To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee :: To Kill a Mockingbird Essays

To Kill A Mockingbird By: Harper Lee SUMMARY To Kill a Mockingbird opens with Dill coming to visit his Aunt for the summer. Dill becomes a good friend with the Finches, Jean-Louise, who is nicknamed Scout and her brother, Jeremy Finch, who is nicknamed Jem. They live with their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer who had been given a case to handle and did not have any choice but to receive it and work his best for his client. The case was about an African man, named Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping a white woman. The children begin to play together and are oblivious to the stress of their surroundings. Eventually they start spending their time trying to get Boo Radley out of his house. None of the children have ever seen or even talked to the mysterious Boo Radley, but they know he lives shut up in the house next to the Finches. Jem, Scout and Dill spend hours-devising schemes and projects to persuade Boo out of his house. At the end of summer the three children haven't successfully even had a glance at Boo. Dill leaves hi s Aunt's and returns home before school starts. Scout starts school and immediately gets in trouble because she already can read and write. During that year Scout and Jem begin finding gifts in a knot in one of the Radley's trees. They continue finding gifts on their way home until one day the knot is sealed with concrete. Dill returns the next summer and the children resume trying to get Boo out of his house. One night the children sneak into the Radley's backyard. They almost make it to the Radley's window but they are scared off after someone shoots at them. Jem losses his pants fleeing when he returns later that night he finds his pants mended and waiting for him. Once again, summer end and Dill returns home. Late that fall Miss Maudie's house burns down during the night. As a precaution the Finches stand outside watching the fire. Mysteriously Scout wakes up the next morning wrapped in a blanket that are not hers. A little time before Christmas, Scout and Jem begin to get torme nted that there father, Atticus, is a nigger lover. Atticus pleads for the children to not fight about it. Scout manages to restrain herself until her cousin Francis says it. Scout beats her cousin up and then leaves.