Book Report: to Kill a Mockingbird

This book talk is on the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The main characters in this story are Scout Finch, Atticus Finch, Jem Finch, Calpurnia, Dill Harris, Aunt Alexandria, Boo Radley, Bob and Mayella Ewell, and Tom Robinson. The protagonist in this story would have to Scout’s father, Atticus. He is the Maycomb attorney and state legislative representative who is assigned to represent Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a black man who is accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell. However, the antagonist of the story is Bob Ewell. He is the drunken father of Mayella who is considered “white trash” and claims to have witnessed Tom attacking his daughter. Scout and Jem, along with their summer friend, Dill, become absorbed with the idea of getting a glimpse of their isolated and unseen neighbor, Boo Radley. Meanwhile, their attorney father, Atticus Finch, has decided to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a local white woman, Mayella Ewell. Scout and Jem get caught up in the trial, in which Tom is convicted and eventually killed trying to escape from prison. Jem and Scout become the targets of Bob Ewell, the father of Mayella, who tries to kill them one Halloween night on their way home from school. However, Boo Radley, who the children have never seen, shows up to save them, killing Bob in the process. The setting of this novel is Maycomb, Alabama. In my opinion, the theme of the novel is social inequality. The genre of this novel is fiction. The main conflict is the trial itself. The evidence in the trial really points towards the black man, Tom Robinson, being innocent. Although, the fact that Bob Ewell and his daughter are accusing him of rape, the time period and character attitudes show that a black man's word means nothing in the presence of a white man. The setting of the book also really shows the social conflicts of the time. Atticus fights for the black man, which is a social disgrace, especially in the South. During as well as after the trial, Atticus and Bob Ewell tend to not get along. This could be seen as man versus man. This is due to the friction created between the two men. Atticus proved to show how much a good person/ lawyer he is. For example, “Atticus was trying to show, it seemed to me, that Mr. Ewell could have beaten up Mayella. That much I could follow. If her right eye was blackened and she was beaten mostly on her right side of face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person did it.”(238) Before this, Atticus was cross examining Bob Ewell. Atticus had Bob show that the jury that he could write with his left hand. He then went on to asking Bob if he could write with his right, and Bob replied no. This shows that there is something fishy about Bob Ewell and he wants to prove it. Also, “’I WISH BOB Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco,’ was all Atticus said about it…Atticus’s peaceful reaction… said, ‘No, too old,’ put his hands in his pockets and strolled on.”(291) Before this, we had come to learn that Mr. Ewell spat in Atticus’s face. Even though this was quite a savage action, Atticus is able to act as though it was alright and did not have a problem with what Bob had done. This shows us that Atticus is a quite principled man.
Due to his actions, Mr. Bob Ewell is seen as a full our racist and at the time, considered “white-trash”. For example, “It was becoming evident that ha though Atticus an easy match. He seemed to grow ruddy again; his chest swelled, and once more he was a red little rooster. I thought he’d burst at Atticus’s next question…”(236) Even though Atticus is a good enough lawyer to be given the title of town attorney and state legislative representative, it seems as though Mr. Ewell is not worried about what Atticus has to say. This allows us to see that Bob is not threatened by Atticus. It is almost as if even though Atticus is making it seem like Bob is the perpetrator of this crime Tom Robinson is accused of, Bob knows he will not be convicted. Also, “…Attics was leaving th post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, aand threatened to kill him…Atticus did not bat an eye, just took out his hankerchief and wiped his face and stood there and let Mr. Ewell call him names wild horses could not repeat.”(291) During the trial, answers of Atticus’s questions from Bob Ewell showed that Ewell could only refer to Tom Robinson in the meanist racist terms; that Ewell had little fatherly affection or concern for Mayella; that Ewell may well have beaten Mayella on the day of the alleged rape and at other times; and that although Ewell could write his name, he had no idea what "ambidextrous" meant. These questions made Ewell depicted in way he wished he wasn’t seen. This can be evidence for why Bob dislikes Atticus so much. The only real solution to the frisction between Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell is Mr. Ewell’s death. Bob Ewell died when Boo Radley stabbed him in the ribs with a kitchen knife. Boo Radley did this when Bob Ewell was trying to hurt Jem and Scout while they were walking home from a school play. Personally, even though Bob was doing something he should hav been to the children, he shouldn’t have died. I see why the author did this since Boo Radley was always this man that the children wanted to see and now we see that he is “hero-like” figure. However, I would have liked to see Atticus come to the rescue. This could have lead to Bob and him talking things out. All in all, I thought this was a very good book. We get to see the conflict of racial segregation during the 1930s in the south. This was a very key point in time, so it was interesting to see the views of not only the white people but also the blacks.