To Kill a Mockingbird analysis

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel published in 1960 written by Harper Lee.

The story is loosely based on events that happened in Lee's own life living in Alabama in the 1930s when she was very young.

Characters: Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dill, Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell, Judge Taylor, Rev. Sykes 

Synopsis: Scout and Jem, the children in the book, make friends with Dill, a boy who has just joined the neighbourhood of Maycomb, Alabama. They begin to tell stories about the "creepy" recluse, Boo Radley who lives in the Radley house down the road. Boo leaves the children small gifts in the nook of a tree, but never appears in person.
Atticus, their father, a lawyer is appointed to the case of Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of the rape of a white woman. Other children tease Jem and Scout by calling their father a "nigger lover". Scout wants to fight them to stand up for herself but doesn't. Later on, the children force a mob intent on lynching Tom to see things from Tom and Atticus' perspective.
At the trial, the children watch from the coloured balcony, while Atticus proves that Tom is innocent and in fact the woman made sexual advances towards him, for which her father beat her for. Despite this proof the jury still convicts Tom which shakes Jem's faith in the law. Later on Tom is shot while attempting to escape prison and dies.
Later on the father of the white woman attacks Jem and Scout as he feels he has been humiliated, and breaks Jems leg. Someone comes to the childrens aid and carries Jem home. Scout realises this is the mysterious Boo Radley.
The man who attacked Jem and Scout is found dead following the struggle and Atticus believes it to be Jem, but the sheriff convinces him that the man fell on his own knife. Scout walks Boo home and imagines life from his perspective, leaving her feeling bad that the children never repaid Boo's gifts to them.

Adjectives:
thought - provoking, compassion, acceptance, innocence, prejudice, injustice, understanding, naivety, realisation, aware, divide

Quotes

'I think there's just one kind of folks. folks'

'You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it'

'You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. no matter what anybody says to you dont let em get your goat. try fightin with your head for a change

'Sometimes the bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another. there are just some kind of men who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one.'

'Before i can live with other folks i've got to live with myself. the one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.

'Until i feared I would lose it i never loved to read. one does not love breathing.

'Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what

'It was times like these when i thought my father who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived

'When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. but don't make a production of it. children are children, but they can spot and evasion quicker than adults.'

'Atticus, he was real nice. Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them'

'There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. i wish i could keep em all away from you. that's never possible'

'Mockingbirds don't do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. they don't eat up peoples gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird.'