To Kill A Mockingbird
Notes on York Notes for GCSE/Cliff
Notes
HARPER LEE: AUTHOR AND CONTEXT
1926 Nelle Harper Lee is born in Monroeville, Alabama
1929 Following the Wall Street Crash, the Great Economic Depression causes
widespread poverty and unemployment
1931 The Scottsboro incident occurs; nine black young men are falsely charged and
found guilty of raping two white women in Alabama
1933 President Roosevelt introduces policies to alleviate the effects of the Depression
1945-1949 Harper Lee starts but never completes a law degree at the State University
of Alabama
1950s Harper Lee gives up work as an airline reservations clerk in New York to write
full-time, fine-tuning her novel over many years
1954 The Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King as an important leader,
begins in Montgomery, Alabama
1960 To Kill A Mockingbird is published and is an immediate bestseller
1962 After winning the Pulitzer Prize and several other literary awards, the novel is
made into a film
Present Day Harper Lee divides her time between New York City and Monroeville,
Alabama, keeping out of the public eye
CHARACTERS
Scout (Jean Louise Finch) – Narrator, aged 6-9 but
tells the story as an adult looking back, tomboy
who is violent, develops a new understanding of
human nature, societal expectations and her own
existence
Atticus Finch – Maycomb attorney and state
legislative representative who is assigned to
defend Tom Robinson
Jem (Jeremy Atticus Finch) – Scout’s older brother,
aged 10-13, Scout’s “protector” and best friend,
he deals with many difficult issues throughout
the story
CHARACTERS
Aunt Alexandra – Atticus’ sister, lives at Finch’s
Landing, moves in with Atticus during Tom
Robinson’s trial, she is very concerned that
Scout have a feminine influence to emulate
Francis Hancock – Aunt Alexandra’s grandson, he
taunts Scout about Atticus, getting her in
trouble
Uncle Jack – Atticus and Aunt Alexandra’s
bachelor brother who comes to visit every
Christmas, he is a doctor who, like Atticus, was
home-schooled
CHARACTERS
Cal (Calpurnia) – The Finch’s black housekeeper,
grew up at Finch’s Landing and moved to
Maycomb with Atticus, mother figure to Scout
and Jem, one of the few black people in town
who is literate, taught Scout to write
Zeebo – The town rubbish man, Cal’s son, he is
one of four people who can read at the First
Purchase African M.E. Church
CHARACTERS
Boo (Mr. Arthur Radley) – The mysterious
neighbour who piques the children’s interest.
They’ve never seen him and make a game of
trying to get him to come outside
Nathan Radley – Boo’s brother who comes to live
with the family again after Mr. Radley dies
Mr and Mrs Radley – Boo and Nathan’s parents
Dill (Charles Baker Harris) – Jem and Scout’s
neighbourhood friend. Living in Meridian,
Mississippi, Dill spends every summer with his
aunt, Miss Rachel Haverford
CHARACTERS
Miss Rachel Haverford – Dill’s aunt who lives
next door to the Finches.
Miss Maudie Atkinson – One of Maycomb’s most
open-minded citizens, Miss Maudie lives
across the street from the Finches. An avid
gardener, she often spends time talking to the
children, helping them to better understand
Atticus and their community
Miss Rachel Crawford – The neighbour gossip
CHARACTERS
Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose – A cantankerous,
vile, elderly woman who teaches Jem and
Scout a great lesson in bravery
Mrs Grace Merriweather – A devout Methodist,
wrote the Hallowe’en pageant
Mrs Gertrude Farrow – The “second most
devout lady in Maycomb” belongs to the local
Missionary Society
Tom Robinson – The black man who is accused
of raping and beating Mayella Ewell
CHARACTERS
Helen Robinson – Tom’s wife
Link Deas – Tom and Helen’s employer, he makes
sure that Helen can safely pass by the Ewell’s
after Tom is arrested
Bob Ewell – The Ewell patriarch, spends his
welfare cheques of bootleg alcohol, he claims
to have witnessed Tom assaulting Mayella
Mayella Violet Ewell – Tom’s 19-year-old accuser
Burris Ewell – One of Bob Ewell’s children. He
attends the first day of school.
CHARACTERS
Reverend Sykes – The pastor at First Purchase
African M.E. Church, helps the children
understand the trial and finds them seats on
the coloured balcony.
Judge John Taylor – The judge at Tom’s trial,
appoints Atticus
Mr Horace Gilmer – The state attorney
representing the Ewells
Sheriff Heck Tate – Maycomb’s sheriff,
accompanies Atticus with the mad dog and
delivers the news about Bob Ewell at the end
CHARACTERS
Mr Braxton Bragg Underwood – The owner,
editor and printer of The Maycomb Tribune.
Although he openly dislikes blacks, he defends
Tom’s right to a fair trial
Dolphus Raymond – Father to several biracial
children, lives on the outskirts of town, when
he comes to Maycomb he pretends to be
drunk
Walter Cunningham Senior – One of the men
who to lynch Tom, one of Atticus’ clients, calls
of the mob after talking to Scout
CHARACTERS
Walter Cunningham Junior – One of Scout’s
classmates, Jem invites him to lunch after
Scout accosts him in the playground
Miss Caroline Fisher – New to teaching at
Maycomb and its ways, Scout’s first grade
teacher
Cecil Jacobs – A schoolmate of the children,
scares them on the way to the pageant
Little Chuck Little – One of Scout’s classmates
who stands up to Burris Ewell in defense of
Miss Caroline
CHARACTERS
Miss Gates – Scout’s second grade teacher
Lula – A parishioner at First Purchase African
M.E. Church who is upset when Scout and Jem
attend services there
Eula May – The local telephone operator
Mr Avery A boarder at the house across from
Mrs Dubose’s
PLOT SUMMARY
PART ONE
• The book starts with adult Scout looking back at
what happened it the three years from 1933-1936
• They play their little games; Tarzan, Dracula
• Jem stays in his tree house for a day
• We meet Dill
• Scout starts school and, to the annoyance of Miss
Caroline, she can read
• Walter Cunningham hasn’t got any lunch and when
Miss Caroline offers him money and he doesn’t take
it she gets annoyed. Scout tries to explain by saying
that he is a Cunningham and that they do not
borrow anything that they cannot pay back, Miss
Caroline gets annoyed
• Scout attacks Walter in the playground and Jem tells
Walter to eat at their house. Scout is openly
appalled at his table manners and is apprehended
by Cal
• Burris Ewell is rude to Miss Caroline and Little Chuck
Little defends her and he is sent home
• They play the Boo Radley game, Jem touches the
Radley porch, Scout rolls to the Radley Place in a
tyre
• They try and get Boo to come out, Jem loses his
trousers and they are nicely folded for him when he
returns for them
• They find the knot-hole in tree with presents from
Boo. They take them and then keep getting more.
Mr Nathan Radley fills up the hole with concrete
and says that the tree is dying, which Atticus later
says to be incorrect
• Jem and Scout are playing in the road when they
see the mad dog. They tell Cal who calls Atticus.
Atticus shots it in one shot.
• The children would race to meet Atticus from work
and pass Mrs Dubose’s house and receive verbal
abuse from her. One day when she wasn’t on the
porch, Jem takes Scout’s new baton and cuts the
heads of her camellias and then breaks the baton
• Jem has to go and read to her and then when she
dies she leaves him one camellia. They learn a
lesson about bravery from her because she was
coming off a morphine addiction
PART TWO
• Cal takes the children to the First Purchase African
M.E. Church and Lula gets angry
• Aunt Alexandra comes to stay
• Tom Robinson is moved to the local jail and Atticus
is warned of the lynch mob
• He goes to protect him and the children follow
• Scout recognises Walter Cunningham Senior and
talks to him, he calls of the lynch mob
• Summer 1935 – the trial
• Atticus establishes that Mayella’s injuries were
caused by a strong left hand, Tom cannot use his
and Bob Ewell is ambidextrous
• Tom is shown to be polite and honest, in contrast to
Mayella and Bob
• Jem thinks they won but Scout isn’t sure
• Jem and Scout are surprised, angry and upset that
the white jury found Tom guilty
• Bob Ewell seeks revenge upon Atticus for his
humiliation in court
• Atticus interrupts the Missionary Society meeting
with news that Tom was shot whilst “trying to
escape,” and asks Cal to accompany him to tell
Helen
• As the children return from the Halloween pageant,
Bob Ewell attacks them with a knife
• Boo Radley comes to their rescue, Jem is injured
and carried back unconscious to the Finch house by
Boo
• Bob Ewell is found dead on top of his knife
• The sheriff convinces Atticus to keep the detail of
the incident quiet to protect Boo
• Scout finally gets to see Boo and says ‘he is really
nice.’ Atticus replies, rounding off the story with
message that he reiterates throughout: ‘Most
people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’
Quotes
• “You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view...until you climb
into his skin and walk around it” Pg. 35
• "Mocking birds don't do one thing but make music for
us to enjoy. They don't eat peoples gardens, don't nest
in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing there
hearts out for us. That why its a sin to kill a mocking
bird."
Page 96
• "I certainly am. I Do my best to love everybody...I'm
hard put, sometimes - baby, its never an insult to be
called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just
shows you how poor that person is, its doesn't hurt
you"
Page 115
Quotes
• "Tom Robinsons a colour man, Jem. No jury in this part
of the world's going to say " We think your guilty but
not very" on a charge like that. It was either a straight
acquittal or nothing"
Page 225
• "In our courts, when its a white mans word against a
black mans word, the white man always wins. They're
ugly but those are the facts of life"
Page 226
• "Atticus was right, One time he said you never really
know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk
around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was
enough"
Page 285
Themes
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Growing up/maturity
Prejudice/social inequality
Courage/bravery
Symbolism
Innocence
Education
“You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view...until you
climb into his skin and walk around it”
• “It is a sin to kill a mockingbird”
• Law