Irodalom | Középiskola » Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird, Summary Reference Cards

HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD SUMMARY REFERENCE CARDS Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 1 Summary • The reader is introduced to the narrator, Jean Louise Finch (nicknamed Scout). She provides some family history explaining that her first ancestors fled to America from England to escape religious persecuDon and started farming in Alabama • Scout’s father, AGcus, was the first Finches to make a living away from the farm. He became a lawyer in Maycomb, a poor old town suffering from the Great Depression. • AGcus, Scout, and her brother Jem live together with their housekeeper and nanny, Calpurnia. Jem and Scout’s mother passed away when Scout was only 2 years old. • In 1933, a boy named Charles Baker Harris (nicknamed Dill) moves in next door for the summer to stay with his aunt, Miss Rachel Haverford and oVen plays with Jem an Scout. • Dill suggests that they aWempt to lure Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor, out of his house. No one in the

community had seen Boo outside his house in years. Scout says that when Boo was a boy he got in trouble with the law and his father forced him to stay in the house as punishment. He was only heard from fiVeen years later when he stabbed his father with scissors. His father did not send him to an asylum even though many thought Boo was crazy. When Mr Radley died, Boo’s brother, Nathan, came to live in the house with Boo, who never came out again. • Dill dares Jem to go over and touch the house. Jem does it, and runs back quickly Scout says that he saw a shuWer of the house move slightly as if Boo were peeking out. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 2 Summary • Dill leaves Maycomb to go back to Meridian. • Scout goes to school for the first Dme (something she has been waiDng to do for a long Dme). • Scout does not get along with her teacher (Miss Fisher) because her teacher is angry that Scout can already read. • Scout complains, but Jem tells her it

is just a new way of teaching. • In the aVernoon, Scout gets in trouble again. Walter Cunningham did not bring his lunch to school so Ms. Finch offers to lend him money Scout tries to explain that the Cunninghams are very poor and only pay back their debts with things like nuts, vegetables, and other goods. • Miss Caroline becomes frustrated with Scout and hits her hand with a ruler. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 3 Summary • At lunch, Scout puts Walter’s nose in the dirt for geGng her in trouble, but Jem stops her and invites Walter to lunch. • At dinner, Scout criDcizes Walter for eaDng molasses on his meat. Calpurnia scolds her for this • Back at school, Miss Caroline is scared of a bug on a student’s hair. The boy is Burris Ewell (from a poor family). Burris only comes to school on the first day of school so he doesn’t get in trouble with the law. He leaves class that day and says cruel things to make the teacher cry • At home AGcus

talks to Scout because she looks upset. She said she does not like school and wont go anymore (explaining the reading problem). AGcus says he will sDll read with her if she doesn’t tell her teacher. Presto Plans • TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 4 Summary The school year was not the best for Scout. She is far above the curriculum and spends most of her days being frustrated. • One day she passes the Radley house and sees Dnfoil sDcking out of the knothole of one of the trees. She reaches in and finds gum She tells Jem and he tells her to spit the gum out • On the last day of school thy find two “Indian head” pennies in the hole. • Dill comes back to Maycomb in the summer. The kids start their games up again – and they soon begin playing a game called “Boo Radley” where they act out the Radley incidents. • AGcus catches them and asks if their game has to do with the Radley’s. Jem denies it so they are not sure if playing this game is a good idea.

Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 5 Summary • Jem and Dill become beWer friends and Scout feels leV out. • Scout starts to spend Dme with Miss. Maudie Atkinson (childhood friend of AGcus’s brother Jack). • She tells Scout that Boo is sDll alive and she things that Boo’s father (who is now dead) was very harsh on him. She says that when Boo was a child he was very friendly, but he had a tyrannical religious father, and that now he is probably crazy from staying inside for so long. • Jem and Dill will give a note to Boo inviDng him to ice cream. They try to send him the note by puGng it through a window with a fishing rod. • AGcus catches them and tells them to stop tormenDng Boo. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 6 Summary • On Dill’s last day in Maycomb, Dill and Jem decide to go to the Radley’s and peek in. Scout comes with them. They look through windows and see a shadow of a man They hear a shot and run away. • They

escape under a fence by the schoolyard, but Jem’s pants get caught and he has to take them off to escape. • The children go home where they see many neighborhood adults (AGcus, Miss. Maudie, Miss Stephanie Crawford, the town gossip). They say that Nathan Radley shot at “a Negro” in his yard. • When AGcus asks where Jem’s pants are, Dill says that he won them in a game of strip poker. AGcus gets angry that they might be using cards, but Jem says they just used matches. • Late that night, Jem sneaks out to the Radley place to retrieve his pants, but they are not there. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 7 Summary • A few days later (aVer school has begun again) Jem tells Scout that he found his pants fixed and hung over the fence. • On their way home from school they find another present in the tree – a ball of grey twine. They leave it for a few days, but no one claimed it so they take it • Scout sDll hates school in grade 2. Jem assures

her that school will get beWer the older she gets. • Late in the fall, another present is in the tree – to soap figures that look like Scout and Jem, then more presents follow: gum, a spelling bee medal, and an old pocket watch. • The next day, the hole had been filled with cement. Jem asks Nathan Radley (Boo’s brother) and he says he plugged it because the tree was dying. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 8 Summary • School is closed when Maycomb gets snow. Jem and Scout haul snow from Miss Maudie’s yard to theirs. They make a snowman which looks like Mr Avery (an unpleasant man who lives down the street). Atticus tells them to disguise it Jem then puts Miss Maudie’s sunhat on it and hedge clippers. • That night, Miss, Maudie’s house catches on fire and burns to the ground. Atticus takes the children outside, and in the confusion, someone puts a blanket around Scout. Later, Jen realizes that Boo put it on her and he reveals all of the things

Boo has done (leaving gifts etc) to Atticus. Atticus tells them to keep it to themselves • Miss. Maudie is not too upset her house burned down because she hated her own home and wants a small home with a big garden. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 9 Summary • At school, Scout almost figures with Cecil Jacobs aVer he says that AGcus defends ‘niggers’. • AGcus is defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. It is a case he will probably not win, but he explains to Scout that he must argue to uphold jusDce and self-respect. • At Christmas, Uncle Jack comes to visit. When he comes, Scout begins cursing and Jack tells her not to • On Christmas day, they go to Finch’s Landing and Scout is forced to hang out with Frances (Alexandra’s grandson). She also must deal with the proper Alexandra who insists that Scout dress like a lady • Frances says rude things about Dill and says that AGcus is a “nigger-lover”. Scout beats

him up Frances tells Alexandra and Jack and Scout immediately gets spanked. • When they go back to Maycomb, Scout tells Jack what Frances says. Jack is furious, but promises Scout he will not tell AGcus. • Later, Scout overhears AGcus telling Jack that Ton Robinson is innocent but doomed because an all what jury would never acquit him. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 10 Summary • Scout says that AGcus is different than most fathers in Maycomb (older, reads, doesn’t hunt or fish) • One day, a mad dog comes down the street. Calpurnia calls AGcus and he comes with Heck Tate (The Sheriff). AGcus shoots the dog in the first shot • Miss. Maudie reveals to Jem and Scout that AGcus was the best shot in the county “One shot Finch” was his nickname. • Scout wants to brag, but Jem tells her to keep it a secret because if AGcus wanted them to know he would have told them. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 11 Summary • Mrs. Dubose,

an old neighborhood lady, always shouts at Jem and Scout when they walk by AGcus says to be nice to her because she is old and sick. • One day she says that AGcus is not any beWer than “the niggers and trash he works for”. Jem loses his temper and destroys all of her camellia bushes. • As punishment – Jem must read to her everyday for a month. She dies a month aVer the punishment is complete (she was addicted to Morphine and reading helped fight the addicDon). • AVer she dies – Jem gets a box from Mrs. Dubose’s maid with a single camellia (of the ones he destroyed). Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 12 Summary • Jem is now twelve years old and he wants Scout to leave him alone. Scout is sad and can’t wait for Dill to come. • Unfortunately, Dill doesn’t come that summer. He sends a leWer to say he has to stay in Meridian with his new father – (who we assume his mother married). • AGcus travels to the state capital a great deal for work.

• Calpurnia takes the children to a colored church (called First Purchase because it was bought with the earnings of the first freed slaves). • One woman criDcizes Calpurnia for bringing white children but mostly everyone else is friendly. • During the service, the people give money for Tom’s wife as she is unable to work with the accusaDons against her husband. • Scout learns that Tom Robinson was accused by Bob Ewell. She can’t understand why anyone would believe an Ewell’s word. • When the children go home, Aunt Alexandra is waiDng for them. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 13 Summary • Aunt Alexandra will stay with the children for a while to give them a “feminine in9luence”. She becomes very social in the town. • She spends a lot of time talking about “family consciousness” because the same families have lived in Maycomb for generations. • She tries to get Atticus to lecture to the children about their ancestors. He tries,

but ends up making Scout cry in his attempt. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 14 Summary • People in town are always whispering about Jem and Scout because of AGcus’ role in the trial of Tom Robinson. • Scout asks AGcus what “rape” means, but the quesDon is sidestepped with discussion of the church trip that is coming up. • Aunt Alexandra tells scout she cannot go back to the church next Sunday. She also tries to get Calpurnia fired, but AGcus refuses. • Jem and Scout argue at night and Jem tells Scout not to antagonize Alexandra. The children are sent to bed for fighDng, and Scout finds Dill under her bed, who ran away from home because he wasn’t geGng enough aWenDon). • Jem tells AGcus, who tells Miss Rachel (Dill’s aunt). AGcus prepares food for Dill who eats and goes to bed. Presto Plans • TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 15 Summary A week later, a group of men come to AGcus’ house. Tom is moved to the Maycomb jail and there

is a talk of a possible lynch mob. • Jem reveals to Scout that Aunt Alexandra and AGcus have been fighDng about the trial. Alexandra says that AGcus is bring shame to the family The next evening the kids follow AGcus out see him reading in front of the jail. • Four cars come up to the jailhouse and a group of men get out demanding AGcus move away from the door. • Scout comes out of her hiding place and Jem and Dill follow. AGcus orders Jem home but he refuses • Scout recognizes Mr. Walter Cunningham as one of the men She starts talking about his son and says to tell him “hey”. He (ashamed) bends down and tells her he will • Mr. Cunningham gets his companions to leave • When they all go, Mr. Underwood (owner of the newspaper) says he had a shotgun and had AGcus covered the whole Dme. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 16 Summary • The trial begins the next day and people from all over the county come to Maycomb. • Once most of the crowd

has entered the courthouse, Jem, Scout, and Dill slip in at the back so AGcus won’t noDce them. They are only able to get seats when Reverend Sykes lets them sit in the balcony where black people are forced to sit to watch the trial. • Judge Taylor is presiding over the trial. He has a reputaDon for running the court in an informal manner. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 17 Summary • Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor quesDons Heck Tate Heck states that on the night of November 21, Bob Ewell convinced him to go to the Ewell house as his daughter, Mayella, had been raped. • When Tate arrived, he found Mayella bruised and beaten, and she told him that Tom Robinson had raped her. AGcus cross-examines the witness, who admits that no doctor examined the girl, and tells AGcus that Mayella’s bruises were only on the right side of her face. Tate leaves the stand, and Bob Ewell is called • Bob Ewell and his children live behind the garbage dump with a yard full of trash. An

extremely rude liWle man, Bob tesDfies that on the evening in quesDon he was coming out of the woods when he heard his daughter yelling. When he reached the house, he looked in the window and saw Tom Robinson raping her Robinson ran, and Ewell went into the house, saw that his daughter was all right, and ran for the sheriff. • AGcus’s cross-examinaDon is brief: he asks Mr. Ewell why no doctor was called He says that it was too expensive and there was no need for one. AGcus has Bob write his name The jury sees that Bob is leV-handedand a leV-handed man would be more likely to leave bruises on the right side of a girl’s face. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 18 Summary • Mayella is called to the stand and she tesDfies that she called Tom Robinson inside the fence that evening and offered him a nickel to break up a dresser for her. She says that once inside the house, he grabbed her and took advantage of her. In AGcus’s cross-examinaDon, the jury learns that

Mayella’s life is not easy. She has seven unhelpful siblings, a drunken father, and no friends • AGcus asks Mayella why she didn’t put up a beWer fight, why her screams didn’t bring the other children running, and, how Tom Robinson managed the crime: how he bruised the right side of her face with his useless leV hand, which was torn apart by a coWon gin when he was a boy. • AGcus pleads with Mayella to admit that there was no rape, and that her father beat her. She shouts at him and yells that the courtroom would have to be a bunch of cowards not to convict Tom Robinson; she then bursts into tears, refusing to answer any more quesDons. • Mr. Underwood noDces Jem and Scout in the balcony, but Jem tells Scout that the newspaper editor won’t tell AGcus about their being there. AGcus calls only one witness Tom Robinson. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 19 Summary • Tom tesDfies that he passed the Ewell house on the way to work and that Mayella oVen asked him

to do chores for her. He says she asked him to come inside the house and fix a door When he got inside, there was nothing wrong with the door, and he noDced that the other children were gone. • When Tom climbed on a chair, she grabbed his legs, scaring him so much that he jumped down. She then hugged him around the waist and asked him to kiss her. As she struggled, her father appeared at the window, calling Mayella a whore and threatening to kill her. Tom ran away • Link Deas, Tom’s white employer, stands up and declares that in eight years of work, he has never had any trouble from Tom. Judge Taylor furiously expels Deas from the courtroom for interrupDng • Mr. Gilmer cross-examines Tom and points out that he was once arrested for disorderly conduct Through manipulaDve tacDcs, he gets Tom to admit that he has the strength, even with one hand, to choke the breath out of a woman and sling her to the floor. • Tom says he only helped Mayella because he felt sorry for her. This

makes members of the court angry as in Maycomb, black people aren’t supposed to feel sorry for a white person. • Dill complains to Scout about Mr. Gilmer’s rude treatment of Tom Robinson during the quesDoning. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 20 Summary • Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a man with a black wife, tells the children that he pretends to be a drunk to give white people with an explanaDon for his lifestyle, when, in fact, he simply prefers black people to whites. • When Dill and Scout return to the courtroom, AGcus is making his final remarks. He has gone over the evidence and now makes a personal appeal to the jury. He says there has been no medical evidence of the crime and unreliable witnesses. Furthermore, he says that the physical evidence suggests that Bob Ewell beat Mayella, not Tom Robinson. • He says that Mayella lusted aVer a black man and then hid her shame by accusing him of rape aVer being caught. AGcus begs the jury to not believe that all

black people are criminals and to deliver jusDce by freeing Tom Robinson. As soon as AGcus finishes, Calpurnia comes into the courtroom. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 21 Summary • Calpurnia hands AGcus a note telling him that his children have not been home since noon. He learns they are in the colored balcony of the courthouse and tells them to go home. • AGcus says that they can return aVer supper knowing that the jury will most likely be back before then. • Calpurnia takes Jem, Scout, and Dill home. They eat quickly and return The jury is sDll out • Jem is confident of victory, while Dill has fallen asleep. • They deliver a guilty verdict. • The courtroom begins to empty, and as AGcus goes out, everyone in the colored balcony rises in a gesture of respect. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 22 Summary • That night, Jem cries, railing against the injusDce of the verdict. • The next day, Maycomb’s black populaDon delivers lots of of

food to the Finch household. • Outside, Miss Stephanie Crawford is gossiping trying to quesDon Jem and Scout about the trial. Miss Maudie rescues them by asking them to come in for some cake. • Jem doesn’t think highly of those in Maycomb now. He used to think they were the best people in the world, but he doesn’t think so anymore • Miss Maudie sees the posiDve of some people in the case. The Judge appointed AGcus to the case instead of the regular public defendant for one. Also the jury stayed out for so long which shows some thought went into it. • Miss Stephanie runs over to tell the kids that Bob Ewell accosted their father that morning, spat on him, and swore revenge. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 23 Summary • The Children are worried about AGcus because of Bob Ewell’s threats, but AGcus is not worried • Tom is now in a prison seventy miles away waiDng for an appeal. AGcus feels he has a good chance of being pardoned. We learn that if Tom is

not pardoned he will be put in the electric chair as rape is a capital offence in Alabama. • Jem discusses and quesDons the judicial system/class system with AGcus. He doesn’t understand how twelve men get to decide the fate of one man. AGcus explains that in Alabama court law, a white man’s word holds more weight than a black man’s. The reader also learns that one of the jury members amazingly voted for acquiWal (one of the Cunninghams) • As a result, Scout says that she wants to invite Walter Cunningham to dinner, but Aunt Alexandra forbids it and calls him trash. • Jem seeing how people go out of their way to hate each other, suggests that perhaps Boo doesn’t come out of his house simply because he wants to stay inside away from it all. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 24 Summary • Aunt Alexandra invites her missionary circle to come to the house for tea. Scout helps Calpurnia bring in the tea, and Alexandra invites Scout to stay with the ladies.

Scout listens to the missionary circle first discuss important maWers, then slowly revert to gossiping. • AGcus appears and calls Alexandra to the kitchen. There he tells her, Scout, Calpurnia, and Miss Maudie that Tom Robinson aWempted to escape and was shot seventeen Dmes. He takes Calpurnia with him to tell the Robinson family of Tom’s death. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 25 Summary • Jem and Scout are on the porch when Scout noDces a roly-poly bug. She is about to kill it with her hand when Jem tells her not to. She duDfully places the bug outside Jem says she should not hurt something that hasn’t done anything to harm her. • Jem convinces AGcus to let them accompany him to Helen Robinson’s house, where they see her collapse even before AGcus could say that her husband, Tom, was dead. • Tom is portrayed in the media as an irraDonal black man for trying to escape. • Mr. Underwood writes a long editorial condemning Tom’s death as the murder of an innocent man.

Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 26 Summary • School starts, and Jem and Scout again begin to pass by the Radley Place every day. They are now too old to be frightened by the house, but Scout sDll wishes to see Boo Radley just once. • In school one day, Scout’s teacher, Miss Gates, lectures the class on the wickedness of Hitler’s persecuDon of the Jews and on the virtues of equality and democracy. Scout later asks Jem how Miss Gates can talk about equality when she came out of the courthouse aVer the trial and told Miss Stephanie Crawford that it was about Dme that someone taught the blacks in town a lesson. • Jem becomes very angry and tells Scout not to talk about the trial to him again. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 27 Summary • Bob Ewell gets a job with the WPA, one of the Depression job programs, and loses it a few days later. • Judge Taylor’s home is broken into when he is home alone, but he doesn’t catch who the culprit is. •

Bob Ewell begins to follow Helen Robinson to work, keeping his distance but whispering cruel things at her. Deas sees Ewell and threatens to have him arrested if he doesn’t leave Helen alone; so he stops following her. These events worry Aunt Alexandra, who points out that Ewell seems to have a grudge against everyone connected with the case. • The town has a Halloween party and play. Both AGcus and Aunt Alexandra are too Dred to aWend the fesDviDes, so Jem takes Scout to the school. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 28 Summary • Jem and Scout go to the Halloween party. Scout falls asleep and misses her entrance in the pageant She is accused of ruining the whole show. • On the walk back home, Jem hears noises behind him and Scout. They think it must be Cecil Jacobs trying to frighten them again, but when they call out to him, they hear nothing. They have almost reached the road when someone begins running aVer them. • Jem screams for Scout to run, but in the

dark, in her costume, she falls. Something tears at the metal mesh, and she hears struggling behind her. Jem aWempts to drag Scout to the road but their aWacker pulls him back • Scout hears a crunching sound and Jem screams; she runs toward him and is grabbed and squeezed. Suddenly, her aWacker is pulled away. Once the noise has stopped, Scout feels on the ground for Jem, finding only a man smelling of whiskey. She stumbles toward home, and sees, in the light of the streetlamp, a man carrying Jem toward her house. • AGcus calls Heck Tate, telling him that someone has aWacked his children. Dr Reynolds arrives and says Scout that Jem has a broken arm and a bump on his head, but that he will be all right. Scout goes in to see Jem. The man who carried him home is in the room, but she does not recognize him Heck Tate arrives and tells AGcus that Bob Ewell is lying under a tree, dead, with a knife stuck under his ribs. Presto Plans TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 29 Summary •

Scout retells the story to Mr. Heck Tate She realizes that the man in the corner (who saved them) is Boo TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 30 Summary • Scout and Boo listen to AGcus and Tate argue from the porch outside. AGcus thinks Jem killed Bob and wants him to receive the consequence, but Tate wants to call the death an accident. • Heck says it was an accident and that Bob fell on his own knife, but he knows that it was actually Boo Radley who saved the children and stabbed Bob. Heck wants to keep the case low profile TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: Chapter 31 Summary • Scout takes Boo upstairs to say goodnight to Jem then walks Boo home. He goes inside his house and they never see him again • Scout imagines life from Boo’s perspecDve • She goes home and AGcus is siGng in Jem’s room. He reads one of Jem’s books to her unDl she falls asleep. Presto Plans