After reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, I built up a few notes on the story that I would be able to look back on and evaluate with. making notes about the story has helped my vision of the book cover re design.
Story takes place in Alabama
The story is narrated by a little girl who is names Jean Louise Finch (scout)
She has a father names Atticus finch who is a lawyer with high standards.
The girl (scout) her brother and their friend are all intrigues by the local rumours of a man names boo Bradley, who loves in their neighbourhood but never leaves his house.
The children try to investigate what is going on in the mysterious mans house during the summer - One night the children sneak over to the house to peak through the windows - Inside the house ‘Boos’ brother who also lives I the house mistake the children for something else and fires a gun - Which then causes scout, her brother and their fiend to run away. One of the children gets their pants caught on a fence and looses them - only to then mind them later on in the night neatly folded with the tear from the fence loosely repaired and sewn up.
Other odd things also happen during the summer. Strange gifts such as pennies and chewing gum are left for the children by a mysterious hole in a tree every so often. Only to then eventually find the hole filled with cement.
One night the children are stood outside in the night witnessing a local house which had caught on fire. Scout soon after realises that she had a blanket around her without her even realising it. She assumes that ‘boo Bradley must have put it on her to protect her from the cold.
Atticus the father of scout, decided to take on a case which involves a black man named ‘tom Robinson’ who was accused of raping a very poor white girl. The girl who is part of the ’notorious Ewell family’ who also belongs to a layer of the Macomb society which people refer to as ‘trash’.
The entire Finch family face a lot of criticism from the heavily racist Macomb because Atticus decides to defend the black man ’tom’. And even with all of the criticism from the community, he still goes ahead with the case because his conscience will not let him do otherwise - Atticus knows tom is innocent, even thought he knows there is no chance of him winning the case as the ‘white jury’ will never believe a black man over a white woman.
Atticus wants to reveal the truth to his fellow townspeople to expose the bigotry and encourage the possibility of racial equality.
After the trial there is a large amount of evidence such supports tom, however because the jury are racist they still decide that tom is guilty as they would never believe the word of a black man.
Before Atticus can apply for a retrial, tom tries to escape from prison and is shot is the process.
Making the ending slightly upsetting.
I understand that the story is about racial equality. The mysterious man that the children meet at the beginning of the story helps to protect 'scout' at the end of the story. My favourite part of this story is probably the trial which makes the jury think about the fact that a black man may not be guilty for the crime he has been accused of. It is a really good lesson within a beautiful story.
