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To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of the young narrator’s passage from innocence to experience when her father confronts the racist justice system of the rural, Depression-era South. In witnessing the trial of Tom Robinson, a Black man unfairly accused of rape, Scout, the narrator, gains insight into her town, her family, and herself.
- Symbols
The title of To Kill a Mockingbird has very little literal...
- Related Links
This obituary of Harper Lee provides a detailed summary of...
- Protagonist
Summary & Analysis Part One, Chapter 1 Chapters 2 & 3 ......
- Foreshadowing
Bob Ewell doesn’t figure prominently in To Kill a...
- Antagonist
Summary & Analysis Part One, Chapter 1 Chapters 2 & 3...
- Genre
To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily an example of Southern...
- Tone
Summary & Analysis Part One, Chapter 1 Chapters 2 & 3...
- Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas...
- Symbols
Analysis: Chapters 16–17. The trial is the most gripping, and in some ways the most important, dramatic sequence in To Kill a Mockingbird; the testimony and deliberations cover about five chapters with almost no digression.
Analysis of Literary Devices To Kill a Mockingbird Action: The main action of the novel comprises the children’s fascination with Boo Radley, Tom’s trial, and his final exoneration. However, the rising action is the fascination of the children, Jem, Dill, and Scout of Boo Radley.
Need help with Chapter 17 in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis.
- Part One, Chapter 1
- Chapters 2 & 3
- Chapters 4–6
- Chapters 7 & 8
- Chapters 9–11
- Part Two, Chapters 12 & 13
- Chapters 14 & 15
- Chapters 16 & 17
- Chapters 18 & 19
- Chapters 20–22
A young girl nicknamed Scout recounts her family history. She tells about her father, Atticus Finch, who became a lawyer in the town of Maycomb. Jem is Scout’s brother, and Calpurnia helps raise them after their mother dies. The siblings befriend a boy named Dill who suggests that they lure Boo Radley, a reclusive neighbor, out of his house. When D...
Scout eagerly attends school for the first time, but she and her teacher, Miss Caroline, do not get along. Jem invites the poor Walter Cunningham to lunch who douses his food in molasses, shocking Scout to the point that Calpurnia scolds her for not being a better hostess. Back at school, an incident involving Burris Ewell, a boy from an even poore...
When school breaks for the summer, Dill returns to Maycomb, continuing his games with Scout and Jem and eventually creating one called “Boo Radley” that they suspend when Atticus catches them. As Jem and Dill grow closer, Scout spends time with Miss Maudie Atkinson, who tells Scout that the rumors about Boo Radley are false. On Dill’s last day in M...
On Scout’s walks home from school with Jem, they find gifts left for them in a tree knothole. Maycomb endures a real winter, allowing the children to build a snowman that looks so much like Mr. Avery that Atticus demands them to disguise it. That night, Scout is woken up to find that Miss Maudie’s house is on fire, and while outside someone drapes ...
Scout nearly starts a fight when a classmate uses a racial slur to declare that Atticus defends Black people, particularly Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping a white woman. Atticus says that Tom is innocent but doomed, since it’s inconceivable that an all-white jury would acquit him. One day, Atticus surprises Jem and Scout when he shoots a ma...
Jem begins spending less time with Scout, telling her that she should act more like a girl, a comment that upsets her. The children are taken to Calpurnia’s mostly Black church, where they learn that Tom Robinson was accused by Bob Ewell. When they return home, they find Aunt Alexandra, who has come to stay with the Finches, believing that they nee...
Tom Robinson’s trial draws near, and Atticus’s role as his defense lawyer subjects Jem and Scout to town gossip. Scout gets into a fight with Jem after he asks her not to antagonize Alexandra, and when she goes to bed, she finds Dill hiding underneath it. Sherriff Heck Tate appears at the Finch home and expresses concerns about the possibility of a...
People from all over the county make an appearance at the trial, except for Miss Maudie who does not approve of watching. Jem, Scout, and Dill sneak into the courtroom and find seats in the balcony where Black people are required to sit. Bob Ewell gives his testimony, telling the court how he found Tom Robinson raping his daughter Mayella, and Atti...
During Atticus’s fiery cross-examination of Mayella, Mayella yells at the courtroom to convict Tom Robinson, eventually crying and refusing to answer any more questions. Tom’s testimony explains how he often would help Mayella with chores, and how on the night of the alleged rape, it was actually Mayella who attempted to pursue Tom. When Bob appear...
Scout and Dill speak to Mr. Dolphus Raymond who tells them that he pretends to be a drunk to provide other white people with an explanation for why he prefers Black people. Atticus gives his closing remarks in the courtroom, and when he finishes, Calpurnia tells him that the children have not been home. The children beg to hear the verdict, but the...
Need help with Chapter 4 in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis.
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The action in this novel is narrated from the perspective of six-year-old Scout Finch, as she observes the changes that occur in her little Alabama town during a disputable case of rape in which her father consents to safeguard a dark man who is unjustifiably blamed for assaulting a white lady.
