"Cliff Notes - To Kill A Mockingbird" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

Two nights before the trial is to start, a group of men come to the Finch house to tell Atticus about threats against Tom Robinson's life. Atticus spends the next night camped out at the jail to defend Tom against the mob. Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill go downtown to check on Atticus and, by chance, arrive at the same time as a group of very angry men, who have come to kidnap Tom Robinson and kill him. Scout recognizes one of the men in the group as Walter Cunningham, the father of a boy in her class at school, and her friendliness embarrasses the man so much that he changes his mind and talks the mob into leaving.

The next day, at the trial, Atticus' questions make it clear that Mayella Ewell and her father are lying about the rape: Tom Robinson is innocent. Nevertheless, the jury members convict him because their prejudices prevent them from taking a black man's word against two whites. Atticus is now a hero to the black community of Maycomb, but Bob Ewell, Mayella's father, vows to "get" Atticus for showing him up as a liar in front of the whole town.

Tom Robinson, meanwhile, has given up any hope of getting justice from the courts. He makes a desperate attempt to escape from the prison exercise yard, and is shot dead. Jem and Dill, already bitter over the outcome of the trial, happen to be with Atticus when he tells Tom's wife of the death, and they are deeply affected by her grief.

By the time Halloween comes around, the Finch family has begun to put the tragedy of Tom Robinson's fate behind them. There is a Halloween pageant planned and Scout, much to her dismay, has been cast in the role of one of Maycomb's most important agricultural products--a ham. After the pageant Scout decides to walk home still dressed in her bulky costume, with Jem leading the way. The cowardly Bob Ewell, seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Atticus through his children, follows the children down a dark street and tries to kill them. In the confusion that follows Scout realizes that another adult has appeared and is fighting on their side. It is none other than Boo Radley, who had seen the attack from his window. Boo stabs Bob Ewell to death, and carries the wounded Jem home.

The sheriff decides to file a report saying that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife and died, thus sparing Boo Radley the publicity that would be sure to follow if his part in saving the children became known.

Scout never sees Boo Radley again after that night, but she has learned that he was a good man all along--not the frightening man that she and the other children imagined him to be. She has learned a lesson about understanding and tolerance. And through the sheriff's action she sees that sometimes there can be justice and compassion in the world.


^^^^^^^^^^TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: SCOUT

Jean Louise Finch, whose nickname is Scout, is only five-and-a-half years old when the novel begins, but she is already a complex and interesting personality. Scout's mother died when she was two and her father is a scholarly man in his fifties who has no idea of how to play with his children or talk to them on their own level. Scout has taught herself to read at an early age, and she has a vocabulary equal to that of many adults. Her habit of speaking her mind in the presence of grownups makes Scout often seem older than her years. In recalling her first day in the first grade, Scout thinks of herself and her schoolmates as little adults, who must take care of the confused first-year teachers. Later, when she is unjustly punished for getting into a fight with a cousin, Scout takes it upon herself to explain to her uncle why his methods of handling children are wrong. After these incidents we are only mildly surprised when Scout is able to find the right words to turn away a lynch mob that has come to kill Tom Robinson.

Scout is also something of an outsider. A tomboy, she is still not completely accepted by her brother Jem and their friend Dill. We never hear of her having any close friends her own age, either boys or girls. And in contrast to Jem, who is constantly disappointed by the shortcomings of human nature, Scout seems to take bad news in stride. At one point, following the conviction of Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch expresses surprise that Jem, rather than Scout, seems most likely to become embittered over the injustice they have witnessed. Perhaps you will not be surprised. Scout's sense of humor and detachment seem to protect her from the disillusionments that her more vulnerable brother falls prey to.

Most readers find that the portrayal of Scout is not only interesting but highly believable. Perhaps this is because we all recall times from our own childhood when we were smarter and more aware than adults gave us credit for being. Scout is able to put this awareness into words. Furthermore, Scout's sense of humor--and her unwitting mistakes and misunderstandings--save her from being a smart aleck. We don't feel that Scout is setting herself above the adults she criticizes.

There are always a few readers, however, who conclude that the portrayal of Scout is less than convincing. They argue that many of Scout's opinions sound too adult and that she is always too ready to come up with the right words for the occasion.

Before you make up your mind about Scout, you should remember that the voice we hear narrating the story is actually that of the grownup Scout--Jean Louise Finch--looking back on events that happened years earlier. Some of the opinions and ideas expressed in the novel are really those of the older Jean Louise. You should judge Scout by her actions and quoted words in the story, keeping these separate from the opinions of the narrator.

^^^^^^^^^^TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: ATTICUS FINCH

Atticus Finch sets a standard of morality that no other character in the book comes close to matching. Atticus is a studious man whose behavior is governed by reason. Once he decides that a given course of action is right, he perseveres regardless of threats or criticisms.

But Atticus is not a crusader. He does not go looking for causes to champion. The Tom Robinson case was not one he volunteered to handle--the judge assigned him the case because he felt Atticus would do his best to win. Atticus' desire to avoid conflict when possible is another quality that the author obviously wants us to admire. Readers may have differing opinions about this quality.

NOTE: You may have noticed that some characters' names in this story have hidden meanings. For example, Scout is a seeker, scouting out new areas of experience. Atticus' name is a reference to the district (Attica) of ancient Greece in which Athens was located. In some ways Atticus' rational approach to life is similar to that of ancient philosophers. You might look up the views of the Stoics; their philosophy has a certain resemblance to Atticus' type of southern gentleman.

^^^^^^^^^^TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: JEM

Scout's older brother Jeremy, or Jem, Finch changes considerably over the course of the novel. At first you see him as Scout's playmate and equal. Once the children start school, however, Jem becomes more aware of the difference in age between himself and his sister. He doesn't want her to embarrass him in front of his fifth-grade friends. And later he and Dill develop a friendship from which Scout is partly excluded because she is a girl. In this part of the story you see Jem as the wiser older brother. He is the first to figure out that Boo Radley has been trying to communicate with them, and he does his best to explain unfamiliar words to Scout, even though he often gets their meanings wrong.

Jem is also the more thoughtful and introverted of the Finch children. Unlike Scout, who is a fighter by temperament, Jem seems determined to obey his father's request to avoid fighting. He lets his anger build inside, until one day in a fit of temper he destroys Mrs. Dubose's garden. Later, at the time of the trial, Jem's optimistic view of human nature becomes apparent. He is probably the only person in town who really believes that justice will be done and Tom Robinson found innocent. When this does not happen, his disillusionment is so great that for a time he can't stand even to talk about the incident.

By the end of the story Jem is almost grownup. On the surface, he seems quicker than Scout to put the trial behind, but inwardly, he has been more disturbed than Scout by the events of the trial. Some readers think that Jem's broken arm at the end of the story is a sign that he will be wounded forever by what he has observed. Scout, on the other hand, has been protected from harm by the hard shell of her silly ham costume--a symbol, perhaps, of the sense of humor that insulates her from bitterness.

^^^^^^^^^^TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: CALPURNIA

Calpurnia is the black cook and housekeeper for the Finches. She is treated almost as if she were a member of the family. In some ways she even takes the place of Scout and Jem's dead mother. But you soon learn that Calpurnia is not accepted by everyone. Some of the Finches' white friends look down on Calpurnia as a servant and are shocked to hear Atticus speak freely in her presence. At the same time, some members of Calpurnia's black church are very critical of her being on such friendly terms with her white employer. Calpurnia lives a divided life. You learn, for example, that she learned to read and write from old law books. In the Finchs' house she speaks the very correct English of an educated person; at church, however, she converses in her friends' dialect so they will not feel she is trying to act superior to them.

Some authors might have presented Calpurnia as a sad figure. They might have been critical of her for compromising with the white society that discriminates against blacks. Most readers do not find this attitude in To Kill a Mockingbird, however. Lee treats Calpurnia as admirable because she has made the best of her opportunities and has not allowed herself to become bitter. Calpurnia has a sense of self-worth that is not affected by the opinions of people around her. This is a way in which she resembles Atticus.

^^^^^^^^^^TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: DILL

Charles Baker Harris, known as Dill, is Jem and Scout's first friend from outside Maycomb. In many respects Dill is a contrast to Jem and Scout. They come from an old family, and have a father who loves them very much. Dill, on the other hand, is an unwanted child. He has no father, and his mother does not want to be bothered with him.