To Kill A Mockingbird - Full Book Summary - SparkNotes

To Kill a Mockingbird Full Book
Summary
Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father,
Atticus, in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb. Maycomb is
suffering through the Great Depression, but Atticus is a prominent
lawyer and the Finch family is reasonably well off in comparison to
the rest of society. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy
named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the
summer, and the trio acts out stories together. Eventually, Dill
becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the
Radley Place. The house is owned by Mr. Nathan Radley, whose
brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without
venturing outside.
Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She
and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on
the Radley property. Dill returns the following summer, and he, Scout,
and Jem begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop
to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another
person’s perspective before making judgments. But, on Dill’s last
night in Maycomb for the summer, the three sneak onto the Radley
property, where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants
in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them
mended and hung over the fence.
The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree,
presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Nathan Radley eventually
:
plugs the knothole with cement. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out
in another neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a
blanket on Scout’s shoulders as she watches the blaze. Convinced
that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended pants and the
presents.
To the consternation of Maycomb’s racist white community, Atticus

agrees to defend a Black man named Tom Robinson, who has been
accused of raping a white woman. Because of Atticus’s decision,
Jem and Scout are subjected to abuse from other children, even
when they celebrate Christmas at the family compound on Finch’s
Landing. Calpurnia, the Finches’ Black cook, takes them to the local
Black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely
embraces the children.
Atticus’s sister, Alexandra, comes to live with the Finches the next
summer. Dill, who is supposed to live with his “new father” in another
town, runs away and comes to Maycomb. Tom Robinson’s trial
begins, and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob
gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before
the trial. Jem and Scout, who have sneaked out of the house, soon
join him. Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning
about his son shames him into dispersing the mob.
At the trial itself, the children sit in the “colored balcony” with the
town’s Black citizens. Atticus provides clear evidence that the
accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying: in fact, Mayella
propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught by her father, and then
accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides
impressive evidence that the marks on Mayella’s face are from
wounds that her father inflicted; upon discovering her with Tom, he
called her a whore and beat her. Yet, despite the significant evidence
pointing to Tom’s innocence, the all-white jury convicts him. The
:
innocent Tom later tries to escape from prison and is shot to death.
In the aftermath of the trial, Jem’s faith in justice is badly shaken, and
he lapses into despondency and doubt.
Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have
made a fool out of him, and he vows revenge. He menaces Tom
Robinson’s widow, tries to break into the judge’s house, and finally
attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home from a Halloween party.
Boo Radley intervenes, however, saving the children and stabbing
Ewell fatally during the struggle. Boo carries the wounded Jem back
to Atticus’s house, where the sheriff, in order to protect Boo, insists
that Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. After
sitting with Scout for a while, Boo disappears once more into the
Radley house.
Later, Scout feels as though she can finally imagine what life is like
for Boo. He has become a human being to her at last. With this
realization, Scout embraces her father’s advice to practice sympathy
and understanding and demonstrates that her experiences with
hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness.
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To Kill a Mockingbird Full Book

To the consternation of Maycomb’s racist white community, Atticus

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