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.