BOOK REPORT

Student ID:
Name: Luis Joaquin Martinez
2018-30-3-0042

Adviser:
Yr / Section: 03
Wilkenson Boucard

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Story Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird is a book on race relations between blacks and whites of the early 20 th
century. It takes place in the south were relations between black and white were still a question of prejudice. A
young girl and boy growing up when times were hard with their widowed father. A white woman accuses a black
man of rape and he is chosen to be the black mans lawyer.

“To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee. Although it was written in 1960 it is set in the mid-1930s in the
small town of Maycomb, Alabama. It is narrated by Scout Finch, a six year old tomboy who lives with her lawyer
father Atticus and her ten year old brother Jem. During the novel Scout, Jem and their friend Dill try to make their
reclusive neighbor Boo Radley leave his house. Boo has not been seen in Maycomb since he was a teenager.

Many residents of Maycomb are racists and during the novel Atticus is asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man
wrongly accused of raping a white woman.  Judge Taylor appoint Atticus to defend Tom Robinson. Although many
citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Atticus establishes that the accusers
Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, are lying. It also become clear that Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom,
and that her father caught and beat her. Despite significant evidences of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him.
Atticus takes on the case even though everyone knows he has little hope of winning. Helpless Tom is shot and
killed while trying to escape from prison.

Main Events:
1- Tom Robinson was declared guilty, but was really innocent.
2- Tom Robinson got shot 17 times trying to escape from jail.
3- On the way home from the Halloween pagaent, Scout and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell, but Boo
Radley killed Bob and saved the kids.
Story Conclusion:

The novel ends after Bob Ewell attacks Scout and Jem, and Boo Radley rescues them, killing Bob in the process.
Atticus and Sheriff Heck Tate have a conversation about how to deal with the situation, and Scout walks Boo
home. The conversation between Atticus and Heck can be difficult to understand, because the two men are talking
about two different things. Atticus, who believes Jem is the one who killed Bob, thinks Heck wants to cover up the
truth to protect Jem. Atticus is adamantly against lying to protect Jem. He thinks that protecting Jem from the law
will undermine Atticus’s relationship with his children and everything that he has taught them. Heck, however,
realizes that Boo killed Bob Ewell, and wants to cover up the truth to protect Boo. Heck doesn’t believe that Boo
will be in any kind of legal trouble, because he was clearly protecting the children, but he thinks that the
community will want to thank Boo and make him a hero which would be ruinous to Boo’s intense desire for
privacy.
Atticus vehemently opposes covering up Jem’s involvement in Bob Ewell’s death, but he accepts that covering up
Boo’s involvement is the right decision. Atticus is a highly principles man who values law and justice, but he is a
man who values his relationship with his children even more. Atticus is not afraid that covering up Jem’s
involvement will be unethical or illegal. He is concerned that doing something so hypocritical will ruin his
relationship with his children. Atticus would rather that Jem face some difficulties than think that his father did not
hold him to the same standard as everyone else. Atticus does not have that kind of relationship with Boo, and in
fact likely owes Boo for the lives of both of his children, so Atticus is willing to accept that subjecting Boo to
public scrutiny would be a mistake.
Another important aspect of the novel’s ending is Scout’s walk home with Boo. Boo specifically asks Scout to take
him home, his only spoken lines of dialogue in the entire novel, revealing that this character who has been a source
of fear for so many of the townspeople, including Scout and Jem, is actually quite fearful himself. In seeing Boo’s
fear, Scout is put into the position of wanting to protect him, and his dignity, from the rest of the town.

Calling Boo “Mr. Radley,” Scout takes him arm so that it looks like Boo is the one who is walking her down the
street. In protecting Boo’s dignity and empathizing with his fear, Scout puts herself in another person’s shoes and
thinks about the world from their perspective, just as Atticus instructed her. Atticus’s final lines that “most people
are nice when you finally see them for who they are”, underscores Scout’s maturation process from a child who
was irrationally afraid of Boo to an adult capable of seeing Boo as a human being.

Write 1 fact and 1 opinion about this story:

As an English teacher, I believe "To Kill a Mockingbird" provides us with an opportunity to open dialogue with
students about justice, privilege and discrimination. It gives us a chance to help students come to their own
understandings about fairness in our country. As a reader, I believe "To Kill a Mockingbird" tells a compelling
story in an artful way that gets at the most basic reasons why we read: to be entertained, to think, to consider our
values and belief systems.

With this book, Harper Lee has done it all. She has challenged a country with a history of injustice to become just.
She has led us through the coming of age experience. She has entertained us. She has introduced us to the words
and ways of the South. She has created a piece of literature that will forever have a place of importance in us.