In the Depression-era, racially segregated American South black and white collide to produce a shade of grey that will colour lives in Maycomb, Alabama, forever.
6 year old Scout and 13 year old Jem live in the town of with their widowed father, lawyer Atticus Finch. Growing up motherless, Scout runs wild Jem and their sometime-neighbour Dill in the course of 2 summers. They live near the storied Radley house which may hold fearful secrets.
Not least of these secrets is Boo Radley, unseen for many years and rumoured to have been responsible for the death of his father. The children are both horrified and fascinated by Boo and try to draw the recluse out of his house. Boo responds to their overtures with vague gestures of affection - like leaving small gifts for them in a tree - without ever appearing in person.
Parallely, Atticus Finch is appointed to defend a black man accused of the rape of a white woman. Atticus’ acceptance of the case is seen by Maycomb as a betrayal of his own race and divides the town inhabitants as much as the alleged crime does. Scout and Jem, as children of a "nigger-lover" are taunted and harassed by their schoolmates. Events culminate in the courtroom where Atticus is able to establish that Tom Robinson, the accused man, is not guilty of the crime.
Defendant Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are proved to be lying and it becomes clear that Mayella had made sexual advances to Tom which he had rebuffed. Despite the overwhelming evidence that Tom is innocent he is convicted by the all-white jury and is shot to death while making a desperate break for freedom. Bob Ewell, humiliated by the trial, attacks Scout and Jem one night as they return home from a school play. They are saved by a stranger who kills Bob Ewell in the scuffle and carries an injured Jem home. Maycomb’s sheriff pronounces Bob Ewell’s death to have occurred through his own fault and the stranger then leaves the Finch home. Scout realises that the stranger was Boo Radley himself, making his final repayment for their friendship. They never see him again.
The novel is thematic on many levels. It is a bildungsroman or coming of age of the narrator, Scout. It also examines the moral dilemma that the protagonist, Atticus, faces and the choices he makes. At the same time it is a social commentary on prejudice and injustice and the human response to both. Scout’s rite of passage mirrors that of Atticus. She seeks out Boo Radley in defiance of the accepted standard of behaviour which is to ignore his existence: Atticus searches for truth in defiance of the general acceptance of Tom’s assumed guilt. Scout is rewarded with vague overtures of friendship from Boo: Atticus receives unexpected help in his quest for justice from unlikely townspeople. Finally, the monster in the closet turns out to be a teddy bear - Boo and Tom, both demonized, are proved otherwise.
At another level, the novel explores and challenges the notions of gender typification. Scout’s identification with her father and brother leads her to reject the conventions of femininity - she runs wild, swears and beats up boys. As the story develops so does her understanding of what it means to be a woman. She witnesses many aspects of womanhood as displayed by Maycomb residents - Miss Maudie’s independence, Mayella Ewell’s destruction of an innocent man to protect her sense of self, Mrs Dubose’s courage, though not grace, under fire. Atticus’ tacit encouragement of Scout’s own flouting of social norms is representative of the changing status of women at the time.
Finally, the novel explores the death of innocence - to kill a mockingbird is to destroy something that is harrmless and innocent as "they dont do one thing but sing their hearts out for us". Tom Robinson, innocent of a crime that he did not commit, is one such mockingbird. Misunderstood Boo Radley, innocent of the imagined fearsomeness, is another. Innocence is also destroyed as Jem and Scout witness the miscarriage of justice and Maycomb’s collective innocence dies a painful death when black Tom is proved to have been wronged by the white Ewells.
To Kill A Mockingbird was published nearly 50 years ago. It remains relevant in today’s hate and corruption ridden world for it’s evocative description of the human impulse towards truth and simultaneous repulsion by it. Atticus Finch, an unlikely hero - an ordinary man who makes the right choice in the face of certain defeat - represents the human capacity for courage and honesty. As Miss Maudie says, Maycomb depends on him to do what’s right. He remains the quintessential voice for the oppressed, just as To Kill A Mockingbird remains the quintessential America novel.