To Kill A Mockingbird Study

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Please write your Book Report exactly according to the following guidelines and in the following order:

A: Facts

Technical information

To kill a mockigbird

Harper lee

1960

309

3 weeks and 4 hours.

Setting

Time: in which time is the story set?

Past

Try to guess the year in which the story might be set.

During the Great Depression in the United States (1929).

Give examples and quotes from the story to prove your answers.

Some of the characters have financial difficulties (mainly the Cunninghams).

" Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. ...There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County."

b) Time: how much time does the story take? Does it take hours, months, years?

Try to guess how long the story takes. Be as exact as possible.

About three years.

Give examples and quotes from the story to prove your answers.

Dill came to Maycomb three summer holiday’s. This is also how much time the story takes.

"That was the summer Dill came to us"

c) Place: Where is the story set?

Mention country, town.

The story is set in the United States in a small town called Maycomb County.

Describe the surroundings: city / countryside; poor / rich, etc.

Maycomb County is a poor countryside village.

Also state the social backgrounds; think about jobs, important events, use of language etc.

The narrator, Scout Finch, lives with her father and her brother Jem. The father of the narrator, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer. His wife died some time before the story takes place.

The language isn’t special.

Give examples and quotes from the story to prove your answers.

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it."

"We lived on the main residential street in town – Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook."

3. Characters

a) Main Characters:

Mention the names of ALL the Main Characters.

Scout and Jem Finch, Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell

Write at least five lines of information per Main Character. Think about their role in the story, about their characters, their looks, their relationships with other characters, etc.

Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch:

Scout is the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird. She is smart for her age, which gets her in to trouble with her teacher, Ms. Caroline, because she can read and write. As the story progresses, she matures but she still retains some of her childish ways. The story is written from the point of view of Scout. She is the only one of the three children who sees Boo Radley. Scout was terrified of Boo, but once she actually saw him, she realized he was harmless. Scout is an energetic little 6 year old. Scout is also "engaged" to Charles Baker "Dill" Harris.

Jeremy Atticus ‘Jem’ Finch:

Jem is the brother of Scout Finch, four years older than she is. Jem is the brave person in the story. As the story progesses, he grows from a boy to a mature man who helps Scout understand the problems and events around his life. Jem and Scout both learn throughout the story to look at good human nature, as well as bad.

Tom Robinson:

Thomas Robinson is a 25-year-old black man who is accused of assaulting and raping Mayella Ewell. He is defended by Atticus Finch in his trial. He is polite, and frequently helps Mayella, and a few other characters from the book. Tom is killed when he tries to escape from prison, and was shot 17 times by guards. He has three children with his wife, Helen. He also worked as a field worker for Link Deas, who tried to defend Tom in court.

Bob Ewell:

Robert Everlasting Lee "Bob" Ewell is the main antagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. He has a daughter named Mayella, and a younger son named Burris. He is an alcoholic and spends all his money on booze. He accuses Tom Robinson of raping his daughter and eventually has him thrown in jail. Everyone in the whole town knows the Ewells are not to be trusted. It is clear that Tom Robinson is convicted because he's black, and not because of Bob Ewell's stand on the trial. After Tom is killed, Atticus humiliates Bob publicly in court. Bob attempts to murder Jem and Scout Finch, because he wants to revenge Atticus. Bob dies during this attempt, because he got stabbed with a knife by Boo Radley.

Give a quote for each main character to show something of their character traits.

Scout:

"But I still looked for him each time I went by. Maybe someday we would see him. I imagined how it would be: when it happened, he’d just be sitting in the swing when I came along. ‘Hidy do, Mr Arthur,’ I would say, as if I had said it every afternoon of my life. ‘Evening, Jean Louise,’ he would say, as if he had said it every afternoon of my life, ‘right pretty spell wh’re having, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes sir, right pretty,’ I would say, and go on."

Jem:

"Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to stop pestering him I consulted Atticus: ‘Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?’ Atticus said no, Jem was growing. I must be patient with him and disturb him as little as possible."

Tom Robinson:

"And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to "feel sorry" for a white woman has had to put his word against tow white people’s."

Bob Ewell:

"I knowed who it was, all right, lived down yonder in that nigger-nest, passed the house every day. Jedge, I’ve asked this county for fifteen years to cleaon out that nest down yonder, they’re dangerous to live around ‘sides devaluin’ my property."

b) Minor Characters: Write down the names of ALL the Minor Characters.

Atticus Finch, Dill, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, Maudie Atkinson, Mayella Violet Ewell, Alexandra Hancock.

4. Title

Explain the title: why does the book bear this title?

The title means that you shouldn’t prejudice someone. Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted because he was black. Atticus teaches the children not to kill a mockingbird, because they’re good birds. So the title connects what Atticus says and the horrible fate of Tom Robinson.

Give a quote of at least 3 lines in which the title is mentioned or in which the meaning of the title becomes clear.

Atticus said to Jem one day, 'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.

'Your father's right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

B: YOUR OPINION:

1. Which character(s) did you like?

Mention 2 main persons that you found sympathetic.

Scout Finch, Tom Robinson

Explain for each of the two main persons why you thought he/she was sympathetic.

Scout is the narrator and the story is written from her point of view. Scout is very smart for her age. She can read and write, which gets her into trouble by her teacher. As the story progesses, scout gets more mature. I like her way of maturing, but still remaining innocent. She is also very energetic, which I like in characters.

Thomas Robinson is a 25-year-old black man who is accused of assaulting and raping Mayella Ewell. He is polite, and frequently helps Mayella, and a few other characters from the book, despite he is accused of raping her. I think that this is very sympathetic.

Give a quote from the book for each of the two characters to prove your answers.

Scout:

"Miss Caroline apparantly thought I was lying. ‘Let’s not let our imaginations run away with us, dear,’ she said. ‘Now you tell your father not to teach you any more. It’s best to begin reading with a fresh mind. You tell him I’ll take over from here and try to undo the damage –‘

‘Ma’am?’

‘Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.’

I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime."

Tom:

"And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to "feel sorry" for a white woman has had to put his word against tow white people’s."

2. Which character did you dislike?

Mention 2 main persons that you found unsympathetic.

Bob Ewell, Calpurnia

Explain for each of the two main persons why you thought he/she was unsympathetic.

Bob Ewell is a alcoholic and he accuses Tom Robinson of raping his daughter, which is not true. Few citizens like Bob, because he can’t be trusted. Because of all these ‘bad’ things I find Bob unsympathetic.

Calpurnia is the housekeeper of the Finch family. She is very strict and, in my opinion, very annoying. She doesn’t like Scout. That’s the reason that I think that she is unsympathetic.

Give a quote from the book for each of the two characters to prove your answers.

Bob Ewell:

"Mr. Ewell’s face grew scarlet. He stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. ‘- I seen that black nigger yonder rutting’ on my Mayella!’" This was obviously not true…

Calpurnia:

"Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was near-sightedl she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come."

3. What did you feel when you read the story?

Mention at least two main emotions that you felt when you read the story.

Sympathy and horror

Explain for each of the two emotions why you felt that emotion.

I felt sympathy for the two main persons, scout and tom robinson. I really liked the way they are and their relationship with others. At the end of the story I also felt sympathy for Boo Radley because he saved the boys from Bob Ewell.

I felt horror for some things that happens in the story. The way how citizens and the jury treat Tom Robinson is awful.

Give a quote for each of the two emotions to explain your answers.

Sympathy:

"But I still looked for him each time I went by. Maybe someday we would see him. I imagined how it would be: when it happened, he’d just be sitting in the swing when I came along. ‘Hidy do, Mr Arthur,’ I would say, as if I had said it every afternoon of my life. ‘Evening, Jean Louise,’ he would say, as if he had said it every afternoon of my life, ‘right pretty spell wh’re having, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes sir, right pretty,’ I would say, and go on."

Horror:

"A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson. The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge…

I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: ‘Guilty…guilty…guilty…guilty…’ I peeked at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders jerked as if each ‘guilty’ was a separate stab between him."

4. What is your favourite part?

Give a quote of at least 5 lines of your favourite part of the book.

"When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.

I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn’t run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn’t? We were far to old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right."

Explain what happens at this particular stage in the story

This is one of the first sentences of the novel. Jem and Scout are a few years older than the real beginning of the book and they look back at the whole story.

Explain why you think this is the best part of the book.

The first time I read this part, I had no idea what they meant and about who they were talking about, because it all happens in a later part of the story. The second time I read it, I understood what they were talking about, and it’s very funny to read about the argument they have. They always ask their father if they don’t have a solution for a problem or an argument.

5. Message

What can you, as a reader, learn from the book?

it's wrong to harm someone/something that does no harm to you, it's "a sin to kill a mockingbird."

How can you learn this message from the story?

In the horrible fates that await Tom Robinson, Boo Radley and Atticus.

Give a quote of at least 3 lines from a part of the book which shows the message of the book, the theme, the moral.

It's not just racial prejudice acting into the verdict, class and gender also acts into it to some extent. Tom is found guilty, because when it's a "white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins." The white community's fear of racial disturbance and their insecurity about their own position in the society meant that Tom was found guilty. This reassured the traditional hierachies in the community. There was a strong idea of Southern womanhood that women were to be worshipped and protected, and Mayella knew this, so to play on white men's conscience, she broke down into tears.

Overall opinion: did you like the book? Why / why not?

I definitely liked the book. I loved the relationship between the Jem and Scout and their father. The story has a lot of different subjects and small events. I think that the writer succeeded very well with this book.

C: THE SUMMARY

Make a good and sensible summary of the story / book.

Make a complete summary of the book, per chapter, or divide the book into chunks of 10 to 20 pages and give a summary per chunk, IN YOUR OWN WORDS.

Write down all the new characters that are introduced in each new part of your summary. (Main or Minor?)

Mention all the main and important events, but do not mention unnecessary elements / details.

Your summary should be 1 – 5 pages A4 (Arial 11), depending on the length of the book itself, of course.

Scout and Jem Finch are living with their father, Atticus Finch, and the housekeeper, Calpurnia in a small town called Maycomb County. Every summer a boy named Dill visits Maycomb County to stay with his aunt in the holidays. Scout and Finch befriend Dill and they all like to play together.

They are all terrified of the their neighbour ‘Boo’ Radley. His real name is Arthur, but the children in Maycomb thought up this name for him. Very few people in Maycomb County have seen this man and some even think he has already passed away. The children are telling story’s to each other about the reason why Boo remains hidden. Following two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times, the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, never appears in person.

Scout and her older brother Jem are rascals and they have to repent for their reckless actions regularly. As Jem grows older, he becomes wiser and loses the interest in pranking. This causes irritation by Scout, who still likes to prank.

Winter comes quickly, bringing a rare snowstorm to Maycomb. Miss Maudie's house is ruined in a fire, and Scout has a rare encounter with Boo Radley without even knowing it.

Scout gets into a number of fisticuffs with both a classmate and her cousin when the two boys taunt her about her father, whom they insult by calling him a "nigger lover."

Atticus explains to Scout that he will be defending a black man named Tom Robinson on the charge of rape.

Christmas comes, and Scout and Jem get their dream gifts: a pair of air rifles. Atticus won’t teach them to shoot, but he tells them that if they must shoot at birds, they shouldn’t pick on mockingbirds, which don’t do anyone any harm. The kids feel kind of dissatisfied with boring old Dad, who can’t do any of the cool things (like playing football or training ninjas) that the other fathers do. One day a mad dog turns up on their street, and Atticus reluctantly shoots it. The kids are surprised to learn that their father is a crack shot, since he’s never told them anything about it.

As Tom Robinson's trial approaches, Atticus worries about the safety of his client. This fear that proves to be justified. A group of townspeople, including Walter Cunningham, appear at the courthouse one night, with the intention of lynching Tom Robinson. The only person who stands in their way is Atticus. At first, the mob intends to plow right through him, but with the unexpected arrival of Scout, they realize the error of their actions.

When Tom Robinson's trial finally begins, evidence begins to show that Robinson is obviously innocent. Heck Tate and Mr. Ewell take the stand in Tom Robinson's trial, giving further evidence to prove Robinson's innocence. Atticus points out that a left-handed man must have beaten Mayella Ewell. He goes on to show that while Mr. Ewell is left-handed, Tom Robinson's left arm is crippled due to a farming accident. When Mayella Ewell takes the stand, it becomes obvious that her story has many holes in it. However, she starts

crying hysterically before Atticus may point many of them out.When Tom Robinson takes the stand, the obviously true story comes out. It becomes evident that Mayella Ewell was a very lonely person whose only crime was to kiss a black man. Her father, Bob Ewell, beat and raped her for this crime. Mr. Ewell also forced her to say that Tom Robinson did it, so that he wouldn't get in trouble.

After the verdict is announced in Tom Robinson's case, guilty, the children, as well as other members of the community, discuss and react to the verdict. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken, as is Atticus', when a hopeless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.

Humiliated by the trial, Bob Ewell vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face on the street, tries to break into the presiding judge's house, and menaces Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout as they walk home on a dark night from the school Halloween pageant. Jem's arm is broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is the reclusive Boo Radley.

Maycomb's sheriff arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has been killed in the struggle. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of holding Jem or Boo responsible. Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective and regrets that they never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.

Expectations: write down which expectations you had for the course of the story while you were reading the book. Did the book end the way you had expected it to? Would you have liked it to end in a different way? How?

I actually don’t have any expectations when I’m reading a book. I just see what will happen.

I definitely liked the way how it ended. I never thought that Boo Radley would be the ‘good guy’ after all.