To Kill a Mockingbird-Ben Steuri

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To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about a family living in Maycomb County in Southern Alabama. The father's name was Atticus Finch. He was a lawyer who worked for the state. His son’s name was Jeremy (Jem) Finch and his daughter’s name was Jean Louise (Scout) Finch. Growing up in a very confederate state, the family owned an African American house slave named Calpurnia (Cal). During the summers, a boy from Mississippi named Charles Baker (Dill) Harris would go to Maycomb to stay with his Aunt and spend time with the Finch siblings.

The Radleys who were neighbors of the Finch family were always up to strange things and would rarely ever come out of their house. Mr. Radley had two children, Arthur (Boo) Radley and his younger brother Nathan Radley. It was said that years before Jem Finch was born, Boo stabbed his father in the thigh. Dill heard this story and wanted to know more about these neighbors. They were thinking of ways to make Boo come out so they could see what he looked like. The summer went by fast for them and before they knew it, they were back in school. Scout was a very strong reader and writer, but her teacher, Miss Caroline, did not want Scout to continue her progress at home. Her father, Atticus, had been teaching her to read and write, and although Miss Caroline said to stop, he refused and continued teaching Scout at home. Scout then developed a very negative attitude towards her teacher.

When summer came around again, as usual, Dill made his annual trip to Maycomb. Dill continued being curious about the Radley family. A bet was made by Dill to see if Jem was brave enough to run across the yard of the Radley Place and touch the house. For several days this bet was bothering Jem until he finally found the courage to do it. Jem later tells Scout that while he was approaching the house, he heard strange laughter coming from inside the house. Before the summer ended, the children made one last attempt to try and see Boo. Late at night when the Finch siblings told Atticus that they would walk Dill to his Aunts’ house, they actually snuck over to the Radley Place and got up on to the back porch. As soon as Jem got up on the deck they saw the silhouette of a man walking towards them. They immediately began to run away. Dill and Scout made it over the fence but when Jem tried to jump the fence, his pants got caught and so therefore he quickly took them off and continued running. Just then they heard a gun shot coming from the Radley Place. The entire neighborhood came out to the Radley’s house to see what the problem was. Jem, Dill and Scout did not want to seem suspicious, so they quickly made their way back to the Radley’s house without being caught. Later that night, Jem went back to the fence to get his pants, but instead of it being all tangled up and torn, they were nicely folded and the holes were patched up. Someone unknown to Jem was expecting him to retrieve his pants, but this person remained a mystery to Jem. Another mysterious event happened whereby there was a bad fire that had burnt down a neighbor’s house. Scout and Jem were told by their dad to wait outside of their house while he attempts to help the neighbor. While standing outside in the freezing cold, someone placed a blanket on Scout without her even knowing and she was pretty sure it was Boo.

As the new school year began, Scout was teased by her schoolmates that her father was a “n****r lover" and that he would be “defending a n****r” in court. When she later confronted her father, he told her that this was true and that it was his job to represent and defend his client. The man he would be defending was named Tom Robinson and he was being accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. Atticus told Scout that the penalty of this offense would be the electric chair. While spending a night in prison, a group of men had made an attempt to kill Tom. Luckily, Atticus was spending the night outside of the prison to protect Tom from such an event. While the men show up, Jem, Scout, and Dill snuck down to the prison and watched their father. At last, Atticus and the children were able to persuade the men from attacking Tom Robinson. When the court session began again, Mr. Robinson was being treated unfairly because of his race. Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, was getting very angry with the fact that Atticus was helping this black man in court. Atticus was making the Ewells look very bad by giving plenty evidence that Tom did not rape Mayella. Tom eventually lost in court and while trying to escape the prison, he was shot and killed. Bob attacked Scout and Jem because their father was opposing him in court, and left Jem with a badly broken arm. Boo Radley jumps out, and quickly gets involved, saving Jem and Scout, and ends up killing Bob Ewell.

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An example in this text of the triumph of evil over good would be when Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella when she was never actually raped. Though she did have wounds, it was actually Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell, who beat Mayella up for trying to flirt with Tom. The incident was taken to court and Tom was then found guilty of the crime because he was black, and was given the death penalty. Tom was a good man and the evil deed of Bob’s lying triumphed over Tom. An example of the triumph of good over evil would be when Boo Radley came to the Finch’s rescue and killed Bob who was attacking them. Bob was once again doing an evil deed and Boo stepped in to save Jem and Scout’s lives. Another example of this triumph would be when the Scout invited Walter Cunningham to her house for lunch. Walter’s family was very poor and would never be able to pay someone in cash. It would always be in services or homemade stuff. Instead of having Walter starve there while everyone else stuffed their faces, Scout did the right thing and offered him food. Overall, I think this book was a good example of how evil sometimes can overcome the good in someone. Although this is a fiction book, I am pretty sure that cases like this have happened and continue to happen. Unfortunately, innocent people are sometimes accused of stuff they didn’t do based on their diversities. Luckily, these days we have laws to prevent most of these kinds of prejudice acts. The title To Kill a Mockingbird is a metaphor that describes how such an innocent man as Tom Robinson can be killed for absolutely no reason. Why would anyone want to kill a mockingbird? Like Tom, it has done nothing wrong.