To kill a mockingbird is about growing up the main character is a girl named Scout Finch who is about to turn six when the book begins and eight when it ends and the book is about what she learns about people and about life over the course of those two years. The book takes place between 1933 and 1935 in Maycomb Alabama. It's a small sleepy town in the deep south. Scout's father Atticus is a lawyer but they don't have much money because his clients are poor. Scout lives with their father her brother Jem and their cook Calpurnia. Her mother's dead during the summers a friend named dill comes to stay next door and he spends the summer playing with. Scout and Jem Scout basically learns four major lessons over the course of the book she learns them partly from Atticus and partly from her own experience. The first lesson is that you don't understand someone until you put yourself in their shoes. She takes a while to master this one in the storyline for the first part of the book mostly shows her getting it wrong across the street from where. Scout lives is the Radley house. The family that lives in it is very unsocial and the son. Arthur Radley is a man in his 30s who hasn't been seen outside in many years the children in the town refer to Arthur as Boo Radley. As if he were a ghost. They have this horrible picture of what he's like that he eats. Rodents and cats that he catches that he's ugly and drooling and that he'll kill any child he catches the real story of Arthur. Radley is that he got in trouble with the law for being a bit wild and disorderly when he was a teenager his father never let him out of the house again now his father's dead and he lives with his older brother but he's still a complete recluse throughout the first part of the book. Scout and Jem and dill play games involving the Radley house. They run past it. They dare each other to touch it then. One day they start finding presents like gum and pennies hidden in a hole in a tree. Boo Radley is leaving gifts for them though it takes a long time for them to realize it the kids make schemes to get Boo Radley to come out of the house so they can see him one night.

They sneak around to the back of the house to try to get a look at him through the window and they get shot at by the older brother. Nate then Jim gets his pants caught in a fence. Boo radley fixes them and leaves them out for. Jim one night when it's very cold and Scout and Jem are standing outside because one of the neighbors houses is on fire whoo Radley puts a blanket around Scout. She never even realizes it. She still imagines he's really scary. And she freaks out when she realizes he was behind her so over the course of the year they gradually realized he's actually nice but much more slowly than we do. The second important lesson in the book is that you don't kill mockingbirds. This lesson has a literal meaning when Atticus gives the kids air rifles. They're allowed to shoot at whatever birds they want but not mocking birds because mocking birds. Don't eat anyone's plants or harm anything all they do is make music. Mockingbird has a metaphorical meaning to anyone who is weak or defenseless. To Kill a Mockingbird in that sense is to take advantage of someone weaker than you the second phase of the book involves Tom Robinson. Tom is a black man. Who has been arrested and charged with raping a white woman named maiella. Ewell Atticus Finch has been appointed as his defense attorney and he's determined to do a good job at it even though he knows. He's going to lose because of racism. Everybody in the town is racist to one degree or another and Scout and Jem wind up getting teased and talked about because their father is defending a black man for a crime like that. Atticus doesn't want them to fight the other kids but to try to keep calm and keep their heads up in the face of adversity. He wants to teach them the lesson. That true bravery is when you keep fighting and persevering even when you know you can't win one evening.

Tom Robinson is being moved to the County Jail before his trial and Atticus sits outside the door of the jail house with his chair propped against the door a group of men comes to Lynch. Tom and Atticus blocks their way. Scout and Jem and dill will come looking for Atticus and Scout starts talking to one of the men because she goes to school with his son the man tells the rest of the mob to disperse and they all go home. Scout and Jem sit in the courthouse and watch the trial along with the rest of the town. Atticus does a great job with his defense and the children think he's going to win for one thing my LE Ewell the victim and her father Bob. Ewell the other witness for the prosecution are both obnoxious and don't seem very trustworthy. Also the physical evidence is against them. Maya's bruises are on the right side of her face and Tom can't even use his left arm but Bob Ewell is left-handed and he could have beaten his daughter then. Tom tells a convincing story on the witness stand that maiella tried to seduce him and that. Bob Ewell caught her and beat her up and she accused Tom of rape but despite Atticus's brilliant defense the jury convicts Tom because a white jury is not going to acquit. A black man accused of raping a white woman. The children are crushed by Tom's conviction as Atticus knew all along they would be in one dramatic moment they learn about the evil side of their whole community and the fact that even the justice system is tainted by unfairness Bob Ewell carries a grudge against Atticus for making a fool of him and he threatens to get revenge on Halloween a scout and gem are coming home in the dark from a pageant. You will attacks them with a switchblade and tries to kill them he breaks Jemez arm by twisting it boo radley hears their cries and comes out of his house and kills. Bob Ewell with a kitchen knife though Jem and Scout don't actually understand. This is happening at the time because of the dark the sheriffin.

Atticus discuss what to do about Bob. Ewell's death Atticus wants to say that. Jem killed him in self-defense. So he can clear his name publicly and there won't be any rumors that they covered it up. The sheriff says no way. Jem couldn't possibly have done it. The sheriff insists that their story will be that. Bob Ewell tripped on a root and fell on his own knife. The reason the sheriff sticks to this story is that he knows. Arthur Radley must have killed you and even though he doesn't think this is a crime he even thinks the town would treat him like a hero and leave cakes on his porch. He knows that this amount of public attention would be devastating to a recluse like Arthur since Arthur saved the children's lives. The best reward is to let him keep his privacy. Atticus is afraid to do this because his children have just lived through this miscarriage of justice in the trial and if they see Atticus is bending the law because of his association with the sheriff he fears they won't ever respect him again but Scout tells Atticus that she understands making a hero out of boo would be like killing a mockingbird. That's a climactic. Moment in the book because it means she has absorbed the lesson about mockingbirds despite having seen the unfairness of life she sees its value as well. Arthur is actually very childlike himself. And there's a scene where he asks. Scout to walk him across the street back to his own house because he's afraid after she does so she looks out from the Radley porch and imagines all of her own activities over the past couple of years has seen through. Arthur's eyes. That's when she finally grasps the first lesson about understanding people by putting yourself in their shoes for more information about to kill a mockingbird check out the tequila. Mockingbird spark note on sparknotes calm.