To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Setting: The book is set in the fictional small Southern town Maycomb, Alabama. The book was published in 1960, but the book takes place in 1930s. The view of the book is very limited to the small-town where the narrator and her family lives. Maycomb doesn't know what's happening elsewhere and doesn't care. Few people move there and few people ever leave. The setting of the book is very important for the storyline. The view upon certain people was justified by the fact that they lived where they lived. In the 30s the people was not as developed as the people today. The racial prejudice was also seen in bigger degrees, but also more accepted. The storyline takes place in the past, as the narrator is an older Jean Louise Finch whom looks back on her childhood memories and experiences them from a more mature point of view.

Characterisation: Along the storyline of the book the readers are exposed to several characters, but the main characters are Scout, Jem, Atticus and Tom Robinson. Scout is the narrator of the book, which means that everything is seen from her point of view. Her full name is Jean Louise Finch, and is the daughter of Atticus Finch. Scout is an unusual girl. She's unusually intelligent because she is taught to read before she starts school, which is something she gets in trouble from with her first grade teacher. Scout is very confident, because she is very sure of herself and unlike other girls she does not stray from a fight, even if it is with a boy. The six year old is also considered a tomboy because she's very different from the other girls. She likes to fight and the other girls wears dresses, whilst Scout walks around in overalls and only hangs out with Jem and Dill.

Another major character is Jeremy Atticus Finch, the son of Atticus Finch and brother of the protagonist Scout. Jem developed from the age of 10 to the age of 13. He has to experience everything whilst growing up into his teens. Jem represents the image of bravery in the book, he learns it from his father facing a mad dog, from interacting with Mrs. Dubose and from Scout's confrontation with the mob outside of Tom Robinson's jail cell. Toward the end of the book Jem loses his faith in humans capacity for good because of the evil he is exposed to during Tom Robinson's trial.

Atticus Finch is the father of the main children in the book. Alongside with being a father he is also a lawyer, whom the controversial decision to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, in his trial. In the book he is considered the moral backbone because he the where the children and adults would go for advice. Atticus is the one who taught Scout to read and he is the voice of truth. He teaches his children to be good and to never kill a mockingbird. Atticus is one of the static characters of the book. Which means he does not change or develop during the book. He receives a lot of hate and negativity because of him defending a black man, but after the trial and death of Tom he goes back to his usual high standard.


Tom Robinson is one of the mockingbirds of the book. Tom Robinson is a black man living in Maycomb, Alabama. In the book he is accused of raping a girl, Mayella Ewell. Tom is not seen as an individual in the community in which we lives, because of his skin colour. Throughout the story he becomes a symbol, used to illustrate the judgment and racism that takes place in this town. The first time we get a glimpse of Tom is in his trial, which comes towards the end. The reason we don't see him before the end of the book is because Scout doesn't. 

Plot and Structure: The whole storyline is seen trough the eyes of the older Scout Finch and she is looking back on her experiences as a six-year-old girl where she lives in a racially divided community. Through her eyes we see various situation that involves her older brother Jem and their best friend Dill. Jem and Scout is the kids of Atticus Finch, which creates controversy by defending a black man in a trial, Tom Robinson. Whom is accused of raping a white woman. The plot is structured chronological because we get to see the characters develop with age. The most important event in the book and also the climax is when we read about Tom's trial. Throughout we hear about the child innocence being destroyed by the evil in the world. The message of the book is to never kill a mockingbird, which is what happened when Tom Robinson was found guilty. 

Narrator and Point of view: The narrator of To Kill A Mockingbird is Scout Finch, also known as Jean Louise. In this case the narrator is the main protagonist in the book. The story is written in first person because the story is seen through one persons eyes. The narrator is not all-knowing. We hear about her own emotions and thoughts and sometimes the other characters feelings, but she she can't reveal everything because she does not know everything. 

Theme: The most important theme of the is book coexistence of good and evil in humans - whether people are essentially evil or good. The novel answers this question by dramatising Scout and Jem's transition from a perspective of childhood innocence to an adult perspective, where they have to confront evil. The moral of the book is embedded by Atticus Finch whom has experienced and understood evil without loosing his faith in the human capacity for goodness. The most important thing is to appreciate the good and bad qualities in people. He tries to learn his ultimate lesson to Jem and Scout. Scout's progress as a character in the novel is defined by her gradually development toward understanding Atticus's lesson.