Harper Lee To Kill A Mockingbird: Summary
Maycomb is the finalist of America’s Most Boring Town. The same families are doing the exact same things generation after generations. Scout, Jem and Atticus, the Finches. Dill, Scout, and Jem’s friend, are always together in the summer. Dill shares Scout and Jem’s obsession with Boo Radley and the Radley Place.
Dill goes home and Scout begins school. Scout must pass by The Radley’s Place daily, often at high speed, because it is between her home and the school. She finds two gum sticks stuck in the trunk of a large tree. She tells Jem what she found, and then they discover more treasures there, like finely carved soap figures of Scout and Jem. The situation lasts until they discover that Mr. Nathan, Boo’s older brother, has filled the knothole in with cement. That winter, tragedy strikes when Miss Maudie’s house is set on fire. Boo Radley was hiding in plain sight as a sleepy Scout stood on the sidewalk trying to keep warm.
Scout’s classmates make fun of her because her dad, a successful lawyer, now represents a client who is black, Tom Robinson. Jem, Scout and their black cook learn about the differences between races (blacks don’t like whites; they have a world and life of their own) and also that Tom Robinson is accused of raping white women. In the meantime, Aunt Alexandra is there to teach Scout and Jem some ladylike behavior and family pride. Best of luck. Tom Robinson is finally on trial. The kids sneak to the window and it is pretty obvious that Mayella, a white woman, is lying. Great! Truth and Atticus’s legal skills will win out, right? Not really. Tom is convicted. Some white people don’t like that Atticus accused her and her father of lying. Tom was shot dead a few days later while he tried to escape from prison.
Jem, Scout and their father are in an even worse situation after hearing rumors about the girl’s father. They hear someone chasing them one dark night as they return home from their school’s Halloween pageant. Scout’s costume makes it difficult for her to see. As soon as things calmed, Scout followed the men who carried Jem unconscious and badly injured back to Finch House.
Boo was the one who brought Jem back home. Atticus believes that the killer was the 10-year-old instead of the hulking, silent giant. He then begins to plan Jem’s defense. A friend convinces him to reconsider. Scout, from the Radley’s front porch, looks out at her new neighborhood and wonders how Boo feels about it.
She goes back home and her father reads her to sleep.
