Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout is a lawyer. He is defending Tom Robinson’s court case for raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus
loses the case as Tom Robinson is found guilty; Atticus is called a “nigger lover” after this case and sometimes before it because he defended a black man. Tom Robinson was a black man and throughout the book there is a lot of
racism and arguments between black and white people.
The Ewells were the family who were affected by the rape. Bob Ewell, the father, later in the book attacks Jem and Scout and is rescued by Boo Radley. Boo Radley lived in the Radley House and was always reluctant to come out, until this time when Jem and Scout were attacked.
We also find out in this book that everyone is loyal towards each other apart from the blacks towards the whites and the whites towards the blacks. The Cunningham’s are poor and mean well to others where as the Ewell’s are nasty and racist towards the blacks. The Finch’s are of a middle class standard and Atticus is one person, as referred to in the book “who does the unpleasant jobs for us”, i.e. being a lawyer.
The Finch family are extremely close with fellow people in Maycomb County and have a black cook and maid called Calpurnia. Jem and Scout are very close and share things together which they never tell anyone else. However, the Radley Place intrigues them to find out why Boo Radley never comes out. But why is this? Is it because he is afraid of the outside? Or is it because he is a criminal?
Jem Finch is the son of Atticus and is the brother of Scout. He started to become aware of his age more in the second half as he did things, like reading football magazines; for in the first half he was followed around by Scout and enjoyed their adventures.
Scout Finch (narrator), is the daughter of Atticus and is the sister of Jem. Her full name is Jean Louise Finch and she is a Tom Boy. She wears jeans and trousers and runs around like boys. She enjoys a lot of boys activities and doesn’t like wearing dresses or going to places that involve talking politely and speaking generally, for example tea parties.
Atticus Finch is father of Jem and Scout and is the lawyer of the family. He is strict and defends Tom Robinsons’ case of the rape against Mayella Ewell. Atticus turns fifty in the second half of the book and is very popular around Maycomb County.
The book covers the
topics in life of some people that they go through. These topics, like growing up, racism and family life are explained carefully and are obviously even in this fictional book taken seriously which makes the book more realistic. These topics are serious and they should be taken in a serious way, as they are in it due to the amount of racism there is around the world now.
This book was well written and included some serious topics in it (as explained above) but I didn’t particularly enjoy the general plot line. The book was very long winded and that was one reason for why I didn’t enjoy it. However, the certain aspects taught me a bit more on how serious racism and growing up is. The book was full of interesting topics but it wasn’t the type of book I would read. It did have an adventure side to the book but I felt that it was very serious in the way of growing up and rape is considered (which it should be). I also thought that the book was racist however, I don’t think that people thought of it in the sense of what we do today.