This is a book about a man named Atticus Finch, his children and the people of his town. This story takes place in a place called Maycomb County in the state of Alabama. The time is in the 1940’s and ’50’s. The story starts out with a girl, “Scout” telling the story of something as an adult. She starts out talking about the summers that she remembers most. It was when her brother, Jem had and she had experienced the most memorable years of their lives. I will be telling the story through “Scout’s” eyes.
When Jem had nearly been thirteen years old, he had badly broken his arm and it all started out with the Ewells, at least I think so, but Jem says that it started out way before that in the summer that “Dill” came to us, it was his idea to try to get Boo Radley to come out of his house. I was being wise and said, “If you want to take a broader look at things, it really began when General Jackson ran the Creeks up the creek, if he hadn’t, Simon Finch would have never paddled up to Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn’t?
We thought that we were too old to get into a fight over it so we asked Atticus. He said that we were both right. There were many rumors about Boo Radley, many of which, were heard by Jem and me. He was thought to have stabbed his father in the leg with scissors and everyone thinks that he is a freak. Boo Radley was said to have never been seen by anyone but his family for many years ever since he stabbed his father. Dill had the “brilliant” idea that they should try to get Boo Radley to come out so they could see his face.
Atticus said that we should just leave him alone because he probably doesn’t want to be bothered by people on the outside, that was why he never came out. Dill was a boy that came to Maycomb about every summer and was one of Jem and my best friend. While in Maycomb, Dill stayed at his aunt, Miss Rachel’s house all summer and he wasn’t far from our house. Dill’s real name was Charles Baker Harris. He wasn’t very smart compared to me in that he couldn’t read very well as in the other hand I had been reading for years.
Dill came from Meridian, Mississippi. Dill’s mother worked for a photographer and she entered Dill’s picture into a Beautiful Child contest and won five dollars. Dill spent it all on entering the contest twenty times. Jem, Dill, and I always tried to find out why Boo Radley (Arthur Radley) was always stuck in his house. We tried many things over the summers to get Boo out of his house. One day in the fall when Dill was back in Mississippi while Jem and I were walking back from school, we found an object in a hole in a tree.
After that we found many other things until Boo’s mean uncle sealed the hole with cement because he didn’t want Boo to communicate with the outside world. During those times, almost everyone in town and in the south was prejudice. African Americans were referred to as Niggers. Atticus was about the only person who really cared for African Americans as regular human beings. Jem and I weren’t really old enough to understand how the people felt and we just thought of everyone as normal human beings.
Racism and segregation were so bad in those days that there were sections of the town where White people lived and a section of town where the Black people lived. Atticus was a lawyer, the only honest, caring lawyer in those days and one time there was a case where a black man named Tom Robinson was accused of rape. Atticus was called upon by the judge to defend Mr. Robinson. Atticus wouldn’t have been assigned to this case only because he was not prejudiced. Many people of town went to see the trial. The black people had to sit high in the back where the view was bad and where it was hottest.
Atticus did great defending Tom and he totally proved that Tom was innocent but since the jury was made up of white prejudiced farmers, he was found guilty, but not after a long wait for the jury’s decision. One night after a play at the school, while Jem and I were walking home, the most terrifying thing in our lives happened… It was late at night and very dark, while we were walking home, we heard some noises but we just thought that it was a friend of ours playing a joke, but after a while, we knew it wasn’t.
We started running with no idea where we were going and then a man grabbed me and I felt something hit the costume that I was wearing, then Jem jumped on the person and they were wrestling when he threw Jem on the ground and I heard a crack. I then saw the outline of another person fighting the man who attacked us. I saw Jem on the ground and I started screaming in despair. After the man who attacked us I told the other man that my brother was hurt. He picked up Jem and brought him to our house. When I got home with the man. I started screaming for my dad.
Jem was unconscious at the time. After my father called the doctor and County Sheriff, we found out that Mr. Bob Ewell, father of the girl who supposedly got raped, attacked Jem and me. He was lying dead on the street with a knife in his ribs. We also found out that Boo Radley was the person who saved Jem and me. The last thing we learned was that the costume that I was wearing, saved my life, Bob Ewell’s knife had gone through it, that is what I felt hit my costume. I really enjoyed the story and I recommend it to anyone who reads anything.
