SB1 Chosen Book - To Kill a Mocking Bird

The author of the book is Nelle Harper Lee, who recently passed away. She was widely known for To Kill a Mockingbird being her most popular publication, released in 1960. She was also well known for being a close friend to Truman Capote, who’m she helped with his research into his novel ‘In Cold Blood’. The character Dill, in to kill a mockingbird, is based on Capote. 

Key Scenes:

Dill Arriving
Dill is a new friend to Scout, who becomes a best friend and shares her first kiss, after arriving in Maycomb to spend summer with his aunt.

The Fire
Miss Maudie’s house burns down. Scout has a new friend, Boo Radley who places a blanket over her shoulders after the ordeal, unknown to her. 

Mrs. Dubose
Jem is punished for destroying the old woman’s garden by having to read to her for a month, the old lady dies shortly after. The audience discover, from Atticus, that she was going cold turkey from a morphine addiction.
The Lynch Mob
The children ended up saving Tom Robinsons life when they follow Atticus to the jail. Scout has an innocent engagement with one of the Cunningham’s and convinces him to leave Tom’s punishment to the courts. 
The Trial
During the trial the children have first-hand experience ignorance from Mayella Ewell, racisim from Bob Ewell and the honest innocence of Tom Robinson.

Key themes:

Coexistence of Good and Evil 

The most prominent theme that is shown in the book explores the morals of people as human beings, focusing between the divides of race, class and social inequality. This is highlighted from the viewpoint of Jem and Scout looking at the whole perspective of the novel from a child’s innocent point of view which then develops into an experience from the involvement of prejudice, hatred and innocence. ‘Evil’ is run through all of the characters in terms of racism against Tom Robinson, to Boo Radley and even Jem in terms of his discovery of racism. Scout Manages to hold onto her faith in morality of people, whereas Jem’s is destroyed.


Social Inequality

“there’s only one kind of folks, folks” the social divide is evident between the Finch family and the Cunningham’s. Scout explains the financial situation to the tutor in school and the way the Cunningham’s go about their financial situation. This shows they have a great understanding of the way that the social system within Maycomb works, this is a strong theme evident even in the way that even Atticus (the voice of reason) labels the Ewell family as “Trash”. Aunt Alexandra also makes this evident as a key theme in the book, telling Scout ‘No Finch girl should ever consort with a Cunningham’, which fuels frustration as she wants to choose her friends based on whether or not they’re a good person: morals.


The Mockingbird

Atticus tells the children that it is a sin To Kill a Mockingbird because all they do is live peacefully and make music. Therefore, it is identified alongside the idea of good people and purity; an example of a mockingbird is Tom Robinson as he is accused of rape and beating Mayella Ewell, but he is innocent of the charges. Although, the town by finding him guilty and sentencing him to death have committed this ‘sin’ of killing a mockingbird in sense.