Appendix A Summary of To Kill A Mockingbird - USU Institutional ...

Appendix A
Summary of To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression, and
is narrated by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch.
Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer with high moral standards. Scout, her
brother Jem, and their friend Dill are intrigued by the local rumors about a man
named Boo Radley, who lives in their neighborhood but never leaves his house.
Legend has it that he once stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and
he is made out to be a kind of monster. Dill is from Mississippi but spends his
summer in Maycomb at a house near the Finch's.
The children are curious to know more about Boo, and during one summer
create a mini-drama they enact daily, which tells the events of his life as they
know them. Slowly, the children begin moving closer to the Radley house, which
is said to be haunted. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a
fishing pole, but are caught by Atticus, who firmly reprimands them for making
fun of a sad man's life. Next, the children try sneaking over to the house at night
and looking through its windows. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley, who lives in the
house, thinks he hears a prowler and fires his gun. The children run away, but Jem
loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them
back, they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up.
Other mysterious things happen to the Finch children. A certain tree near
the Radley house has a hole in which little presents are often left for them, such as
pennies, chewing gum, and soap carved figures of a little boy and girl who bear a
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striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. The children don't know where these gifts
are coming from, and when they go to leave a note for the mystery giver, they find
that Boo's brother has plugged up the hole with cement. The next winter brings
unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie's house catches on fire. While Jem
and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near the Radley house, someone puts a
blanket around Scout without her realizing it. Not until she returns home and
Atticus asks her where the blanket came from does she realize that Boo Radley
must have put it around her while she was entranced by watching Miss Maudie,
her favorite neighbor, and her burning house.
Atticus decides to take on a case involving a black man named Tom
Robinson who has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella
Ewell, a member of the notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer of
Maycomb society that people refer to as "trash." The Finch family faces harsh
criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of Atticus's decision to defend
Tom. But, Atticus insists on going through with the case because his conscience
could not let him do otherwise. He knows Tom is innocent, and also that he has
almost no chance at being acquitted, because the white jury will never believe a
black man over a white woman. Despite this, Atticus wants to reveal the truth to
his fellow townspeople, expose their bigotry, and encourage them to imagine the
possibility of racial equality.
Because Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves
whispered at and taunted, and have trouble keeping their tempers. At a family
Christmas gathering, Scout beats up her cloying relative Francis when he accuses
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Atticus of ruining the family name by being a "nigger-lover". Jem cuts off the tops
of an old neighbor's flower bushes after she derides Atticus, and as punishment,
has to read out loud to her every day. Jem does not realize until after she dies that
he is helping her break her morphine addiction. When revealing this to Jem and
Scout, Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage: the will to
keep fighting even when you know you can't win.
The time for the trial draws closer, and Atticus's sister Alexandra comes to
stay with the family. She is proper and old-fashioned and wants to shape Scout
into the model of the Southern feminine ideal, much to Scout's resentment. Dill
runs away from his home, where his mother and new father don't seem interested
in him, and stays in Maycomb for the summer of Tom's trial. The night before the
trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and Atticus, fearing a possible lynching,
stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is concerned about him, and the
three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men arrive ready to cause
some violence to Tom, and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem, Scout and
Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to
speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her
innocence brings the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.
The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom's
evidence. According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her
while her father was out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and
raped Mayella until her father appeared and scared him away. Tom's version is
that Mayella invited him inside, then threw her arms around him and began to kiss
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him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell arrived, he flew into a rage
and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright. According to the sheriff's testimony,
Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face, which means she was most
likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old
accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Given the evidence of reasonable
doubt, Tom should go free, but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces
him guilty. Scout, Jem and Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit in
the balcony with Maycomb's black population. They are stunned at the verdict
because to them, the evidence was so clearly in Tom's favor.
Though the verdict is unfortunate, Atticus feels some satisfaction that the
jury took so long deciding. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes,
because a black man's word would not be trusted. Atticus is hoping for an appeal,
but unfortunately Tom tries to escape from his prison and is shot to death in the
process. Jem has trouble handling the results of the trial, feeling that his trust in
the goodness and rationality of humanity has been betrayed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell threatens Atticus and other people connected with
the trial because he feels he was humiliated. He gets his revenge one night while
Jem and Scout are walking home from the Halloween play at their school. He
follows them home in the dark, then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a
large kitchen knife. Jem breaks his arm, and Scout, who is wearing a confining
ham shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on, is helpless throughout
the attack. The elusive Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves the children.
Finally, Scout has a chance to meet the shy and nervous Boo. At the end of this
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fateful night, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo, the
hero of the situation, won't have to be tried for murder. Scout walks Boo home
and imagines how he has viewed the town and observed her, Jem and Dill over
the years from inside his home. Boo goes inside, closes the door, and she never
sees him again.
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Appendix B
Characters List
Scout (Jean Louise) Finch: Scout is the main character, or protagonist. As an
adult first-person narrator, she tells the story of her childhood experiences,
beginning just before her sixth birthday. Scout is intelligent, curious, outspoken,
and feisty. A tomboy, she prefers pants to dresses, beats up boys, and grows up
playing the same games as her constant male companions—her brother, Jem, and
her neighbor's nephew, Dill. Scout also loves books and is an avid reader even
before she enters first grade..
Atticus Finch: Scout's father, a widower. He is a compassionate, fair-minded,
self-educated attorney who takes the time to instill moral values and common
sense in Scout and her brother. One of the most important lessons he teaches them
is that they must learn to walk in the shoes of other people before attempting to
criticize or analyze them. At times, he tells them, it may be necessary to bend the
law to accommodate individual differences in people. He incurs the wrath of the
community after he decides to defend a Negro, Tom Robinson, who is accused of
raping a white girl. His office is in the Maycomb Bank building. Except for his
defense of Tom Robinson, Finch plays no active role (other than setting a good
example) in activities to improve the lot of blacks.
Jeremy Atticus (Jem) Finch: Scout's brother, who is four years older than she.
Like Scout, he is intelligent and curious. Though congenial and understanding, he
can be a fierce defender of his family's honor. He helps in Scout's maturation by
passing along to her advice and insights he has received from Atticus and others.
After the jury finds Tom Robinson guilty of rape, Jem experiences deep
disillusionment in society's fair-mindedness and becomes moody and irritable for
a time.
Charles Baker (Dill) Harris: Nephew of the Finch family's next-door neighbor
Rachel Haverford. During his summer vacations in Maycomb, he becomes good
friends with Scout and Jeremy and a partner in their childhood adventures. Harper
Lee modeled him after her childhood friend, author Truman Capote. Dill
exaggerates the accomplishments of his family and sometimes tells outright lies in
order bolster his self-esteem and ingratiate himself with Scout and Jem. He is
especially curious about the mysterious and reclusive Boo Radley and concocts
several schemes to get Boo to come out of his house and show himself.
Calpurnia: Loyal and level-headed Negro cook for Atticus Finch. In addition to
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her kitchen duties, Calpurnia watches over Scout and Jem and scolds Scout for
improper behavior whenever necessary. She is a few years older than Atticus.
Alexandra Finch Hancock: Sister of Atticus. She comes to Maycomb to live
with him to help tomboy Scout learn ladylike behavior. Her gentility and
knowledge of the social graces endears her with Maycomb society, but Scout
regards her as a pain in the neck.
Jimmy Hancock: Husband of Alexandra.
Dr. John Hale (Jack) Finch: Younger brother of Atticus and uncle of Scout.
Atticus helped put him through medical school. Scout looks up to him because of
his genial manner and willingness to listen to her views, although he doesn't
hesitate to correct her when he sees the need.
Arthur (Boo) Radley: Maycomb man who remains inside his home, just down
the street from the Finch residence. When he was about sixteen, he made friends
with a rowdy group and repeatedly got into trouble. One night, police arrested the
whole gang of them for causing a ruckus. Boo was locked in the courthouse
basement for a considerable time. Eventually, he was released into his father's
custody and remained confined to the Radley home for seventeen years. One day,
he became the subject of town talk after he stabbed his father in the leg with
scissors, inflicting a deep wound. When Scout and Jem are growing up, townfolk
tell stories about him that strike fear into everyone's heart.
Mr. Radley: Boo's father, whom Calpurnia regards as the meanest man in town.
According to Maudie Atkinson, he is a very strict Baptist who regards any form of
pleasure a sin.
Mrs. Radley: Mr. Radley's wife. Although she does not mingle with others in the
community, she occasionally goes outside to water her flowers.
Tom Robinson: Twenty-five-year-old Negro wrongfully accused of raping a
white woman. At his trial, Atticus defends him with arguments making plain that
he could not have committed the crime. However, a jury of white males finds him
guilty. Later, when he attempts to escape, he is shot and killed.
Miss Caroline Fisher: Scout's inexperienced first-grade teacher.
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Robert E. Lee (Bob) Ewell: Cruel, spiteful, evil-minded head of the Ewell
family. Because he spends most of his money on liquor, his family lives in
squalor. When his daughter, Mayella, makes advances toward Tom Robinson,
Ewell witnesses her behavior, then beats her. He then tells the sheriff that
Robinson raped her. At the trial, he testifies that "I seen that black nigger yonder
ruttin' on my Mayella."
Mayella Ewell: Bob Ewell's nineteen-year-old daughter. Because of her father's
alcoholism, she virtually runs the Ewell household, looking after the children and
doing the chores.
Burris Ewell: Bob Ewell's son, a mean boy who calls Miss Fisher a "snot-nosed
whore."
Helen Robinson: Wife of Tom Robinson and mother of three children. Bob Ewell
harasses her after Tom Robinson's trial.
Miss Maudie Atkinson: Amiable neighbor of the Finch family who is about the
same age as Atticus and shares his admirable moral values. She is a good friend of
Scout and Jem, treating them as her equals. She provides them information about
Atticus in his younger days, before Scout and Jem were born. When her house
burns down, she does not dwell on her misfortune but instead looks forward to
building anew. Maudie likes to bake and saves tasty samples of her concoctions
for Scout, Jem, and Dill. She also likes to garden, a practice that rigid Baptists tell
her is sinful.
Miss Rachel Haverford: Next-door neighbor of the Finch family with whom Dill
Harris lives during the summer. Miss Haverford, the sister of Dill's mother, is a
secret tippler, according to Dill.
Miss Stephanie Crawford: Maycomb's town gossip. After fire burns Maudie
Atkinson's house, Maudie stays with Stephanie.
Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose: Old woman who lives two houses north of the
Finches. Depicted by Scout as a malicious, ill-tempered hag, she sharply criticizes
Scout and her brother when they walk past her house. After her death, Scout
learns from Atticus that Mrs. Dubose suffered from a painful terminal disease
requiring her to take morphine to gain relief. However, in her last days, she
stopped taking the painkiller in order to die drug-free, with dignity. Atticus holds
her up to Scout and Jem as an example of a courageous woman.
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Heck Tate: Forty-three-year-old sheriff of Maycomb County.
John Taylor: Elderly judge who asks Atticus to defend Tom Robinson in an
effort to give Robinson the best defense possible. Taylor presides at the
Robinson's trial.
Horace Gilmer: Prosecuting attorney in Tom Robinson's trial.
Braxton Bragg Underwood: Owner, editor, typesetter, and printer of the local
newspaper, The Maycomb Tribune.
Zeebo: Maycomb garbage collector and son of Calpurnia. He leads the singing of
hymns at Calpurnia's church. When Calpurnia brings Scout and Jem to Sunday
services, he welcomes them.
Dr. Reynolds: Town doctor who attends Mr. Radley when he is dying. A good
friend of the Finches, he delivered both Jem and Scout at birth. After Bob Ewell
attacks Jem, Dr. Reynolds treats his injuries.
Link Deas: Tom Robinson's fair-minded boss at a Maycomb business. At the
trial, he rises in the audience to tell everyone in the courtroom about the
uprightness of Tom's character. He later employs Helen Robinson in his business.
When Bob Ewell harasses her, Deas scares him off with a threat to have him
arrested.
Crazy Addie: Perpetrator of gruesome crimes—the mutilation of chickens and
household pets—for which Boo Radley receives the blame. Crazy Addie later
drowns himself.
Sam Levy: Jewish resident of Maycomb in 1920. He is referred to as having
shamed members of the Ku Klux Klan when they came to his house.
Walter Cunningham: Head of a poor white family that refuses to accept charity.
When Atticus does legal work for him, Cunningham pays with food.
Young Walter Cunningham: Boy in Scout's first-grade class who brings no
lunch to school because he cannot afford it. When his teacher, Miss Fisher, offers
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to lend him a quarter to buy lunch, he refuses it because he knows he cannot pay it
back. In the school yard later, Jem invites him to lunch at the Finch home.
Mrs. Grace Merriweather: Composer of the Halloween pageant who is
prominent in social circles. As a member of the Missionary Society, she laments
the living conditions of certain African people but snidely criticizes the blacks in
her own community.
Sophy: Mrs. Merriweather's cook.
Agnes Boone: Student dressed as a butterbean for the Halloween pageant.
Henry Hancock: Son of Jimmy and Alexandra Hancock.
Francis Hancock: Son of Henry Hancock. Scout beats him up after he tells her
that Atticus is a "nigger lover."
Cecil Jacobs: Schoolchild who walks a mile out of his way each day to avoid
passing in front of the Radley house and the Dubose house. He taunts Scout for
Atticus's defense of a Negro.
Chuck Little: Classmate of Scout who tries to calm Miss Fisher when a "cootie"
(louse) from the hair of Burris Ewell frightens her.
D. C.: First-grader in Scout's class.
Miss Blount: Sixth-grade teacher who comes to the door of Miss Fisher's
classroom to quiet the unruly children.
Mr. Avery: Elderly man who boards in Miss Maudie Atkinson's house.
Mr. Conner: Law officer at the time when Boo Radley was a teenager who
befriended a group of rowdy boys. When Conner attempted to arrest them, they
locked him the courthouse outhouse.
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Dolphus Raymond: Wealthy Maycomb man who prefers the company of blacks
to whites.
Miss Spender: Fiancée of Dolphus Raymond. She killed herself after learning
that he had a black mistress.
Ruth Jones: Employee of the welfare office in Maycomb. After the WPA (Works
Progress Administration) fires Bob Ewell, he tells her Atticus caused the loss of
his job. It is a lie. She informs Atticus of his accusation.
Bert: Court reporter at the Robinson trial.
Mrs. Taylor: Judge Taylor's wife.
Jessie: Mrs. Dubose's maid.
Ike Finch: Only surviving Confederate soldier in Maycomb County.
Lily Brooke: Relation of Scout to whom Aunt Alexandra introduces her.
Joshua S. St. Clair: Cousin of Scout who had written a book.
Tensaw Jones: Spectator at the trial who voted the straight Prohibition ticket.
Emily David: Spectator at the trial who uses snuff in private.
Byron Waller: Spectator at the trial. He plays the violin.
Jake Slade: Spectator at the trial.
X. Billups: Spectator at the trial.
Estelle: Hotel employee who sends food to Atticus to express her gratitude for his
defense of Tom Robinson.
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Maxwell Green: Inexperienced attorney who would normally have been
appointed by Judge Taylor to defend Tom Robinson. However, Taylor, wanting to
give Robinson every advantage possible, appoints the more experienced Atticus
instead.
Sarah and Frances Barber: Spinster sisters who are the only Maycomb residents
with a cellar in their house. One Halloween, pranksters steal into their house while
they are asleep and move all of their furniture into the cellar.
Mrs. Crenshaw: Local seamstress who fashions Scout's ham costume for the
Halloween pageant.
Eunice Ann Simpson: Child whom Scout and her churchgoing companions tied
to a chair in the furnace room of the church. During the sermon, she began
banging on radiator pipes. When rescued, she declared that she no longer wanted
to act the part of Shadrach (Daniel: Chapter 3, Verses 12-27).
Gertrude Farrow: Member of the Maycomb Missionary Society.
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Appendix C
Biography of Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama.
Lee Harper is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller To Kill
a Mockingbird (1960)—her one and only novel. The youngest of four children,
she grew up as a tomboy in a small town. Her father was a lawyer, a member of
the Alabama state legislature, and also owned part of the local newspaper. For
most of Lee’s life, her mother suffered from mental illness, rarely leaving the
house. It is believed that she may have had bipolar disorder.
One of her closest childhood friends was another writer-to-be, Truman
Capote (then known as Truman Persons). Tougher than many of the boys, Lee
often stepped up to serve as Truman’s protector. Truman, who shared few
interests with boys his age, was picked on for being a sissy and for the fancy
clothes he wore. While the two friends were very different, they both shared in
having difficult home lives. Truman was living with his mother’s relatives in town
after largely being abandoned by his own parents.
In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature. After
graduating in 1944, she went to the all-female Huntingdon College in
Montgomery. Lee stood apart from the other students—she could have cared less
about fashion, makeup, or dating. Instead, she focused on her studies and on her
writing. Lee was a member of the literary honor society and the glee club.
Transferring to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Lee was known
for being a loner and an individualist. She did make a greater attempt at a social
life there, joining a sorority for a while. Pursuing her interest in writing, Lee
contributed to the school’s newspaper and its humor magazine, the Rammer
Jammer. She eventually became the editor of the Rammer Jammer.
In her junior year, Lee was accepted into the university’s law school,
which allowed students to work on law degrees while still undergraduates. The
demands of her law studies forced her to leave her post as editor of the Rammer
Jammer. After her first year in the law program, Lee began expressing to her
family that writing—not the law—was her true calling. She went to Oxford
University in England that summer as an exchange student. Returning to her law
studies that fall, Lee dropped out after the first semester. She soon moved to New
York City to follow her dreams to become a writer.
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In 1949, a 23-year-old Lee arrived in New York City. She struggled for
several years, working as a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and for the British
Overseas Air Corp (BOAC). While in the city, Lee was reunited with old friend
Truman Capote, one of the literary rising stars of the time. She also befriended
Broadway composer and lyricist Michael Martin Brown and his wife Joy.
In 1956, the Browns gave Lee an impressive Christmas present—to
support her for a year so that she could write full time. She quit her job and
devoted herself to her craft. The Browns also helped her find an agent, Maurice
Crain. He, in turn, was able to get the publishing firm interested in her first novel,
which was first titled Go Set a Watchman, then Atticus, and later To Kill a
Mockingbird. Working with editor Tay Hohoff, Lee finished the manuscript in
1959.
Later that year, Lee joined forces with old friend Truman Capote to assist
him with an article he was writing for The New Yorker. Capote was writing about
the impact of the murder of four members of the Clutter family on their small
Kansas farming community. The two traveled to Kansas to interview
townspeople, friends and family of the deceased, and the investigators working to
solve the crime. Serving as his research assistant, Lee helped with the interviews,
eventually winning over some of the locals with her easy-going, unpretentious
manner. Truman, with his flamboyant personality and style, also had a hard time
initially getting himself into his subjects’ good graces.
During their time in Kansas, the Cutters’s suspected killers, Richard Hickock and
Perry Smith, were caught in Las Vegas and brought back for questioning. Lee and
Capote got a chance to interview the suspects not long after their arraignment in
January 1960. Soon after, Lee and Capote returned to New York. She worked on
the galleys for her forthcoming first novel while he started working on his article,
which would evolve into the nonfiction masterpiece, In Cold Blood. The pair
returned to Kansas in March for the murder trial. Later that spring, Lee gave
Capote all of her notes on the crime, the victims, the killers, the local
communities, and much more. Soon Lee was engrossed her literary success story.
In July 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published and picked up by the Book-ofthe-Month
Club and the Literary Guild. A condensed version of the
story appeared in Reader’s Digest magazine. The work’s central character, a
young girl nicknamed Scout, was not unlike Lee in her youth. In one of the book’s
major plotlines, Scout and her brother Jem and their friend Dill explore their
fascination with a mysterious and somewhat infamous neighborhood character
named Boo Radley. But the work was more than a coming-of-age story, however.
Another part of the novel reflected racial prejudices in the South. Their attorney
father, Atticus Finch, tries to help a black man who has been charged with raping
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a white woman to get a fair trial and to prevent him from being lynched by angry
whites in a small town.
The following year, To Kill a Mockingbird won the prestigious Pulitzer
Prize and several other literary awards. Horton Foote wrote a screenplay based on
the book and used the same title for the 1962 film adaptation. Lee visited the set
during filming and did a lot of interviews to support the film. Earning eight
Academy Award nominations, the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird won
four awards, including Best Actor for Gregory Peck’s portrayal of Atticus Finch.
The character of Atticus is said to have been based on Lee’s father.
By the mid-1960s, Lee was reportedly working on a second novel, but it
was never published. Continuing to help Capote, Lee worked with him on and off
on In Cold Blood. She had been invited by Smith and Hickock to witness their
execution in 1965, but she declined. When Capote’s book was finally published in
1966, a rift developed between the two friends and collaborators. Capote
dedicated to the book to Lee and his longtime lover Jack Dunphy, but he failed to
acknowledge her contributions to the work. While Lee was very angry and hurt by
this betrayal, she remained friends with Truman for the rest of his life.
That same year, Lee had an operation on her hand to repair damage done
by a bad burn. She also accepted a post on the National Council of the Arts at the
request of President Lyndon B. Johnson. During the 1970s and 1980s, Lee largely
retreated from public life.
She spent some of her time on a nonfiction book project about an Alabama
serial killer, which had the working title The Reverend. But the work was never
published.
Lee continues to live a quiet, private life in New York City and
Monroeville. Active in her church and community, she usually avoids anything to
do with her still popular novel.
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