To Kill A Mockingbird Essays - To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch

To Kill A Mockingbird The book To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee. It was published in 1960 then it went on to win the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award winning film. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American Literature. There are so many characters in this book that I can't name all of them. Here are most of the characters. The Finch family contains of Atticus (The head of the household), Aunt Alexandra (Atticus's sister), (Jem) Jeremy (The oldest of Atticus's two children), (Scout) Jean Louise (The youngest of the two . She also trys to be a boy by doing boy things). And you can't forget their black maid. Her name is Calpurnia. Miss Rachael is Dill's aunt that lives in Maycomb. Dill is a friends with Jem and Scout. According to Scout they are married. (Boo) Arthur Radley is the person that takes Jem back to his house after Jem gets hurt by Bob Ewell. Tom Robinson is a black man that was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Bob Ewell is Mayella's father. He is out for revenge on Atticus for what he did to him and his daughter. Mayella is Bob's daughter who supposedly got raped by Tom Robinson. Judge Taylor is the Judge of Maycomb County. Heck Tate is the county law official. I think the protagonist in the story is Atticus Finch because he has the main part and he has the biggest decision to make. The decision being whether to defend or not to defend Tom Robinson. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in Southern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States. The story begins during the summer when Scout and Jem meet a new playmate named Dill who has come from Mississippi to spend the summer with his Aunt Rachael. Dill is fascinated by the neighborhood gossip about "Boo" Radley. Egged on by Dill, Jem and Scout try to think up ways to lure him out of his house. Soon it is Summer again , and Dill returns for another visit. The children's plans for making contact with Boo Radley grew bolder this year, and on Dill's last night they decide to sneak up onto the Radley porch and spy on Boo. Jem goes first, but just as he reaches the window, Nathan Radley catches site of them and scares them off with a blast from a shot gun. Jem realizes that Boo is not a monster after all, but has been playing along with them. Scout does not figure this out until the winter, on the night that the house of their neighbor burns to the ground. While Scout is standing outside in the cold, someone sneaks up behind her and places a blanket around her. Later, Scout and Jem realize that there was only one person in town who has not already at work fighting the fire and that was Boo. Now that Jem and Scout realize that Boo is basically a kind person, their interest in the Radley family begins to fade. In the meantime, they learn that their father has become the defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, who is charged with raping Mayella Ewell. As the trial of Tom Robinson grows nearer, the children become more aware of the strong feeling it has aroused in everyone in Maycomb. One day their housekeeper takes Jem and Scout to visit her church, and the children realize for the first time that the black parishioners are supporting Tom Robinson's wife. Two nights before the trial is to start, a group of men come to the Finch house to tell Atticus about threats against Tom Robinson's life. Atticus spends the next night camped out at the jail to defend Tom from the mob. Jem, Scout and Dill go downtown to check on Atticus and arrive at the same time as a group of men, who have come to kill Tom. Scout recognizes one of the men in the