To Kill A Mockingbird Sar Essay

Submitted By saraosullivan
Words: 1761
Pages: 8

Sara O’Sullivan Grade 8
St. Paul the Apostle June 1, 2013
Compare and Contrast the Book and Film Version of To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was first published on July 11, 1960. The publisher of the book was J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book has 376 pages but varies per book. To Kill a Mockingbird was set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in southern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States. Maycomb was a small town where neighbors were friendly and knew everything that happened. It was common for children to go to school barefoot, and to suffer from ringworm and other diseases. Although automobiles had been around for some years, most farm families still depended on horses for transportation and to plow their fields. The novel starts off with Jem and Scout playing in the front yard when Atticus has to leave for work. Before he leaves Mr. Cunningham comes and pays back Atticus where Scout says “The crash hit them the hardest.” They meet Dill and have a fun summer with him doing numerous adventures, one of them being getting Arthur “Boo” Radley to come out of his house. When Scout and Jem pass a tree, they notice that there were objects in the tree and as days passed there were new objects in the tree until the tree was filled with cement. Scout has started school and has a new teacher who she did not start off on a good foot with. Mrs. Maudie’s house went on fire and Jem and Scout went down the street where someone put a blanket on Scout to keep her from getting cold. Atticus was defending a black man on trial where he was accused of rape; Atticus got a lot of hate for defending a “negro.” Scout was getting into many of fights defending Atticus but was told to stop by Atticus. When Scout and Jem came home one day, Aunt Alexandra was there to teach Scout to be a lady and have a positive influence on Scout. Dill had run away and hid under Scout’s bed, that night Scout and Dill talked about where babies came from. Dill, Jem, and Scout attended the trial of Tom Robinson, the Negro Atticus was defending. Dill and Jem were then excluding Scout unless she did what they said. Dill then went away after the summer ended. Scout then went back to school where she did not see Jem much because he was helping out the football team. Scout had an assembly to attend but only Jem could attend because Atticus and Aunt Alexandra were tired. After the play, Scout and Jem were walking home when they were attacked by Bob Ewell, whose daughter was “raped” by Tom Robinson. He broke Jem’s arm and was about to go after Scout when someone stopped him. Jem being carried by the man and Scout went back to the house and the sheriff found that Bob Ewell had been killed. “Boo” Radley had saved Jem and was in the house. After Jem was okay, Scout walked “Boo” home where he was never seen again.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic that has lasted so many years because of the topic that the book concerns. The topic of racism is just as relevant in today’s society as it was back in the 1930s. Many people are being judged because of the color of their skin. The book has been recommended to many people because of the broad number of topics covered, such as racism, Great Depression, trials, false accusations, and sad stories, that are always going to be important for people to know the history of the topic which are still relevant today. Racism for example has caused many African Americans to be judged on their skin color and not on what they are capable of doing and have had many obstacles to overcome. The book has been a staple to the American culture because of the historical meaning in the book. The book covers the Great Depression time period which was a hard time for many people to get through and it shows that there were many problems even in small towns. The conflict in the story shows how people