To Kill a Mockingbird

     by

Harper Lee

100 Most Challenged Books

Lee, H. (1960). To kill a
     mockingbird. New York, NY:
       Grand Central Publishing.

EXPOSITION: A woman named Scout is remembering events from her childhood, when she lived with her brother Jem and their lawyer father Atticus in a small Southern town.  Scout, Jem and their friend Dill spend their summers trying to find out about a mysterious recluse named Boo Radley who lives in their neighborhood.

CONFLICT:  When Atticus, a lawyer, agrees to defend a Negro named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white girl, the neighbors call him a “nigger-lover.”  The children are likewise being taunted by the community, but they stand by their father.  However, someone keeps doing mysteriously kind things for Jem and Scout, like leaving gifts where they can find them.

RISING ACTION:  One evening, Atticus goes to the jail to face down a mob determined to hang Tom.  They are both saved when Scout arrives and naively starts talking to the men in the lynch mob with a childlike innocence that makes them leave. 

CLIMAX: At the trial, Atticus proves that Tom Robinson is innocent, but the all-white jury convicts him anyway.  Bob Ewell, the father of the white girl who falsely accused Tom swears revenge against Atticus for humiliating him and his daughter in court.

FALLING ACTION: On Hallowen night, Jem and Scout are walking to a party when someone attacks them, but they are mysteriously rescued.  Later, at home, Scout finds out that their assailant was Bob Ewell, who broke Jem’s arm and almost killed Scout before he was stabbed to death with his own knife.  

RESOLUTION: Scout sees Boo Radley hiding in Jem’s room and she realizes that he was the one who saved them, and he was the one who had been giving them secret gifts all along.  She suggests to Atticus and the sheriff that it would be wrong to punish Boo for his kindness to them just like it would be wrong “to kill a mockingbird” because it sings sweetly and does no harm to anyone.   

LIST TWO STRONG LITERARY QUALITIES DISPLAYED IN THE BOOK AND WRITE ONE SENTENCE ABOUT EACH QUALITY:

            One strong literary quality I particularly liked was the way Harper Lee managed to write this book with the eloquent articulation of an adult author while still narrating the story with the innocent simplicity of the childlike central character.

            I was also impressed with the many bits of local color the author infused into the tale, which made me feel transported in time and space so I was right there experiencing it instead of merely reading about it. 

  

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