight against the old traditions of his own community.