to kill a mockingbird essay on racism

To Kill a Mockingbird Racism

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Racism in to Kill a Mockingbird

This essay about “To Kill a Mockingbird” explores how racism shapes the social and legal environments of Maycomb, Alabama. Through the trial of Tom Robinson and the experiences of the Finch family, Harper Lee highlights the pervasive racial prejudices of the era. The narrative examines both systemic racism and personal biases, using the characters’ experiences to argue for a deeper understanding of justice and equality.

How it works

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is not merely a novel about growing up in the South during the Great Depression. It is a poignant exploration of the virulent racism that permeated American society during that era. The story, set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, unravels through the eyes of Scout Finch, a young girl whose father, Atticus Finch, serves as the moral backbone of the narrative. This essay explores the manifestations and impacts of racism as depicted in the novel, providing insights into the systemic and interpersonal discrimination that defines the social and judicial landscape of Maycomb.

The foundation of racism in the novel is most vividly illustrated through the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man wrongfully accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Despite compelling evidence that vindicates Robinson, he is convicted by an all-white jury, a verdict that underscores the entrenched racial prejudices of the time. This trial is a critical portrayal of how racism is institutionalized, revealing a justice system that is deeply flawed and biased against African Americans. Atticus Finch, in his defense of Robinson, stands as a figure of integrity and fairness, challenging the status quo. His belief in justice and equality makes him an outlier in a society where racial inequality is not only accepted but expected.

Racism in Maycomb is not only a matter of institutional injustice but also manifests in the daily social interactions and attitudes of its residents. The residents of Maycomb abide by a strict racial code that leads to social and economic discrimination. The black community largely lives on the outskirts of town, an area noticeably poorer than where the white community resides. Their social interactions are also restricted, evident in the separate churches for black and white residents, and the very limited roles available to the black community in the town’s social and economic structure. Calpurnia, the Finch family’s black housekeeper, exemplifies these limitations. Despite her close relationship with the Finch family, she is never fully accepted as an equal by the broader white community.

The children in the novel, particularly Scout and her brother Jem, are central to Lee’s exploration of racism. Their innocence and naiveté provide a stark contrast to the corrupt values of the adult world. Through their father’s guidance and their own experiences, including their interactions with Tom Robinson and Calpurnia, they come to recognize the injustice and cruelty of racism. This is a pivotal aspect of the novel, as it presents hope that the next generation can view the world differently and possibly change it.

Moreover, the character of Boo Radley, though not directly connected to the racial themes, complements the social critique of the novel. Boo, ostracized and misunderstood due to his reclusiveness and mysterious past, parallels the racial outcasting of individuals like Tom Robinson. Both are victims of prejudice, albeit in different forms, highlighting Lee’s broader commentary on fear and misunderstanding as roots of prejudice.

Harper Lee uses “To Kill a Mockingbird” to critique the deep-seated racism of her time, illustrating its pervasive and destructive nature. The novel serves as a moral reflection on the consequences of racism and prejudice, emphasizing the potential for justice and fairness through characters like Atticus Finch. It also offers a critique of the ways in which society often harbors irrational fears and prejudices against those who are different, whether in terms of race or social behavior. Through its compelling narrative and complex characters, “To Kill a Mockingbird” remains a profound discussion on the American social fabric, urging a reexamination of the values of fairness and equality in the face of racism.

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How the moral lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird endure today

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In our series, Guide to the classics , experts explain key works of literature.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is one of the classics of American literature. Never out of print, the novel has sold over 40 million copies since it was first published in 1960. It has been a staple of high school syllabuses, including in Australia, for several decades, and is often deemed the archetypal race and coming-of-age novel . For many of us, it is a formative read of our youth.

Read more: 'Great books', nationhood and teaching English literature

The story is set in the sleepy Alabama town of Maycomb in 1936 - 40 years after the Supreme Court’s notorious declaration of the races as being “separate but equal” , and 28 years before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act . Our narrator is nine-year-old tomboy, Scout Finch, who relays her observations of her family’s struggle to deal with the class and racial prejudice shown towards the local African American community.

At the centre of the family and the novel stands the highly principled lawyer Atticus Finch. A widower, he teaches Scout, her older brother Jem, and their imaginative friend Dill, how to live and behave honourably. In this he is aided by the family’s hardworking and sensible black housekeeper Calpurnia, and their kind and generous neighbour, Miss Maudie.

It is Miss Maudie, for example, who explains to Scout why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird: “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.”

Throughout the novel, the children grow more aware of the community’s attitudes. When the book begins they are preoccupied with catching sight of the mysterious and much feared Boo Radley, who in his youth stabbed his father with a pair of scissors and who has never come out of the family house since. And when Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman, they too become the target of hatred.

A morality tale for modern America

One might expect a book that dispatches moral lessons to be dull reading. But To Kill a Mockingbird is no sermon. The lessons are presented in a seemingly effortless style, all the while tackling the complexity of race issues with startling clarity and a strong sense of reality.

Read more: William Faulkner diagnosed modern ills in As I Lay Dying

As the Finches return from Robinson’s trial, Miss Maudie says: “as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that.”

Despite the tragedy of Robinson’s conviction, Atticus succeeds in making the townspeople consider and struggle with their prejudice.

The effortlessness of the writing owes much to the way the story is told. The narrator is a grown Scout, looking back on her childhood. When she begins her story, she seems more interested in telling us about the people and incidents that occupied her six-year-old imagination. Only slowly does she come to the events that changed everything for her and Jem, which were set in motion long before their time. Even then, she tells these events in a way that shows she too young to always grasp their significance.

The lessons Lee sets out are encapsulated in episodes that are as funny as they are serious, much like Aesop’s Fables. A case in point is when the children return home from the school concert with Scout still dressed in her outlandish ham costume. In the dark they are chased and attacked by Bob Ewell the father of the woman whom Robinson allegedly raped. Ewell, armed with a knife, attempts to stab Scout, but the shapeless wire cage of the ham causes her to loose balance and the knife to go astray. In the struggle that ensues someone pulls Ewell off the teetering body of Scout and he falls on the knife. It was Boo Radley who saved her.

Another lesson about what it means to be truly brave is delivered in an enthralling episode where a local farmer’s dog suddenly becomes rabid and threatens to infect all the townsfolk with his deadly drool.

Scout and Jem are surprised when their bespectacled, bookish father turns out to have a “God-given talent” with a rifle; it is he who fires the single shot that will render the townsfolk safe. The children rejoice at what they consider an impressive display of courage. However, he tells them that what he did was not truly brave. The better example of courage, he tells them, is Mrs Dubose (the “mean” old lady who lived down the road), who managed to cure herself of a morphine addiction even as she was dying a horribly painful death from cancer.

He also teaches them the importance of behaving in a civilised manner, even when subjected to insults. Most of all Atticus teaches the children the importance of listening to one’s conscience even when everyone else holds a contrary view: “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule”, he says, “is a person’s conscience.”

The continuing value in Atticus’ belief in the importance of principled thinking in the world of Black Lives Matter and the Australian government’s rhetoric of “African gangs” , is clear.

Atticus’ spiel on “conscience” and the other ethical principles he insists on living by, are key to the enduring influence of the novel. It conjures an ideal of moral standards and human behaviour that many people still aspire to today, even though the novel’s events and the characters belong to the past.

Lee herself was not one to shy away from principled displays: writing to a school that banned her novel, she summed up the source of the morality her book expounds. The novel, she said, “spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct”.

Fame and obscurity

When first published the novel received rave reviews . A year later it won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, followed by a movie version in 1962 starring Gregory Peck . Indeed, the novel was such a success that Lee, unable to cope with all the attention and publicity, retired into obscurity .

Interviewed late in life, Lee cited two reasons for her continued silence: “I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I will not say it again.”

The latter statement is doubtless a reference to the autobiographical nature of her book. Lee passed her childhood in the rural town of Monroeville in the deep south, where her attorney father defended two black men accused of killing a shopkeeper. The accused were convicted and hanged.

Undoubtedly influenced by these formative events, the biographical fiction Lee drew out of her family history became yet more complex upon the publication of her only other novel, Go Set a Watchman, in 2016. Critics panned it it for lacking the light touch and humour of the first novel. They also decried the fact that the character of Atticus Finch was this time around a racist bigot , a feature that had the potential to taint the author’s legacy .

Read more: Review/ Has Go Set a Watchman helped topple the notion of the white saviour?

Subsequent biographical research revealed that Go Set A Watchman, was not a sequel, but the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. Following initial rejection by the publisher Lippincot, Lee reworked it into the superior novel many of us know and still love today.

Lee gave us the portrait of one small town in the south during the depression years. But it was so filled with lively detail, and unforgettable characters with unforgettable names like Atticus, Scout, Calpurnia and Boo Radley that a universal story emerged, and with it the novel’s continuing popularity.

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To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird , by American author Harper Lee, was published during the civil rights movement and uses its characters to explore the consequences of hatred and prejudice. Read the overview below to gain an understanding of the work and explore the previews of analysis and criticism that invite further interpretation.

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To kill a mockingbird topic overview.

"To Kill a Mockingbird, An Introduction to." Contemporary Literary Criticism Volume 194, Gale, 2005.

Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel  To Kill a Mockingbird  has remained enormously popular since its publication in 1960. Recalling her experiences as a six-year-old from an adult perspective, Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed "Scout," describes the circumstances involving her widowed father, Atticus, and his legal defense of Tom Robinson, a local black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. In the three years surrounding the trial, Scout and her older brother, Jem, witness the unjust consequences of prejudice and hate while at the same time witnessing the values of courage and integrity through their father's example. Lee's first and only novel,  To Kill a Mockingbird  was published during the Civil Rights movement and was hailed as an exposé of Southern racist society. The heroic character of Atticus Finch has been held up as a role model of moral virtue and impeccable character for lawyers to emulate.  To Kill a Mockingbird  has endured as a mainstay on high school and college reading lists. It was adapted to film in 1962 as a major motion picture starring Gregory Peck.

Plot and Major Characters

To Kill a Mockingbird  is set in the small, rural town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s. The character of Atticus Finch, Scout's father, was based on Lee's own father, a liberal Alabama lawyer and statesman who frequently defended African Americans within the racially prejudiced Southern legal system. Scout and her brother Jem are raised by their father and by Calpurnia, an African-American housekeeper who works for the family. Scout and Jem meet and befriend seven-year-old Dill Harris, a boy who has arrived in Maycomb to stay with his aunt for the summer. Lee has stated that the character of Dill is based on young Truman Capote, a well-known Southern writer and childhood friend. Together with Dill, Scout and Jem make a game of observing "Boo" Radley, a town recluse who has remained inside his house for fifteen years, trying to provoke him to come outside. Local myth holds that Boo eats live squirrels and prowls the streets at night, and the children's perception of him is colored by such tales. In the fall, Dill returns to his family in the North and Scout enters the first grade. Scout and Jem begin to discover mysterious objects, designed to intrigue children, hidden in a tree on the Radley property.

When Tom Robinson, an African-American man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, Atticus is appointed as the defense attorney. Mayella and her shiftless father, Bob Ewell, live in abject poverty on the outskirts of town. The family is known as trouble and disliked by townspeople. Despite this, Atticus's defense of Tom is unpopular in the white community, and Scout and Jem find themselves taunted at school due to their father's defense of a black man. Atticus consistently strives to instill moral values in his children, and hopes to counteract the influence of racial prejudice. The children view their father as frustratingly staid and bookish, until he is asked by the sheriff to shoot a rabid dog that is roaming the street. After Atticus kills the dog, Scout and Jem learn that their father is renowned as a deadly marksman in Maycomb County, but that he chooses not to use this skill, unless absolutely necessary. Scout's aunt, Alexandra, unexpectedly arrives to reside with the Finch family, announcing it is time someone reined in the children. She makes it her mission to counteract Atticus's liberal influence on the children and to instill ladylike virtues in the tomboyish Scout.

The night before the trial of Tom Robinson is to begin, a group of local men threaten a lynching, but Scout inadvertently disrupts their plan when she recognizes the father of a schoolmate in the crowd of would-be lynchers. When the trial begins, Atticus tries to protect his children from the anger and prejudice they would hear; however, Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak into the courtroom and sit in the balcony with the black community. Mayella and her father testify that Tom raped Mayella after he was asked onto their property to break up an old chifforobe into firewood. Atticus, however, proves Tom's innocence by demonstrating that while Mayella's face was beaten and bruised on her right side, Tom's left arm had been rendered completely useless by an earlier injury. Therefore, Atticus concludes, Tom could not possibly be the left-handed assailant who struck Mayella on the right side of her face. Atticus further suggests that it was Bob, Mayella's father, who beat her, and that, in fact, no rape occurred. Before the jury departs to deliberate, Atticus appeals to their sense of justice, imploring them not to allow racial prejudice to interfere with their deliberations. However, after two hours, the jury returns with a guilty verdict, sentencing Tom to be executed for rape. Later, Tom is shot to death during an attempt to escape from jail.

The following fall, Bob Ewell, incensed by Atticus's treatment of him during the trial, attacks Scout and Jem with a knife as they are walking home from a school Halloween pageant. Boo Radley, secretly observing the scene, intervenes in the scuffle, and Bob Ewell is stabbed and killed in the process. Called to the scene, the Sheriff and Atticus agree to not report Boo's involvement to the police, because a trial against him would likely be prejudiced. Intimately aware of issues of prejudice due to the Tom Robinson case, Atticus and the children agree to report that Ewell fell on his knife in the scuffle, sparing Boo the consequences of a legal trial. Scout realizes in retrospect that Boo has never been the threatening figure the children had imagined, and that he was responsible for leaving the mysterious gifts for them to find on his property. After walking Boo home, Scout stands on the porch of his house looking out, finally seeing the world through a wider perspective.

To Kill a Mockingbird  also can be read as a coming-of-age story featuring a young girl growing up in the South and experiencing moral awakenings. Narrated from Scout's point-of-view, the novel demonstrates the now-adult narrator's hindsight perspective on the growth of her identity and outlook on life. In developing a more mature sensibility, the tomboyish Scout challenges the forces attempting to socialize her into a prescribed gender role as a Southern lady. Aunt Alexandra tries to subtly and not-so subtly push Scout into a traditional gender role--a role that often runs counter to her father's values and her own natural inclinations. However, as events around the trial become ugly, Scout realizes the value of some of the traditions Alexandra is trying to show her and decides she, too, can be a "lady."

To Kill a Mockingbird  explores themes of heroism and the idea of role models as well. Lee has stated that the novel was essentially a long love letter to her father, whom she idolized as a man with deeply held moral convictions. Atticus is clearly the hero of the novel, and functions as a role model for his children. Early in the story, the children regard their father as weak and ineffective because he does not conform to several conventional standards of Southern masculinity. They eventually realize that Atticus possesses not only skill with a rifle, but also moral courage, intelligence, and humor, and they come to regard him as a hero in his own right.

More Articles

Symbolism and racism in to kill a mockingbird.

In the following essay, originally published online in 1996 as "Symbolism in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird ," Smykowski analyzes Lee's use of symbolism to explore issues of racism in the novel.

Reconstructing Atticus Finch

Lubet questions the standard perception of Atticus Finch as a role model for lawyers. Lubet provides an analysis of the trial portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird from the perspective of today's legal defense methods and ethics, particularly in regard to rape trials.

Humor and Humanity in To Kill a Mockingbird

[Tavernier-Courbin discusses Lee's unexpected use of humor in To Kill a Mockingbird .]

Discovering Theme and Structure in the Novel

Schuster comments on the theme and structure of To Kill a Mockingbird .

Esselman describes Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as a vivid, sensitive portrait of the South that deals with themes of racism, justice, and maturation.

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Another Lesson from the Mockingbird: Institutional Racism in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird 1 is one of the most successful American novels in history. Set in the 1930s, it is the story of a fictional white lawyer, Atticus Finch, who represents a falsely accused black man, Tom Robinson. Told through the eyes of Atticus’ daughter, Scout, the book introduced readers to race relations and justice in the south. Atticus defends Tom, and at one point stands up to an angry mob looking to lynch him. As a result, Atticus has been held up as a role model for young lawyers. As previously stated, the book does not have overt medical themes; nonetheless, there are lessons to be gleaned. 2

In light of current events, the book should “serve as a clarion call for racial and social justice.” 2 Most significantly and often overlooked is the fact that the falsely accused black man is found guilty and imprisoned. As a result of the wrongs heaped upon him, Tom is full of despair and attempts to escape from prison. As he does so, he is shot 17 times in the back.

While the novel has been praised for its depiction of Atticus’ moral character, further analysis reveals deep flaws. Careful reading reveals Atticus to be racist, and racism, segregation, and a caste system are displayed throughout the story.

“The Mockingbird” is written from a white privileged perspective. In acknowledging this simple fact, there is recognition that systemic racism has been present in our society for far too long. In medicine, we have begun to discuss, study, and address disparities in health care outcomes. For example, in the current pandemic, black Americans are disproportionately infected and die from COVID-19. 3 Disparities in health care outcomes are not new. Black women are 3 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women, the infant mortality rate among black infants is twice that for white infants, and black Americans are more likely to die from cancer and heart disease. 4 The notion that genetic differences account for these different outcomes has been disproven. We now know the underlying causes to be social determinants of health and systemic racism. We have much work to do to undo the institutional racism woven into our society's fabric. Those of us fortunate enough not to have suffered the effects of our country's institutionalized racism must recognize and acknowledge how hard it is to grow up black in our society. Everyday reminders include being unfavorably singled out and treated differently, being pulled over while simply driving, being followed suspiciously simply upon entering a store, being subject to unfair hiring and promotion practices, and the everyday panic when a family member comes home late—worrying whether the delay is simply traffic or some awful racist act. These are common occurrences for those who have evaded incarceration and murder because of their skin color.

How far have we come since To Kill a Mockingbird ? Sadly, 60 years later we continue to witness racial profiling, lack of opportunity, and prejudice for American citizens based upon their skin color. Police actions and judicial practices have unfairly targeted blacks and have resulted in the mass incarceration of young black men. Institutional racism persists.

Racialization and categorization of our fellow human beings is a social construct, without which certain groups cannot be oppressed. Each one of us, both professionally and personally, must decide what action we are going to take to address disparities in health care and their root cause, institutional racism. Doing so will require grace, humility, and a growing sense of responsibility.

Funding: None.

Conflict of interest: None.

Authorship: DP conceptualized the manuscript with the precepts refined by CWW. Together, DP and CWW wrote, reviewed, and edited the manuscript.

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Plot summary

• Analysis, adaptations, and Go Set a Watchman

What is To Kill a Mockingbird about?

What inspired harper lee to write to kill a mockingbird , how did people respond to to kill a mockingbird , why is to kill a mockingbird a significant text, is there a sequel to to kill a mockingbird .

To Kill a Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression (1929–39). The story centres on Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, an unusually intelligent girl who ages from six to nine years old during the novel. She and her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”), are raised by their widowed father, Atticus Finch. Atticus is a well-known and respected lawyer. He teaches his children to be empathetic and just, always leading by example.

When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s Black residents, is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community. Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation of the evidence—that Mayella was attacked by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is convicted. He is later killed while trying to escape custody. The children, meanwhile, play out their own miniaturized drama. Scout and Jem become especially interested in the town recluse, Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, who interacts with them by leaving them small gifts in a tree. On Halloween, when Bob Ewell tries to attack Scout and Jem, Boo intervenes and saves them. Boo ultimately kills Ewell. The sheriff, however, decides to tell the community that Ewell’s death was an accident.

It is widely believed that Harper Lee based the character of Atticus Finch on her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, a compassionate and dedicated lawyer. The plot of To Kill a Mockingbird was reportedly inspired in part by his unsuccessful defense of two African American men—a father and a son—accused of murdering a white storekeeper. The fictional character of Charles Baker (“Dill”) Harris also has a real-life counterpart. Dill is based on the author Truman Capote , Lee’s childhood friend and next-door neighbour in Monroeville, Alabama. (After the spectacular success of To Kill a Mockingbird , some speculated that Capote was the actual author of Lee’s work. This rumour was not put to rest until 2006.) There is some anecdotal evidence that the town recluse, Arthur (“Boo”) Radley, was based on Lee and Capote’s childhood neighbour, Son Boulware. According to Capote, Boo “was a real man, and he lived just down the road from us.…Everything [Lee] wrote about it is absolutely true.”

Harper Lee began writing To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s. It was published in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement . Initial critical responses to the novel were mixed. Many critics praised Lee for her sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice. Others, however, criticized the novel’s tendency to sermonize. Some reviewers argued that the narrative voice was unconvincing. The novel was nonetheless enormously popular with contemporary audiences. To Kill a Mockingbird flourished in the racially charged environment of the United States in the early 1960s. In its first year it sold about 500,000 copies. A year after the publication of the novel, Lee was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best-known and most widely read books in the United States. Since its publication in 1960, the novel has been translated into some 40 languages and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. A staple on American high- school reading lists, the novel has inspired numerous stage and film adaptations, the most notable of which was the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Lee’s novel continues to resonate with audiences today; in 2018 a stage adaptation of the novel debuted to rave reviews on Broadway.

In 2015 Harper Lee published a second novel titled Go Set a Watchman . Although it was technically written before To Kill a Mockingbird , the novel is essentially a sequel. Go Set a Watchman is set 20 years after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird . In the novel, Jean Louise (”Scout”) Finch—now a grown woman living in New York City—returns to her childhood home in Alabama to visit her aging father, who has embraced racist views. Despite the controversy surrounding its publication (some believe the novel is actually an early draft of To Kill a Mockingbird ), the novel reportedly sold 1.1 million copies in its first week.

To Kill a Mockingbird , novel by American author Harper Lee , published in 1960. Enormously popular, it was translated into some 40 languages, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide , and is one of the most-assigned novels in American schools. In 1961 it won a Pulitzer Prize . The novel was praised for its sensitive treatment of a child’s awakening to racism and prejudice in the American South .

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression . The protagonist is Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, an intelligent though unconventional girl who ages from six to nine years old during the course of the novel. She is raised with her brother, Jeremy Atticus (“Jem”), by their widowed father, Atticus Finch . He is a prominent lawyer who encourages his children to be empathetic and just. He notably tells them that it is “a sin to kill a mockingbird ,” alluding to the fact that the birds are innocent and harmless.

When Tom Robinson, one of the town’s Black residents, is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, Atticus agrees to defend him despite threats from the community . At one point he faces a mob intent on lynching his client but refuses to abandon him. Scout unwittingly diffuses the situation. Although Atticus presents a defense that gives a more plausible interpretation of the evidence—that Mayella was attacked by her father, Bob Ewell—Tom is convicted, and he is later killed while trying to escape custody. A character compares his death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds,” paralleling Atticus’s saying about the mockingbird.

The children, meanwhile, play out their own miniaturized drama of prejudice and superstition as they become interested in Arthur (“Boo”) Radley , a reclusive neighbour who is a local legend . They have their own ideas about him and cannot resist the allure of trespassing on the Radley property. Their speculations thrive on the dehumanization perpetuated by their elders. Atticus, however, reprimands them and tries to encourage a more sensitive attitude. Boo makes his presence felt indirectly through a series of benevolent acts, finally intervening when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout. Boo kills Ewell, but Heck Tate, the sheriff, believes it is better to say that Ewell’s death occurred when he fell on his own knife, sparing the shy Boo from unwanted attention. Scout agrees, noting that to do otherwise would be “sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird.”

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