Mocking Bird Summary

Part One Summary To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird depicts the life of its young narrator, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the mid-1930s. Scout opens the novel as a grown woman reflecting back on events in her childhood. The novel’s, beginning when Scout is six and ending when she is eight. She lives with her father, Atticus, a widowed lawyer, and her older brother, Jem . Their black housekeeper, Calpurnia, tends to the children. Scout and Jem's play with Dill Harris in the summer. He shares the Finch children's adventures and adds imagination to their game playing. In the novel, we see Scout grow in awareness and come to new understandings about her town, her family, and herself.

During the summer before Scout starts school, the children become fascinated with Arthur "Boo" Radley(who hasn’t been seen outside his house for many years). Mr Radley confined Boo to the house because he was arrested for youthful pranks as a teenager. Some years later, Boo stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, confirming people's worst fears about him. The children are naturally afraid of and intrigued by him. They only approach the house once, when Jem runs and touches the porch on a dare.

Scout enters first grade the following September and must face new challenges and learn new ways to deal with people. She cannot understand, for instance, her young teacher's lack of familiarity with the town families and their peculiarities, such as the Cunningham children's poverty and pride. Later, Atticus explains to Scout that she must put herself in others' places before judging them, one of the many lessons she learns by making mistakes.

With the return of summer, Dill arrives and the children's absorption with Boo Radley begins again. Ultimately, they attempt to look in the house to see Boo, but a shotgun blast from Nathan Radley, Boo's brother, drives them off. In their panic, Jem catches his overalls in the...