To Kill a Mockingbird Summary
Table of Contents
Ready to read the To Kill a Mockingbird Summary? Yes? Let’s start. This book is the debut novel of renowned writer Harper Lee. This book was published in 1960 and loved by everyone. To break the language boundaries, it was published in more than 40 languages to make it available for all. Around 35 million copies were sold around the globe till date. The writing and story of this book were so perfect that it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. This prize is awarded to a novel for its outstanding performance in the field of literature. Also, it won the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. In general, the motif of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is all about racism and discrimination towards a special caste and color. Before starting with the to kill a mockingbird summary, we must discuss the characters of this title.
To Kill a Mockingbird Characters
There are numbers of to kill a mockingbird characters in this story which we must know before starting to read it. You must know a little about all characters so that you can understand the story with ease.
Jean Louise Finch “Scout”
Scout is the leading character and the narrator of the story. The entire story and events are narrated as per her frame of reference. When the story starts, she was a five years old girl excited to attend the first day of school.
Jeremy Atticus Finch “Jem”
Jeremy is Scout’s older brother. He is more developed and kind by nature as compared to his sister. When the story starts, he was just 9 years old.
Atticus Finch
The main character of the story around which the whole story revolves. He is the widowed father of Jem and Scout. Also, he is the respected lawyer of Maycomb town.
Arthur Radley “Boo”
He is someone who matters in the life of Jem and Scout. His mentality is little reserved as well as mystical.
Calpurnia
She is the only housekeeper of Finch family and an only female presence in the lives of children. She was raising the children since the death of their mother. She is strict yet they love her.
John Hale Finch “Jack”
He is the young brother of Atticus Finch. Children call him Uncle Jack. They love him but he doesn’t understand the Jem and Scout’s felling as Atticus understand.
Robert Ewell “Bob”
He is a poor and an unemployed citizen of Maycomb town. He used to drink a lot and abuses his children. Even he tries to kill the Scout and Jem after a Halloween party but fails and killed by Boo Radley.
Mayella Ewell
She is the daughter of Robert Ewell and the one who accused Tom Robinson of raping her. She is also a culprit of the death of an innocent man due to her sinful actions.
Tom Robinson
An innocent and hardworking man of the town accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. However, Atticus Finch proves Tom’s innocence to the jury as well as other residents of the town. Due to racism in the town, most of the citizens consider a black man (Tom Robinson) guilty of rape without having any proof. As per the novel, he is the Mockingbird of the story who is being unfairly harmed by people or society.
To Kill a Mockingbird Summary
In this paragraph, we are going to start the to kill a mockingbird summary. Read it from heart.
Scout lives with her family in Maycomb town. Her family consists of her brother “Jem” and widowed father “Atticus”. The town is going through terrific misery, a condition of racism and discrimination towards color and caste. And in Maycomb town, it is black people who are the victims of this racism. One summer, a boy named Dill comes to live in the neighborhood of Scout and Jem. Upon a time, the trio becomes a friend and loves to act out stories with each other.
After some time, Dill got attracted to the ghostly house of their street known as Radley House. The owner of the house is Mr. Nathan Radley whose brother Arthur known as Boo has lived here for years without coming outside of the house.
One day, a weird thing happened to Scout and Jem. Someone left some gifts for them in a knothole of a tree on the property of Radley house. They took the gifts and went to their home. In the following summers, dill return to the Maycomb and the trio again start to act some stories of Boo. Dill only stays in the town only for summers.
When he has the last night in the town, the trio took a bad decision. The decision is to enter into the Radley House without anyone’s concern. But, Nathan Radley caught them entering in his property and tries to shoot them but they escaped from there safely. During the escape, Jem loses his pants somewhere in the property and when he returns to get them; they were hung over the fence. It was a mystery for children. They find more gifts in the knothole of tree in next winters probably left by Boo. One day, Jem told the entire story about gifts and pants to his father.
Tom Robinson Trial Starts
Some news “Tom Robinson a black man raped Mayella Ewell a white women” spread in the town like the fire of jungle. The news is not about Tom raped women but a black man raped a white woman. Most people of the Maycomb town are racist and considered Tom as a culprit without any kind of evidence but Atticus stood in support of Tom and decided to defend him. Atticus’s decision has become a subject of abuse for Scout and Jem by other children even while celebrating Christmas with others.
The trial of Tom Robinson begins. On the previous day of the first trial, he was placed in the local jail where a crowd of people tries to kill him in the jail but Atticus saved him and faces the anger of people. Soon, Scout and Jem join their father. From the crowd, Scout recognizes one of the men. She starts to ask polite questions from the man about his son which led to the scattering of the crowd.
During the trial (Court), children sit with the other black people of the town. Mr. Finch provides all the evidence of the innocence of Tom Robinson. Also, he provides evidence that both Robert Ewell and Mayella Ewell are lying in the courtroom. In fact, Mayella gives an indecent proposal to Tom which was caught by her father red-handed. To save herself from guilt and shame, she accused tom of raping her. There were marks on her face which were given by Tom as per Mayella statement but upon investigation, it was found that those marks were due to her father when he beat her upon discovering with Tom.
Death of Innocent
Yet, all the evidence proves the innocence of Tom but all jury still convicts him because they are all white and racists as well. Later, Tom tries to escape from prison but shot dead by police. In spite of the jury’s decision, Bob Ewell feels like a fool which jury and Atticus made him. He decided to take revenge. He tries to threat Tom Robinson’s widowed wife and also tries to enter in judge’s house from the window. When Scout and Jem were returning home from a Halloween party, Bob attacks them with a knife. However, they both were saved by Boo Radley but he stabbed Ewell in between the struggle to save children.
Boo carries both the children to their home but Jem is little wounded. Boo sat with Scout for some time and disappears in the Radley House.
Conclusion of To Kill a Mockingbird Summary
To Kill a Mockingbird summary is interesting as well as full of twists. You will find it difficult to put the book down. It is a must read for everyone. Also, you can read the real reviews of the readers by clicking on this link.
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