literature review : to kill a mocking bird..... by ibi

Plot


Introduction


The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a novel about growing up under extraordinary condition in the 1930s in Southern United States. The main character in this novel is Scout Finch, who lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a brave lawyer in a town called Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is described as a devastated town that went through the Great Depression, but Atticus is an outstanding lawyer and still lives there with his family. Scout is a tomboy who prefers the company of boys and generally solves her problems by physical means. She always tries to make sense of a world that want her to act like a lady, but her brother always criticizes her for acting like a girl. On the other hand, her father always accepts her just as who she is.

In this story, Scout’s attitude shows that she really hates school. So, she treasures only the education that she gains from her father. Jem and Scout are friends of Dill who annually visits his aunt in Maycomb during summer. These three children are fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive "Boo" Radley. In Maycomb, the adults are hesitant to talk about Boo for so many years. However, only a few have seen him. There are rumors about his scary appearance and his reasons for remaining hidden from public. Worse is that some even thought of how to get him out of his house.

Two summers are enough to make them good friends. One day, Scout and Jem find out that someone is leaving them small gifts under a tree outside Radley’s place. Scout goes to school for the first time that fall and detests it. She and Jem find gifts apparently left for them in a knothole of a tree on Radley’s property. Dill returns the following summer, and the three of them begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus puts a stop to their antics, urging the children to try to see life from another person’s perspective before making judgments. As a widower, Atticus raises his children by himself, with the help of kindly neighbors and a black housekeeper named Calpurnia.

On Dill’s last night in Maycomb that summer, the three of them sneak onto Radley’s property, where Nathan Radley shoots at them. Jem loses his pants in the ensuing escape. When he returns for them, he finds them mended and hung over the fence. The next winter, Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo. Nathan Radley eventually plugs the knothole with cement. Shortly thereafter, a fire breaks out in another neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a blanket on Scout’s shoulders as she watches the blaze. Convinced that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended pants and the presents.




Conflict

In the middle of the story, Scout and Jem discover that their father is going to represent a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping and beating a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although there is a lot of disagreement from the people, Atticus agrees to defend Tom as best as he can. Other children tease Jem and Scout for Atticus' actions by calling them a "nigger-lover". In order to overcome this problem, Calpurnia, the Finches’ black cook, takes Scout and Jem to the local black church, where the warm and close-knit community largely embraces the children. During this time, Scout has a very difficult time keeping her fists unclenched with other children. Plus, she also tends to get in trouble with her Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jack. The same goes to Jem, in which he loses his temper a time or two. Aunt Alexandra comes to live with them under the guise of providing a feminine influence for Scout. However, Scout does not really like her because of her attitude.







Then, Tom Robinson’s trial begins, and when the accused man is placed in the local jail, a mob gathers to lynch him. Atticus faces the mob down the night before the trial. Jem and Scout, who have sneaked out of the house, soon join him. Scout recognizes one of the men, and her polite questioning about his son shames him into dispersing the mob. Atticus provides clear evidence that the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying and keep the truth in silence. In fact, Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson; then they were caught by her father, and accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. Atticus provides doubtless evidence that the marks on Mayella’s face are from wounds that her father inflicted not after discovering her with Tom. This is because he called her a whore and beat her. Then, despite the powerful evidence pointing to Tom’s innocence, the all-white juries declare him guilty. Later, Tom tries to escape from prison and is shot to death.


After seeing how the justice is played, Jem’s faith in justice is badly shaken, and he passes into a gloom of hopelessness and doubt. Soon after, the environment slowly returns to normal in Maycomb. The story about Tom Robinson disappears slowly but Bob Ewell is still not satisfied and starts planning for revenge. His victims now are Atticus and his family. One day, Scout is in the Halloween pageant at school and is playing the part of a ham. On that day, Atticus and Aunt Alexandra are both too tired to take Scout from the school, so Jem have to agree to take her. After tired of embarrassing herself on the stage, Scout chooses to leave her ham costume on for the walk home with Jem.



Climax


When Scout wishes to invite Walter Cunningham to dinner, she has gained a new knowledge of acceptance. However, Aunt Alex does not believe an individual of Walter's standing should mix with them. She also disagrees with the way Atticus sees Calpurnia as part of the family. Alex cannot accept the presence of an African-American woman that exceeds servitude in her home. In the end, Scout and Jem have developed into young people more like their father. Although still young, they have become tolerant and accepting of all people and share their fathers discerning eye for looking deep into people before making any judgment upon them.


Despite the verdict, Bob Ewell feels that Atticus and the judge have made a fool out of him, and he vows revenge. He spits in Atticus' face on the street, tries to break into the presiding judge's house, and menaces Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout as they walk home on a dark night from the school Halloween pageant. During this attack, Jem badly breaks his arm, and then someone comes to the children's rescue. That man sees Jem one more time and then asks Scout to take him home, but she asks that man to escort her to her house as a gentleman would. After arrived safely at home, Scout returns to Jem's room where Atticus is waiting. Atticus reads her to sleep and then waits by Jem's bedside for his son to wake up. Maycomb's sheriff arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has been killed in the struggle. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.


Conclusion


While standing on Radley’s porch, Scout thinks life from Boo's view and regrets that they never repays him for the gifts he had given them. Finally, she feels as though she can imagine what life is like for Boo. He has become a human being to her at last. After this realization, Scout accepts her father’s advice to practice sympathy and understanding. Her father hopes that her experiences with hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness. From that, Scout realizes that the stranger is none other than Boo Radley who is actually responsible for killing Ewell, thus saving their lives. In spite of Atticus' persistent demands to the case, the sheriff refuses to press charges against Boo. So, Boo is released from any guilty. Scout is really happy with this decision and.



List of Characters


Jean Louise Finch or Scout


As this is a first-person-view story, Scout is the narrator. She is being raised up by her widower father, Atticus. She lives with her father, her brother, Jem, and their black cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb. The story time line is the time when Scout is aged 6 to 9, but she tells the story as an adult when she learned about braveness and kindness and the importance to stand the faith. All that she learns is from her father and her neighbors that doing what is right isn't always honored, but it's the right thing to do and that protecting Tom Robinson, an innocent black guy, is a large part of that. She is a tomboy who chooses to solve problems with her fists rather than using her mind. Moreover, Scout has a combative streak and a basic faith in the goodness of the people in her community. As the novel progresses, this faith is tested by the hatred and prejudice that appear during Tom Robinson’s trial. Scout eventually develops a more grown-up perspective that enables her to appreciate human goodness without ignoring the badness of human being. In the end of the story, Scout comes to a new understanding of human nature, societal expectations, and her own place in the world.




Atticus Finch


He is Scout and Jem’s father, who works as a lawyer in Maycomb. As a responsible widower, Atticus has instilled in his children his strong sense of equality and faith. He is one of the few residents of Maycomb who believe in racial equality. When he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white woman, even though the community disagrees with his action. Being involved in this trial puts his children’s lives in danger of the white community. His children respect him so much as he is professional and fair in his work and also at home. His experience as a lawyer enables him to teach his children braveness and kindness in facing all situations through his very own examples. With his strongly held belief, wisdom, and sympathy, Atticus functions as the novel’s positive side.




Jeremy Atticus Finch or Jem


He is Scout's older brother who is always with Scout. The range of his ages in this novel is from 10 to 13 years old from the beginning of the story. As he is reaching adulthood stage, he deals with many difficult issues throughout the story. In this story, Jem is something of a typical American adult, who always refuses to back down from dares and fantasizing about playing football. As his age is four years older than Scout, he gradually separates himself from Scout games, but he remains as her close companion and protector throughout the novel. We can see that Jem is moving into adolescence during the story and his societal perceptions are shaken badly by the cruelty and hypocrisy that he perceives during the trial of Tom Robinson. Moreover, Bob Ewell has attacked the defenseless Jem and Scout as they walk home on a dark night from the school Halloween pageant. During this attack, Jem badly breaks his arm, and then someone comes to the children's rescue.




Arthur Boo Radley


He is the one that has always been portrayed as a scary-looking man. He never sets foot outside his house and dominates the imaginations of Jem, Scout, and Dill. When he was younger, he got into some problem when he became a part of a group of rowdy kids from Old Sarum. One night, the group resisted arrest by Maycomb Country’s beadle and he was locked in the court. After that, Arthur's father, Mr. Radley took him home and he has not been seen again for fifteen years. People said that he only comes out to eat squirrels and he was the local spook. However, Boo begins to attract Scout and Jem’s attention by leaving gifts for them in the knothole of an oak tree. In this story, he is a powerful symbol of goodness instead of becoming shroud of creepiness in the beginning of the story. Moreover, he is emerging at an opportune moment to save the innocent children. Although his child emotion has been damaged by his cruel father, Boo still provides a good example of the threat that evil poses to innocence and goodness. After all children’s attempt to drag Boo Radley from his house, he ends up saving them from Bob Ewell. He is one of the novel’s “mockingbirds,” a good person injured by the evil of mankind.




Bob Ewell


Bob Ewell is the antagonist of the story. He is a drunken guy and has been listed as one of the poorest member of Maycomb’s community. Although he knows that his action of accusing Tom Robinson for raping his daughter is wrong, he still does it. Moreover, he is an alcoholic who poaches game to feel his family because he spends whatever money they have on liquor. Although the whole town knows the Ewalls are not to be trusted, they support him on accusing Tom Robinson of raping his daughter and make the innocent to be thrown in jail. In fact, Tom Robinson is convicted because he’s black. Ewell also represents ignorance, poverty, squalor, and hate-filled racial prejudice.





Themes


The existence of social inequality in a community


The social inequality in this novel can be divided into three. There are social status perception, social judgment and racism. The existences of different social status are shown obviously in social hierarchy of Maycomb. The first thing that people can easily sense is skin color. The black always has no opportunity to protect their rights. Ignorant country farmers like the Cunninghams has to live below the townspeople and the useless white Ewell. Despite its abundance of admirable qualities, the black community in Maycomb squats below the Ewells. This opens the door for the white Bob Ewell to come up with something bad towards the blacks for his own importance by persecuting Tom Robinson, one of the blacks. These unfair social divisions are shown a lot in this story and also reveal the adult world of injustice. For example, Scout does not understand why Aunt Alexandra would not let her to consort with young Walter Cunningham. The writer uses the children’s confusion of societal mind games that is worsening in Maycomb society. The society love to critique the role of class status and always prejudice in human interaction especially between white and black. One day, when Scout embarrasses her poorer classmate, Cunningham, at the Finch home, Calpurnia, their black cooker, punishes her for doing so. Atticus respects Calpurnia's judgment as a life-lesson to Scout. However, Aunt Alexandra is not satisfied with Calpurnia and she strongly suggests firing her. In the story, we can see that class and race issue are too complicated and it is hard to be handled. Moreover, the gender issue and class intensify prejudice are the big issue that make many Americans' perception going wrong and cause the existence of racism and segregation. Atticus said "This case, Tom Robinson's case, is something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience-Scout, I couldn't go to church and worship God if I didn't try to help that man."(Lee, 1993, pg 104) He believes that his religious thought people to respect each other no matter what their skin color are. However, Scout and Jem always internalize Atticus' warning not to judge someone until they have walked around in that person's skin, gaining a greater understanding of people's motives and behavior.


The next social inequality to be discussed is pertaining social judgment. Many social codes are broken by people in white courtrooms. In this story for example, Mr. Dolphus Raymond has been deported by society for taking a black woman as his common-law wife and having interracial children. Plus, Mayella Ewell is beaten by her father in punishment for kissing Tom Robinson and Boo Radley receives a punishment far greater than any court could have given him. In the novel, we can see of how Jem and Scout begin to perceive the complexity of social codes and how the configuration of relationships prescribed by or set off by those codes fails or nurtures the inhabitants in Maycomb. Moreover, Atticus supports them with these beliefs, not only to voice them, but he also takes the case of Tom Robinson. When there is no one lawyer in the town will stand by Tom, Atticus is the one there for him to defend him with his abilities. As we can see, Tom is an African-American in a small Southern town and very few people would act as Atticus does. Plus, Atticus is the white. As a responsible lawyer, Atticus said, "So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there." (Lee, 1993, pg 211) This statement shows that he really believe that he needs to stand up the right social judgment even though it give will negative effect to him.


The third social inequality attribute is racism and acceptance. In the story, we can see that Atticus has created a whole value system around the idea that a person must analyze and respect who people are and where they come from. He shows that every person has their own rights and it is not only for the whites. This includes even the most offensive characters like Bob Ewell and Mrs. Dubose (Lee, 1993, pg 227) Scout understands Atticus' belief that all human beings must be accepted and treated equally. Racism is cultural and runs very deep in the town of Maycomb. Even those who believe in Tom's innocence will not stand up for him and help him. It would be against the social morals of most people to defend a black man, especially in a case that contradicts the word and honor of a white woman. However, Atticus stands for what he believe is right and his children learn this important lesson through his actions. We watch them grow into people who look into a person’s soul and life and do not make judgments based on races or social status.




Courage and compassion that lead to humanity


The courage in this novel can be divided into three parts which is courage in defending own right, courage to defend the social right and courage to deal with all situations. In the novel, we can see Scout’s courage to fight students who insult Atticus. It shows her attempt to stand up for him and defend him. Atticus, who is the moral center of the novel, teaches Jem one of the most significant lessons of courage. After that, Scout realizes what being female means and also with the help of some several female characters influence her feminine development. Scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to depict the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider. Scout's primary female models are Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie, both of whom are strong willed, independent, and protective. Mayella Ewell also has an influence. Scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her own desire for him. The female characters who comment the most on Scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view. For example, Mrs. Dubose corrects Scout for not wearing a dress and camisole by saying that Scout is ruining the family name by not doing so. In addition, she tries to insult Atticus' intentions to defend Tom Robinson. By balancing the masculine influences of Atticus and Jem with the feminine influences of Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, Scout is becoming a feminist in the South. From her courage, Scout still maintains the ambivalence about being a Southern lady she possessed as a child. Atticus has said, “You just hold your head high and keep those fists down. No matter what anyone says to you, don’t let ‘em get your goat. Try fighting with your head for a change…it’s a good one, even if it does resist learning.” (Lee, 1993, pg 76) After that, she puts her head first before her fist in solving problem especially in protecting her right. She gets this lesson from her father advice. At the end of the story, we can see that Scout become more mature.




The second one is the courage to defend other’s rights. In the story, the courage is shown when Atticus is defending Tom Robinson and describes Mrs. Dubose, who is determined to break herself of a morphine addiction. Atticus tells Jem that courage is "when you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what". While, for Scout he said "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it" (Lee, 1993, pg 30) exemplifies his compassion. Scout reflects the comment when listening to Mayella Ewell's testimony. When Mayella reacts with confusion to Atticus' question if she has any friends, Scout offers that she must be lonelier than Boo Radley. When Atticus loses Tom's case, he is last to leave the courtroom, except for his children and the black spectators in the colored balcony, who rise silently as he walks underneath them, to honor his efforts.




The third part is courage to deal with the inner problem. The absence of a mother makes Scout and Jem more independent children. Their mother died before Scout could remember her. Besides, Mayella's mother is also dead. Bob Ewell, it is hinted, harassed his daughter. Another case is about Boo Radley, who is also an independent guy. Mrs. Radley is silent about Boo's confinement to the house. Mr. Radley imprisons his son in his house until Boo is remembered only as a phantom. Bob Ewell and Mr. Radley represent a form of masculinity that Atticus does not. Atticus stands apart from other men as a unique model of masculinity. In the story, we can say that Atticus is the real men who embody the traditional masculine qualities of heroic individualism, bravery, and an unshrinking knowledge of and dedication to social justice and morality, to set the society straight. The writer used the mockingbird to symbolize innocence in the novel. Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. The titular mocking is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although they can shoot all the blue jays they want, they must remember that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Confused, Scout approaches her neighbor Miss Maudie, who explains that mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. The moral is we cannot kill innocent and harmless like Tom Robinson. Bob Ewell said, "Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truths told." Atticus's voice was even. "And you know what the truth is." (Lee, 1993, pg 223). From this statement, we see that Atticus courage to stands the faith even though he knows the result of the trial will not be fair to the black. This shows that he successfully overcomes his inner problem which is he is white. In this case, he puts his skin matter beside in order to protect the innocent black.




Character Analysis


Protagonist- Scout




Scout is selected as the protagonist in this novel for three reasons. The reasons are she represents the intelligence in the story, she believes in faith and she is wise in adapting to a new environment. As we can see in the novel, she is a very unusual little girl, both in her own qualities and in her social position. She is unusually intelligent because she used to learn reading before entering the school. The way Atticus has raised her nurtured her mind, conscience, and individuality without bogging her down in fussy social hypocrisies and notions of propriety. While most girls in Scout’s position would be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout, thanks to Atticus’s hands-off parenting style, wears overalls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill. She does not always grasp social niceties when she tells her teacher that one of her fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch and human behavior often baffles her as when one of her teachers criticizes Hitler’s prejudice against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks. However, Atticus always protects Scout from hypocrisy and social pressure that will render her open, forthright, and well meaning. In the novel, Scout functions as both questioner and observer. Scout asks tough questions, certainly questions that aren't "politically correct," but she can ask these questions because she is a child. As a child, Scout doesn't understand the full implication of the things happening around her, making her an objective observer and a reporter in the truest sense. The woman relating the story obviously recognizes that her father is exceptional. However, the child Scout complains "…our father didn't do anything . . . he never went hunting, he did not play poker or fish or drink or smoke. He sat in the living room and read." (Lee, 1993, pg 114) The child Scout marvels that her father knew she was listening to his conversation with Uncle Jack; the adult Jean Louise marvels that he wanted her to overhear the conversation.




For the second reason, she is the one who always believes in protecting the faith. At the beginning of the novel, we can see that Scout is an innocent, good-hearted five-year-old child who has no experience with the evils of the world. As the novel progresses, Scout has her first contact with evil in the form of racial prejudice, and the basic development of her character is governed by the question of whether she will emerge from that contact with her conscience and optimism intact or whether she will be bruised, hurt, or destroyed like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Atticus has said, “As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."( Lee, 1993, pg 220) Thanks to Atticus’s wisdom, Scout learns that though humanity has a great capacity for evil, it also has a great capacity for good, and that the evil can often be mitigated if one approaches others with an outlook of sympathy and understanding. Scout’s development into a person capable of assuming that outlook marks the culmination of the novel and indicates that, whatever evil she encounters, she will retain her conscience without becoming cynical or jaded. Though she is still a child at the end of the book, Scout’s perspective on life develops from that of an innocent child into that of a near grown-up. The other lesson that Scout is truly able to incorporate into her worldview is the necessity of walking in someone else's shoes. Atticus begins teaching her the importance of looking at things from the other person's point of view very early in the story. He points out her own failings in this area and demonstrates his point in his own interactions with other people. At the end of the story, Scout can put herself in Boo Radley's shoes, the person she has feared the most throughout the story.








The third reason is that she is an independent girl who can adapt with the environment she is in. She faces so many issues in the duration of the novel, but one that lingers the longest for her is the question of what it means to "be a lady." Scout is a tomboy. Sometimes her brother criticizes her for acting like a girl, other times he complains that she's not girlish enough. Dill wants to marry her, but that doesn't mean he wants to spend time with her. Many of the boys at school are intimidated by her physical strength, yet she is told that she must learn to handle herself in a ladylike way. Oddly enough, the women in her life impose more rigid requirements on her than the men do. Scout's tom boyishness drives Aunt Alexandra to distraction; Miss Caroline sees Scout's outspokenness and honesty as impertinence. Ironically, the person she wants to please the most, Atticus, is least concerned about her acting in a certain way. In fact she tells Jem, "I asked him [Atticus] if I was a problem and he said not much of one, at most one he could always figure out, and not to worry my head a second about botherin' him’.” (Lee, 1993, pg 204) In the end, though, when she explains why the sheriff can't charge Boo with Bob Ewell's murder, she's become the kind of person who makes her father very, very proud. Scout is a new Southern woman; strong willed, opinionated, and accepting. The relics of racism and classicism that occupy Aunt Alex and her standards are not present in Scout. Although she is still young, and under the guidance of Atticus, we get an impression of what Scout will become as she gets older. She does not support racism and double standards as what the rest of the town carries. Rather, she forms a code of conduct very similar to Atticus; a code of understanding and acceptance of all human beings. Scout is not nearly as mellow as Atticus, though. She can be very outspoken and isn't afraid to challenge others whenever she sees fit, sometimes with her fists. But Scout is the true heroine of the novel. Her unusual confidence is shown when she fights boys without fear and her unusual goodness is shown when she always acts with the best intentions. Scout hates school because in many ways it actually inhibits her learning. Her teacher is appalled that she already knows how to read, instead of celebrating that fact. She is bored waiting for the rest of the class to catch up to her skill level, and she doesn't have more than a passing respect for either of the teachers she describes in the story. As a sign of her maturity, though, at the end of the story she realizes that she doesn't have much more to learn "except possibly algebra" and for that she needs the classroom. In terms of her social identity, she is unusual for being a tomboy in the prim and proper Southern world of Maycomb. Although the story takes place over the course of three years, Scout learns a lifetime's worth of lessons in that span. Here, too, the reader should remember that in many ways To Kill a Mockingbird is Scout's memoir — the adult Jean Louise can better understand the impact of various events than the child living through them.




Antagonist- Bob Ewell




Robert E. "Bob" Ewell is the main antagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird for three reasons. The reasons are that he is an unmanaged guy, he puts blame on an innocent guy and he loves vengeance. He has a daughter named Mayella, and a younger son named Burris, as well as six other unnamed children. Ewell is nasty. He doesn’t have one redeeming characteristic. While Mayella is the one whose actions first get Tom into trouble, Ewell is the one who makes sure that that trouble snowballs into a court case, conviction, and execution. Bob Ewell is the one that Atticus refers to in his advice to Scout. Atticus has said "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."( Lee, 1993, pg 220) .Even after the case is over, Ewell keeps going after Atticus, Judge Taylor, and Helen Robinson, and finally almost kills the Finch kids. Heck Tate probably was not exaggerating when he said that the ladies of Maycomb would bury Boo in cake for taking Ewell out: this guy is bad news without a glimmer of good. He is an alcoholic who poaches game to feed his family, because he spends whatever money they legally gain on alcohol. Bob Ewell serves as the perfect villain in the novel, with his laid-back way of living and the utter disregard he has for other human beings. In the beginning he comes across only as a slovenly figure, uncaring about his family and brash in his dealings with others. But after the Tom Robinson episode, it is alarming to discover him an unfeeling, pretentious evil who has no qualms about sending an innocent bystander to the gallows. Even after winning the case, on realizing that he has lost his respect in the people


The second reason is that he puts blame on an innocent guy. He accuses Tom Robinson of raping his daughter and eventually has him thrown in jail, where Tom is subsequently killed while allegedly trying to escape. Though everyone in the town knows the Ewells are not to be trusted, it is made clear to the jury that Tom Robinson is to be convicted because he is black, and not because of Bob Ewell's testimony. Bob Ewell has said, "Link, that boy might go to the chair, but he's not going till the truths told." Atticus's voice was even. "And you know what the truth is." (Lee, 1993, pg 223). From this statement, we see that Atticus courage to stands the faith even though he knows the result of the trial will not be fair to the black. Upon hearing about Tom's death, he is absolutely gleeful, gloating about his success.


The third reason of choosing him as the bad guy is that he loves to take revenge. After being humiliated at the trial, Bob Ewell goes on a murderous rampage for revenge, becoming increasingly violent. He begins by spitting in Atticus' face, followed by a failed attempt at breaking into Judge Taylor's house, and finally menacing Tom's widow. During this time, Atticus really worries about his children’s safety. Atticus once said, “If this thing's hushed up it'll be a simple denial to Jem of the way I've tried to raise him. Sometimes I think I'm a total failure as a parent, but I'm all they've got. Before Jem looks at anyone else he looks at me, and I've tried to live so I can look squarely back at him... if I connived at something like this, frankly I couldn't meet his eye, and the day I can't do that I'll know I've lost him. I don't want to lose him and Scout, because they're all I've got." (Lee, 1993, pg 303) He then attempts to murder Jem and Scout Finch with a knife to complete his revenge. However, Arthur "Boo" Radley arrives, and is able to save Jem and Scout. Heck Tate, the sheriff, then puts in the official report that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife and died after lying on the street for 45 minutes. They decided upon saying that Ewell fell on his own knife not due to fears that Boo Radley would be convicted of murder, but because it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.



Final Thought


After reading the whole book, I realized that this book has a really awesome character named Scout. Actually, the story is told from Scout's viewpoint because she uses the pronouns I, me and the possessives my, mine to refer to herself. As the narrator, she makes comments about how authentic other people's perceptions are. The events of the novel take place over several years and Scout shows the changes that she and Jem experience in this time. For example, she begins as a tomboy but later in the novel she behaves in a more conventionally feminine character. She also learns the crucial thing in life from Miss Maudie which is she has to give up her independence that she can compromise in unimportant matters without betraying what she really values. As we can see in the story, Scout is four years younger than Jem, who is nearly thirteen when he is attacked by Bob Ewell. Therefore, she is almost eight years old when she attends Tom Robinson's trial.


The novel is mostly dramatic. However, it does not mean that this novel is full of stunning or uttermost situations, but that it has some of the qualities of a drama. Plus, it also was successfully adapted for cinema. After reading the whole chapter in the novel, there are too many texts in the form of dialogue and voice communication recorded as a direct speech. Even when Scout uses indirect speech, she makes sure she includes typical lexicon that tells the reader about the character and attitude of the speaker. For example, Jem generally addresses Atticus as “sir”, Atticus addresses Mayella as "Miss Mayella" and Bob Ewell addresses Mr. Gilmer as “cap'n”, which shows how he judges incorrectly the distressfulness of the situation. Moreover, there are long passages of dialogue in a sort of contexts. The example are in the proceedings in the trial of Tom Robinson, conspiratorial talks among Scout, Jem and Dill, normal communication with neighbors and the various occasions where Scout sits alone with Miss Maudie or Atticus.


As “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a conventional literary novel, so it is written in a form of standard English, which has a wide-ranging lexicon and language. Moreover, it includes references to art and culture which the author expects the reader to know and also it relates principal events mostly in the past tense. The story contains some distinctively American vocabularies. Plus, the reader also will find a standard word in both UK and US English but with a different meaning. For example, when Jem leaves his “pants” on the Radley fence, this is not as alarming as it might seem to English readers. But, when Jem stands “in his shorts before God and everybody”, this is perhaps more alarming. Moreover, this long episodic novel can easily lose its way, but the writer has a very great sense of a single story with a flexible title which is “To Kill a Mockingbird”. This title actually exemplified by the examples of Arthur Radley and Tom Robinson.


The racism issue is really obvious in the novel especially in dialogue. It is marked by frequent use of the word "nigger" and this is a convenient way to indicate to the reader the racist attitudes of various characters. When the author wishes to refer to African-Americans, Harper Lee uses the term "coloured". It is not only racist whites who will say that but all blacks themselves. For example, Calpurnia addresses Lula as “nigger” at First Purchase church. In court, the word "nigger" is considered too offensive to repeat and was described as the "N-word". Besides, there are some whites called Atticus “nigger-lover”. Most of the character in the novel used word "nigger" to identify someone is black and also to express racial hatred or prejudice. For example, Bob Ewell shows the utmost degree of his hate as well as his own lack of intelligence when he says to Tom Robinson, "I have seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella" (Chapter 17). This statement causes tumultuousness in the court for five minutes. After that, Judge Taylor gives an order to Bob Ewell to keep his testimony. The phrase "black nigger" may be greatly surprise for the reader but it is necessary to show that the town is full racism especially Bob Ewell who goes even further than the worst of all the others. Besides, the novel also has "white nigger" who is Jem. Mr. Nathan Radley is not giving vent to his hatred, Jem, but rather showing his prejudice in stereotyping all intruders as black people. He clearly knows that Jem has been in his garden, and he has fired over his head to scare him off. The novel really challenges emotional racism of individuals.
In conclusion, I believe that Harper Lee is the great writer because she can bring the two narratives together but the stories are not separate. While Scout and Jem have been thinking more about the trial and less about Boo Radley, Arthur has not forgotten them. His appearance in the final chapters is a miracle. There is no direct description of Arthur Radley's attack on Bob Ewell. It is inferred from the sounds Scout hears and what Heck Tate discovers at the scene. Moreover, Harper Lee puts a lot of comparisons and contrasts in this novel. We can see about old people and young people, men and women, justice and injustice, progress and tradition, innocence and experience, light and shade, and danger and security. These make the novel more understandable even though Harper Lee brings the two narratives together in one story.





Bibliography
Book
Lee, Harper .To Kill A Morking Bird. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.


Journal
Katz, Claudia. "To Kill a Mockingbird." ProQuest Education Journal (2001):44.


Website
Cummings, Michael . “Cummings Study Guides’’ 5 March 2001. 11 March 2012 <http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides4/Mockingbird.html>


Sigelman, Katherine. “Grade Saver” 29 July 2007. 26 March 2012 <http://www.gradesaver.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/study-guide/character-list/>


Huntley ,Chris. “Dramatica” 18 June 2009. 24 March 2012
<http://www.dramatica.com /story/analyses/analyses/tokillamockingbird.html>




More , Andrew.”Universal Teacher” 12 April 2001 .11 March 2012 <http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/gcse/mockingbird.htm>