Arciaga, M.C Raphaela C.

BSLM-2A

“To KILL A MOCKING BIRD”

NOVEL BY: Harper Lee

In a small southern town of Alabama. Scout Finch a very jolly child narrates the film’s events,
then a poor farmer, Walter Cunningham, deliver a crokersack full of hickory nuts to one of the town’s
defense lawyers and Scout’s father, Atticus, as part of entailment for Atticus’s legal work. After an
ashamed and embarrassed Walter leaves, Scout inquires about her family’s socioeconomic status and
how they compare to the Cunningham family. Atticus tells Scout that they are poor, but not as poor as
Cunninghams, whose livelihoods were shaken by the Depression.

In the same scene, Jem—Scout’s older brother—looks down from a treehouse and spots a
young boy crouching among the plants. The young boy soon introduces himself to Scout and Jem as
Charles Baker “Dill” Harris, who is visiting his aunt, one of Finch’s neighbors, the children share a similar
interest of being equally terrified and intrigued by the creaky Radley house, the three children believe in
the gossipy story that a cruel Mr. Radley locked up his mentally unstable and troublesome son, Boo,
after Boo supposedly stabbed him in the legs with scissors.

One evening, a local judge, Judge approaches Atticus and informs him that the grand jury
will soon charge Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Judge Taylor asks Atticus
if he would defend Tom in court, and Atticus, a deeply moral man, agrees to “take the case.”

During dinner at the Finch household, Jem asks Walter if he has a gun of his own, and
Walter says he does. Atticus then shares his own experiences with a gun as a young boy; he explains that
his father allowed him to shoot and kill most birds, with the memorable exception of a mockingbird—a
harmless songbird that only exists to offer music and give pleasure to people.

Meanwhile, Jem and Scout find two carved soap figures in the knothole of a tree at the edge
of the Radley property. The figures resemble themselves, and later that night, Jem shows Scout a box
containing marbles, an old pocket watch, a whistle, a crayon, and other items from a mysterious giver.

As another summer arrives and Tom Robinson’s trial looms closer and closer, racial tensions
in Maycomb begin to escalate. Atticus is hatefully ridiculed by the town, especially by Mr. Ewell, who
calls him a “nigger lover.” One night, Atticus decides to stand guard outside the jail where Tom is being
held. Then there came a mob consisting of their town’s most racist and ignorant men, surrounds the jail
and demands that Atticus to move. Sensing the tense and dangerous situation, Scout, Dill, and Jem run
over to the crowd of people. Atticus urges them to go home, but Scout innocently engages in a candid
yet alarming conversation with Walter Cunningham Sr., one of the men in the mob. Her words
embarrass the crowd—who soon withdraw their intention of a rallying against Tom Robinson.
 The next day, a lot of people went the courthouse to witness the Robinson’s trial. Atticus
prohibits the children from attending the trial, but they go anyway. The elderly Baptist minister Rev.
Sykes allows the children to join the black audience on the balcony of the courtroom, as the rest of the
courthouse is packed with spectators.

There were four cross examinations in the courtroom-- Sheriff Tate, Mr. Ewell, Mayella, and
Tom. Tate reveals that nobody called a doctor on the night of Mayella’s beating and rape, and that
Mayella was severely beaten. Then, Mr. Ewell testifies that when he came home that night, he found
Tom on top of Mayella. Atticus then hands paper and pencil to Ewell and requests him to write his
name. Ewell struggles, because he appeared to be left-handed. Atticus argues that Tom has a crippled
left arm, which disqualifies him as the supposed rapist, who would have had to extensively use his left
hand to assault Mayella before raping her. Atticus implies that because Ewell is left-handed, he—not
Tom—was the one who beat up Mayella. Outraged, Ewell complains to the judge: “That Atticus Finch is
tryin' to take advantage of me. You gotta watch lawyers like Atticus Finch."

Mayella’s testimony comes next. During cross-examination, her statements about her
relationships with Tom and her father are confusing and contradictory; she is obviously lying. Atticus
challenges her testimony, asking, if she wants to tell everybody what really happened but Mayella loss
her remaining composure, shouts at Tom and the jury, and runs from the witness stand.

Tom’s testimony contradicts Mayella’s false story. He claims she often invited him inside the
fence to do chores for free for over a year, and on the night of the attack, Mayella attempted to seduce
him. When the circuit solicitor, Mr. Gilmer, asks Tom why he felt compelled to do chores for Mayella,
Tom somewhat unwisely states that he felt sorry for the white woman.

At the end of the trial, Atticus delivers a passionate, final defense summation of Tom to
the all-white jury. He states the case should never have been brought to trial because of the lack of
evidence, points out the false contradictions of Mayella’s testimony, and claims she lied due to the
overwhelming guilt concerning her sexual attraction to a black man, a horrific offense at the time. He
powerfully implies that Mayella failed to seduce Tom Robinson and falsely accused him of rape after her
father attacked her for making advances toward a black man.

After hours of deliberation, though, the jury still pronounces Tom guilty. Atticus urges Tom
not to be too disappointed; the case was doomed from the start because of the prejudiced white jury,
and they would ask for an appeal. As the courtroom clears, Atticus gathers his belongings and the black
spectators stand up to show their respect and admiration for his passionate defense. Later that night,
Tate informs Atticus that Tom supposedly tried to escape jail and was shot to death by the authorities.
Atticus, accompanied by Scout and Jem, then goes to the Robinson household to deliver the news. Mr.
Ewell confronts Atticus in the Robinson yard and spits into his face; Atticus glares at him and climbs back
into his car.

Mr. Ewell eagerly to want to get revenge he followed Jem and Scout walk home from the
Halloween pageant at their school, and Ewell follows the children home and suddenly attempts to kill
them with a large kitchen knife. He breaks Jem's arm, and Scout becomes helpless throughout the attack
due to a visually and physically confining ham costume. Fortunately, Boo Radley saves Jem and Scout's
lives and stabs Ewell.

Scout finally meets the shy, ghostly Boo—whose stark paleness suggests a life spent in a
sun-deprived setting—at home. Scout no longer fears Boo and they sit quietly together on the swing
while Tate and Atticus discuss the night’s events. To avoid more attention, Tate fabricates a story,
asserting that a drunk Ewell fell and killed himself on his knife. Atticus hesitantly agrees to cover up the
truth. With a newfound maturity, Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he views the world

The movie is filled with morals that we already now by now but the film expressed it in a
real world scenario. As cliché as it sounds, one of the lessons I learned from the movie is to never judge
a person by how his looks or how other people define him. Atticus’s words reminded me to reach out
and, to always try to see the world from their perspective before passing judgement and how he taught
his Scout to fight with her head and not with her fists, because violence will never be solved by violence.
He also educated Jem that having a gun doesn’t prove courage. Real bravery is facing an impossible
challenge and having the determination to keep going because you know it’s the right thing to do. It’s
having lost all hope and carrying on anyway.