Summary of To Kill a Mockingbi essays

Summary of To Kill a Mockingbi essays The book To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a magnificent story about guilt, fairness, race relations, and about life itself. It is told in the eyes of an already mature six-year old girl named Jean-Louise Finch, Scout for short. In the midst of the story Scout and her older brother Jeremy Finch, also known as Jem, grew more in their maturity by seeing certain events that happened around them. The stories major conflict is self-against-community while at the same time self-against-self. When Scouts father, Atticus, was faced with defending a black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white girl, he new that his family would be ridiculed due to the racial prejudice of the time and place; that being Alabama in the 1930s. Additionally Tom Robinson, the accused, was a friend of Atticus. Atticus was faced not only with defending Tom throughout the trial, but also faced with defending his action to his children, whom he was trying to raise without prejudice. Tom Robinson was ultimately found guilty of rape and sentenced to death by a jury of white farmers. Atticus convincingly showed that, due to an injury to his right arm, he could not have inflicted the bruises on Mayellas face. He was further able to prove that Mayellas father was the rapist. Unfortunately, Tom was killed while trying to escape from a prison camp. Mr. Ewell felt ridiculed in court and swore to take revenge on Atticus. Another self-against-self conflict within the story is Scouts and Jem s dealings with their neighbors, the Radleys. Afraid of the adult son Boo Radley, whom they have never seen, they have been led to believe through stories of other children in town, that Boo is a vicious, horrifying looking monster. They always ran past his house so he wouldnt get them. Yet dared, Jem ran onto Boos porch and slapped the house one-day in attempts to get Boo to come...