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.
