to kill a mockingbird

The story is narrated by a young girl named Jean LouiseFinch, who is almost always called by hernickname, Scout. Scoutstartsto explain the circumstancesthat led to thebroken arm thather older brother, Jem, sustained many years earlier; shebegins by recounting herfamily history.Thefirst of her ancestors tocometo America was a fur-trader and apothecary namedSimonFinch,who fledEngland to escape religious persecution and establisheda successful farm on thebanks of the AlabamaRiver. The farm, calledFinch’sLanding, supported the family for many years. Thefirst Finches to make a living away from thefarm wereScout’s father,AtticusFinch, who becamea lawyerinthenearby town of Maycomb,and his brother, JackFinch, who went to medical school in Boston.Their sister, AlexandraFinch, stayed to run the Landing.

Asuccessful lawyer, Atticus makes a solidliving in Maycomb, a tired, poor, old town inthegrips of the Great Depression. He lives with Jem andScout on Maycomb’s main residentialstreet.Theircook, an old black womannamed Calpurnia, helps toraise the children and keep thehouse. Atticus’swife died whenScout was two, so she does not remember her mother well. ButJem, fouryears older than Scout, has memoriesoftheirmother that sometimesmake him unhappy.

In the summer of 1933, whenJemisnearly ten and Scout almost six, a peculiar boy namedCharlesBakerHarris moves innext door.Theboy, who calls himselfDill,stays forthesummerwith hisaunt, Miss Rachel Haverford, who ownsthehouse next to theFinches’. Dill doesn’t like to discuss hisfather’s absence from hislife, but he is otherwise a talkativeand extremely intelligent boy who quickly becomes the Finch children’schief playmate. All summer, thethreeact out various stories thatthey have read.When they grow bored of this activity, Dill suggeststhat they attempt to lure Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor, outof his house.

Arthur “Boo” Radley lives in the run-down Radley Place,and no one has seen him outsideit in years. Scout recountshow,asa boy, Boo got introuble with thelaw and his father imprisonedhim in the houseaspunishment. He wasnot heard from until fifteenyears later, whenhe stabbed his father with a pairof scissors.Although people suggested thatBoo was crazy, oldMr. Radley refusedto have his son committed to an asylum.When the old mandied, Boo’sbrother,Nathan, cameto live in the house withBoo. Nevertheless, Boo continuedto stay inside.

Dill isfascinated byBoo and tries to convincethe Finchchildren to help him lurethis phantom of Maycomb outside. Eventually,he dares Jem to run overand touch the house. Jem does so, sprinting backhastily; thereis no sign of movement at the Radley Place, althoughScout thinks that shesees a shutter moveslightly, as if someonewere peeking out.