To Kill a Mockingbird

Art Mirrors Life

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about the arrest and trial of an African American man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white girl in the south.

The main character is Atticus Finch, a white man and a local attorney in a small southern town. Atticus had two children, a boy named Jem and a girl named Scout. The book employs a literary device of having Scout narrate the events. When Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, he agrees.

Atticus and his children are repeatedly harassed because of Atticus's acceptance of the case. The town is very angry with Atticus and about the incident. At one point, Atticus barely prevents a lynching of Tom Robinson at the jail. The trial is a classic example of racial injustice in the south during this time period. Scout and Jem watch the trial from the African American balcony, as their father did not want them to attend. Atticus is able to prove that the girl and her father, who is the town drunk, are lying about the incident, and Atticus presents significant evidence to show that Tom Robinson is innocent. Despite the evidence, Tom Robinson is convicted by the all-white jury. Unfortunately, while Atticus is starting an appeal, Tom Robinson is shot while trying to escape from jail.

As a literary technique, Lee presented Scout as an independent observer of the events that transpired surrounding Robinson's arrest, trial, and escape. The technique significantly added to the impact and credibility of the novel, as Scout, being a young girl, would not have and had not developed the racist attitudes that were so prevalent in the south at that time. Further, Scout presented a figure of innocence who was trying to understand the obvious injustice that was occurring. Even Scout, who dearly loved her father, Atticus, had to be told by an elderly African American to rise after the trial when her father was passing. Not even Scout, for all of her love for her father, understood what a great and honorable act Atticus had performed by representing Robinson.

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