To Kill a Mockingbird Summary – Flashcards

The novel is in the first point of view of Jean Louise Finch who is called Scout. She begins to tell the story of how her brother Jem broke his arm. She tells the her family history: Simon Finch flew from England to escape religious persecution. In America, he bought some slaves and built a plantation called Finch's Landing on the banks of the Alabama River. Finch's Landing was passed down from son to son until the present generation, when Scout's father, Atticus, became a lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama. Her Uncle Jack is a doctor in Boston, while her Aunt Alexandra runs Finch's Landing. Maycomb is a small Southern town in Alabama. They are suffering the Great Depression. The Finch's aren't rich, but they are comfortable. A black woman named Calpurnia is their cook and helps Atticus with the children during the day. Atticus's wife died when Scout was two because of a heart attack. One summer, when Scout is six and Jem is nine, they meet an imaginative seven-year-old named Charles "Dill" Baker Harris, who comes to spend the summer with his aunt and their neighbor Rachel Haverford. The children become fast friends. Dill is interested and curious about Boo Radley. There is a legend about him and it is that Boo got into trouble with the law when he was young and was kept in his house by his father. Fifteen years later Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, but his father refused to send Boo to an asylum. No one had seen Boo since, but he supposedly comes out at night and eats cats and things like that. After Boo's father died, his brother, Nathan Radley, came to run the house. Dill tries to think of ways to get Boo to come out, and he does a bet with Jem that he'll give him a Gray Ghost comic book if Jem touches the Radley house. Jem does it. Scout thinks she sees someone watching them from behind a curtain inside the house.

When summer ends, Dill goes back to Mississippi. Scout begins her first year of school. She hates it from the first day. Her teacher, Miss Caroline, is mad at Scout for knowing how to read and write. Before lunch, Miss Caroline sees that one boy, Walter Cunningham, has no food and does not go home to eat. Miss Caroline offers to lend Walter a quarter, but he refuses. Scout tries to explain that the Cunningham's are so poor they couldn't pay Miss Caroline back, and that Miss Caroline is making fun of Walter by trying to force the quarter on him. Miss Caroline gets annoyed and beats Scout by tapping her palm with a ruler in front of the class.

At recess, Scout beats Walter up because he got her into trouble. Jem stops her, and invites Walter to come eat at their house. During lunch, Walter talks with Atticus about farm work like a grown up. He says he can't pass first grade because he has to help his father in the fields. As he eats, Walter pours molasses all over his food. Scout is disgusted and says so. Calpurnia pulls her from the table and scolds her, saying Scout should never comment on someone. She then is forced to continue her lunch in the kitchen. Back at school, Miss Caroline screams when she sees a bug in the hair of a boy named Burris Ewell. She tries to send him home to wash his hair, but Burris shouts at her and says she can't tell him what to do. A kid in the class explains that all the Ewells come to school one day a year to keep the truant officer off their backs, then never come back. Miss Caroline ends up crying. That night, when Scout says that Miss Caroline wants her to stop reading at home, Atticus comforts her and tells her Scout should try seeing things in Miss Caroline's point of view. He also says he'll keep reading with Scout if she keeps quiet about it. This shows that their relationship is more friendly than parental.

One day, while running past the Radley house on her way home from school, Scout notices some gum in the knothole of a tree in the Radley's yard. Jem sees it and tells her to spit out immediately. On the last day of school, Scout and Jem find two old Indian pennies in the same knothole. Dill arrives for the summer. They play a game and Scout ends up in a rolling a tire that leaves her lying on the pavement right next to the Radley's house, Jem comes up with a new game: they're going to act out Boo Radley's story. Atticus catches them playing. Jem lies and says they weren't impersonating the Radleys.

Jem and Dill start excluding Scout, who begins to spend more time with Miss Maudie, their neighbor. One evening, Scout asks Miss Maudie why Boo Radley never comes out. Miss Maudie says it's because Boo doesn't want to. She says Boo was always polite as a boy, and that Boo's father was a Baptist so religious he thought all pleasure was a sin. She gives them a cake to give their father. Dill tells them crazy stories about his father, which shows he doesn't really know his father. The next day, Dill and Jem get Scout to help them try to slip a note through a window of the Radley house with a fishing rod. Atticus catches them and tells them to stop bothering Boo Radley just because he seems weird.

On Dill's last night in Maycomb, he and Jem decide to look into the Radley house. Scout, terrified, goes with them. They sneak behind the Radley house, but see the shape of a man on the back porch and run. A shotgun fires behind them. As they duck under the Radley fence, Jem's pants get caught. He leaves his pants behind. The shotgun sound was because Nathan Radley had shot into the air trying to kill a black man. Jem's missing pants cause suspicion, but the kids tell their father that Jem lost them playing strip poker. Late that night, Jem sneaks out and retrieves his pants, and they turn out to be fixed messily.

Scout starts second grade, which is as bad as first grade. One day as they walk home from school, Jem tells Scout that when he went back to get his pants, they had been mended and folded. Scout and Jem continue to find things in the knothole of the tree: twine, soap carved to look like them, gum, and a broken watch on a chain. They write a letter and leave it in the knothole to thank the person for the gifts and to ask the person to meet them. The next day Nathan Radley cements the knothole. He says the trees was dying, but Atticus tells Jem it wasn't. Jem stares at the Radley house for a long time. Scout thinks he might be crying, but can't understand why.

That winter it snows in Maycomb for the first time since 1885. Scout think it is her fault because Miss Maudie tells her that when a child disobeys her parent, it causes a storm. Scout and Jem use dirt covered with snow to make a snowman that looks like Mr. Avery, an unfriendly neighbor. Atticus is impressed, but then sees the resemblance and kindly asks them to disguise the snowman a little bit better. The snow makes it cold, and everyone keeps their fires blazing. That night Miss Maudie's house catches fire. Everyone in the neighborhood pitches in to save what they can, but the house burns to the ground. Miss Maudie says the house was too big anyway and that she alway wanted a bigger garden. Scout and Jem watch the fire from in front of the Radley house down the street. When they come inside, Scout discovers that someone had draped a blanket over her shoulders. Jem says it must have been Boo Radley who gave her the blanket.

Students at school start saying that Atticus "defends black people." When Scout asks why, Atticus says he's defending a black man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping a white girl called Mayella Ewell. Atticus says he won't win the case, but he has to take it in order to keep his integrity. He cautions Scout that people, even their friends, might say dirty things to her, and tells her to keep her head up and avoid fighting. Scout does. It's the first time she's ever walked away from a fight. Every Christmas, Uncle Jack comes down to Maycomb from Boston and all the Finch's gather at Finch's landing to spend the holidays with Scout's dreaded Aunt Alexandra and her grandson Francis. At Finch's landing, Francis calls Atticus a "******-lover." Scout punches him, and Francis claims she hit him for no reason and also cursed at him. Uncle Jack spanks her. Back in Maycomb, Scout tells Uncle Jack why she hit Francis, but makes him promise not to say anything because Atticus said she shouldn't fight anyone over the Tom Robinson case. Later that night, Scout overhears Jack telling Atticus he doesn't understand children. Atticus says you have to be honest with them. Then Atticus says the trial will be bad and particularly tough on Jem and Scout. He is afraid they will catch Maycomb's disease: racism.

Atticus is really old and Scout and Jem are sometimes embarrassed by their father's age and that he doesn't hunt and drink and such. When he gave Jem and Scout the air rifles they wanted for Christmas he didn't teach them how to shoot, instead only telling them not to shoot at mockingbirds, since it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie explains: all mockingbirds do is sing and create beauty and pleasure, so it's a sin to hurt them because they are so innocent. One day a rabid dog appears on the Finch's street. It was still far and Heck Tate, the sheriff of Maycomb, says only Atticus is good enough to hit the dog from this distance. Atticus kills the dog in one shot. Scout and Jem were surprised to know that when Atticus was young he was the best shot in the county. Scout wants to brag at school, but Jem says not to: if Atticus was proud of it he would have told them. Scout begins to feel like she doesn't know Atticus that well.

One day, Mrs. Dubose, an old woman who shouts at Scout and Jem whenever they walk past her house, insults Atticus for defending Tom Robinson. Jem, enraged, rips the flowers off her camellia bushes. As punishment, Atticus makes Jem go and read to Mrs. Dubose each afternoon. Scout goes with him. At first, each reading session is cut short by Mrs. Dubose's strange fits, but over the month the sessions get longer and the fits slowly disappear. Soon after the reading sessions end, Mrs. Dubose dies. She leaves Jem a single white camellia flower. Jem is horrified, but Atticus explains that Mrs. Dubose was addicted to morphine and the reading sessions helped her kick the habit before she died. Even though Mrs. Dubose made fun of Atticus for defending Tom Robinson, he calls her the most courageous person he ever knew, a person who knew she was beaten and still fought no matter what.

Summer finally comes, but Scout is crushed when Dill doesn't arrive because his mother got remarried. Atticus has to leave for two weeks to serve in the state legislature. Calpurnia, who's in charge when Atticus is away, invites Scout and Jem to attend her church that Sunday. The all-black congregation gladly welcomes the Finch kids, except for one woman Lula, who gets angry that Calpurnia brought white kids to their church. During the service, the congregation gathers money to support Helen, Tom Robinson's wife. Scout realizes Tom Robinson is the man Atticus is defending, and asks what he did. Calpurnia tells her: Tom has been accused by Bob Ewell of raping his daughter. Scout doesn't know what "rape" means, but can't believe anyone would trust the Ewells. When they return home, they see Aunt Alexandra.

Scout, Jem, and Calpurnia return from church to discover that Aunt Alexandra has moved into the Finch's house to provide "feminine influence" for Scout. She thinks Scout does not act girly enough. Alexandra is proud of the Finch family's social status in Maycomb, and immediately begins to socialize in Maycomb. Scout thinks good people are defined by doing the best they can with what they have, but Alexandra seems to believe that the older a family's history, the better the family is. Alexandra thinks that Atticus is too friendly with them and they should live up to their family name and gentle breeding. She also thinks Calpurnia is not needed. Alexandra even forces Atticus to teach Scout and Jem about their family history. But this change in Atticus makes Scout cry, and with relief he gives up.

As the summer continues, Scout and Jem notice grown ups in Maycomb talking about them. Scout hears the word "rape" again, and asks Atticus what it is. He tells her. Scout then tells the story of going to Calpurnia's church. Aunt Alexandra is horrified. She and Atticus have an argument about Calpurnia. Alexandra thinks Calpurnia is no longer necessary. Atticus says she's part of the family. That night, Jem tells Scout not to be mean to Aunt Alexandra, but Scout objects to him telling her what to do. They fight. Atticus sends them both to bed. Scout steps on something while climbing into bed, and, they discovers Dill hiding under her bed. Although Dill wants to keep his presence secret, Jem tells Atticus. Atticus tells Miss Rachel Haverford where Dill is, but lets Dill spend the night. Dill sleeps in Scout's room, and tells her he ran away from home because his recently married parents aren't much interested in him and wanted him to do things on his own. He feels like they don't want them there and he tells Scout that he can't wait till they are old enough to get married. He says that he wonders why Boo Radley doesn't run away, but he realizes that he doesn't have anyone or anywhere to go to.

A week later, Heck Tate comes to the Finch's front lawn with a group of men to talk to Atticus. They tell him Tom Robinson is to be moved to the Maycomb jail and Heck says there might be trouble. Jem gets scared someone might try to hurt Atticus. When Atticus drives into town the next night, Jem, Scout, and Dill follow him. They finally spot Atticus sitting alone, reading, outside the jail. Just then, four cars drive up and a group of men surround Atticus. Scout, unsure what's happening, runs over to Atticus, followed by Jem and Dill. The men tell Atticus he has fifteen seconds to send his kids away. Jem refuses to budge. Scout spots Mr. Cunningham and asks him to say hi to Walter for her and talks about his entailments. Mr. Cunningham stares at her for a second, then bends down. He says he'll say hi to Walter, then tells the men to clear out. Once the men have left, Tom Robinson asks from his cell if the men are gone. Mr. Underwood, the publisher and writer of the Maycomb newspaper, leans out his office window holding a double-barreled shotgun and calls out that he had Atticus covered. Atticus then smiles instead of being angry for them sneaking out.

At breakfast the next morning, the day of the trial, Atticus says that Mr. Underwood never liked black people, which makes his behavior of the previous night seem odd to Scout. Jem declares Mr Cunningham would have killed Atticus the previous night. But Atticus says Mr. Cunningham just has his blind spots like everyone else, and is still a friend. People from all over Maycomb head for the courthouse, including some Baptists who quote the bible condemning Miss Maudie for keeping a garden. She quotes a bible verse right back at them which proves her garden is actually beautiful in God's eyes. Though Atticus tells Jem, Scout, and Dill that they shouldn't attend the trial, they sneak in. They arrive late, and can only find seats in the balcony where the black people have to sit. Judge Taylor is presiding, and Heck Tate is already on the stand. Judge Taylor has a weird habit of chewing on an unlit cigar.

Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor, questions Tate, who recalls Bob Ewell saying that Tom Robinson had raped Mayella Ewell. Atticus cross-examines: Tate says the right side of Mayella's face was heavily bruised. Next, Bob Ewell is called to the stand. Bob Ewell and his family live in a garbage dump near the woods. He is arrogant and unpleasant, and gets reprimanded by Judge Taylor. Mad, he tells Mr. Gilmer about finding Tom Robinson raping his daughter. Atticus cross-examines: he tricks Ewell into writing his name, which reveals that Ewell is left-handed. Ewell is furious because this shows that the person who hit Mayella is left-handed because her bruises are on the right side of her face.

Mayella Ewell is called to the stand. She testifies that she asked Tom Robinson to chop up a dresser in return for a quarter, and that when she turned around Tom attacked and raped her. In cross-examination, Atticus shows that Mayella is terribly lonely because white people think she's trash and black people don't like her because she is white. When Atticus asks Mayella to identify Tom, and Tom stands up, it becomes clear that Tom's left arm is useless: it was destroyed in an accident. If Tom can't use his left arm, then how could he have beaten and raped Mayella? Atticus asks Mayella if Bob Ewell is the person who beat her because she was in love with a black man. Mayella refuses to answer and shouts at the court room and says if they don't convict Tom Robinson, they are all cowards. Atticus then calls Tom Robinson, his last witness, to the stand.

Atticus calls Tom Robinson to the stand. Tom says he often helped Mayella with chores. He says that Mayella threw herself at him. He tried to leave, but was scared to push her out of the way. Suddenly, Bob Ewell showed up and yelled at Mayella, "You ******* *****, I'll kill ya." Tom ran. Link Deas, stands up in the crowd and says that Tom is a good man. Judge Taylor expels Deas from the courthouse. Mr. Gilmer cross-examines. He calls Tom "boy" in a nasty tone, and tricks Tom into saying he felt sorry for Mayella, which causes the murmur of anger and disgust in the courtroom. Mr. Gilmer asks why Tom ran if he was innocent. Tom says that a black man has to run in any bad situation. Dill starts to cry and Scout takes him outside. Dill says he can't stand the way Gilmer was talking to Tom, even if he is black.

Outside the courthouse, Mr. Dolphus Raymond sympathizes with Dill about the way white people treat black people without even stopping to think that blacks are people too. Raymond is a weird rich white man. He gets little respect from the white people in the town because he's always drunk and lives with a black woman and has fathered interracial children. Jem told Scout before that interracial kids have tough life's because they don't fit in with any race. Dill and Scout learn that Raymond isn't actually a drunk: he only drinks Coca-cola. Mr. Raymond explains that he fakes being a drunk so people won't bother him for living the way he wants and don't expect much from him. Atticus is making his closing remarks when Dill and Scout get back to their seats. Atticus notes the prosecution's lack of evidence, and that Mayella is probably trying to hide her shame for liking a black man, and then says the courtroom is the one place in America where every man is equal, and asks the jury to "do its duty." And help this humble man.

Calpurnia enters the courtroom. She tells Atticus that Jem, Scout, and Dill are missing. Mr. Underwood says they're sitting in the balcony. Atticus tells them to go home and eat lunch, but relents and says they can come back for the verdict if it hasn't already been delivered. An hour later, Scout, Jem, and Dill get back to the silent, tense courtroom. The jury is still deliberating. Jem is confident of victory because all the evidence is in Tom's favor. Heck Tate calls the court to order. The jury comes back and does not look at Tom. Scout knows this means the verdict is guilty and it is.