Summary Of To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, tells the story of a small town named Macomb, and the people in this town are going through very controversial times. The main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are Atticus and his two children, Jem and Scout, and their maid calpurnia. Then later in the book, Tom Robinson and Bob and Mayella Ewell become a very big part during the trial.
The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird is in the early 1930’s where the Great Depression and unemployment were very prominent in the United States. To Kill a Mockingbird is about three children that learning a lot about society in this brief amount of time. They find out how terrible racism is and they become more aware of life lessons that Atticus, their father, has bequeathed unto them. The theme that I believe is very prominent in To Kill a Mockingbird is loss of Innocence. This theme appears in the novel when Dill runs out of the courtroom crying, when Calpurnia yells at Jem and talks to him about the trial, and when scout connects a very big lesson to a situation with Jem and Arthur Radley.
Dill, innocent as he is, doesn't understand why Mr. Gilmer is being mean to Tom Robinson. He doesn't understand that that is his job so he runs out of the courthouse crying. “Jem made me take dill out. for some reason dill started crying and couldn't stop……’it was just him I couldn't understand,’ dill said. ‘Who, Tom?’ ‘That old mr. Gilmer doin’ him thataway, talking so hateful to him—’” (Lee 365). By this passage Harper Lee is trying to show loss of innocence by showing just how innocent Dill actually is and that he can't understand why Mr. Gilmer is “doin’ him