To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird Final Notes

Plot (two plots intertwined) • Tom Robinson: excellent account of hysteria caused by accusation of black man raping white woman in Deep South prior to Civil Rights movement • Boo Radley: explores attitudes toward mentally ill and how children learn important life lessons

Themes • Goodness: Atticus, Calpurnia, Sheriff Heck Tate • Innocence: children, Tom, Boo • Evil: Mr. Ewell, Mr. Radley, Maycomb’s prejudice • Harm caused by racial prejudice • Tragedy of injustice and benefits of rule of law

Themes (continued) • Importance of standing up to evil/ injustice • Poverty of physical violence as solution to conflict • Coming of Age*: recognizing existence of individual’s evil and good nature once irrational fear has been overcome

Themes (continued) • Attributes of masculinity (Atticus): nurturing, caring, tolerant, forgiving, respectful, considerate; non-violent while defending one’s beliefs, wise, respecting law, professionally competent • Exemplary parent: leads by example; children learn to be moral and to think for themselves

Symbols • Mockingbird: innocent/ good people who need protection; injured/ destroyed through contact with evil. Maycomb treats fragile innocence of childhood harshly • Character Names • Jem: jewel • Scout: narrator; *explorer for understanding • Atticus: grandeur, classical virtues

Symbols (continued) • Bird Imagery: Finch, Robinson • Calpurnia: fiercely loyal wife of Caesar; beyond reproach • Robert E. Lee Ewell: shows how best of South degenerated into a cruel, drunken, child-abusing criminal • Boo: spook who is painfully shy (unless protecting children)

Symbols (continued) • Guns: dangerous power of limited use; novel critical of owning a gun making a man I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway, and you see it through no matter what. (Atticus)

Characterization • Tom and Boo (parallels) • Both try to help • Both imprisoned • Both persecuted (race/ infraction of law) • Both at risk in justice system of Maycomb • Both mockingbirds • Wise men try to protect them • Tom by Atticus • Boo by Sheriff Tate

Characterization (continued) • Importance of Rule of Law • Tom Robinson: law is straightforward • Boo Radley: shows limits of properly applied justice and its imperfections acknowledged • Foils of Atticus (contrasting characters) • Bob Ewell • Lynch mob • Jury • Mr. Radley • Black people are gentle and forbearing/racism and violence of Maycomb community

Characterization (continued) • Bob Ewell • Still angry despite guilty verdict • In cross-examination, Atticus established truth that Mayella is aggressor toward Tom • Destroys Mayella’s reputation • Ewell is embarrassed that town realizes Mayella tried to seduce Tom • Sought to solve problems with violence

Characterization (continued) • Tom Robinson • Sealed fate when he said he pitied a white woman • Racist society could not tolerate a black man pitying a white woman • Especially infuriating to Ewell because Tom’s testimony was reasonable given facts of case

Characterization (continued) • Dynamic Characterization (changed) • Jem and Scout are only dynamic characters • Realization of good and evil in world • Increased appreciation of Atticus’s qualities • Growing acceptance of Boo as a human being

Irony • Lynch mob takes justice into its own hands; portrayed as evil • Sheriff Tate takes justice into his own hands (obstructing justice) in lying about how Ewell died; portrayed as humane • Although Jem and Scout fear Boo, he rescues them

Irony (continued) • Ewell dies trying to attack vulnerable children, never expecting to face Boo • Sheriff Tate (not very intelligent) rather than brilliant Atticus devises a strategy to protect Boo • Atticus, known as best shot in town, does not own gun • Ewell calls Atticus a ___lover when only white person in town who has loved a black man is his daughter, Mayella

Racism in the South and novel • Accusation of Tom Robinson’s raping Mayella violates community’s code of ethics by arousing basic fears about relationship between whites and blacks • Believing black men were chomping at the bit to get at a white woman, jury could not resist opportunity to let black men believe they could escape consequences even when it was transparent white woman was lying

Coexistence of Good and Evil • Exploration of moral nature of humans; are we essentially good or bad? • Scout and Jem transition from children who have never experienced evil and believe all people are good to confronting evil and incorporating it into their understanding of the world • Tom Robinson and Boo Radley not prepared for evil they encounter and are destroyed

Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.) • Jem victimized by discovery of evil of racism during and after trial; Jem’s faith in humanity is badly damaged; thus, he becomes disillusioned • Scout maintains basic faith in human nature despite Tom’s conviction

Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.) • Atticus unique because he has experienced and understood evil without losing faith in human capacity for goodness • We must appreciate good qualities and understand bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and seeing life from their perspective • Possible to live w/ conscience w/out losing hope or becoming cynical • Atticus can admire Mrs. Dubose’s courage even while deploring her racism

Coexistence of Good and Evil (cont.) • Scout’s progress as a character defined by her gradual understanding of Atticus’s lessons when she finally sees Boo as a human being • Her newfound ability to view world from Atticus’s perspective ensures she will not become jaded as she loses her innocence

Social Inequality • Complicated social hierarchy of Maycomb baffles children • Rigid social divisions of adult world revealed as destructive and irrational • Lee uses children’s perplexity at unpleasant layering of Maycomb society to critique role of class status and prejudice in human interaction

To Kill a Mockingbird