Top 30 Modern Classics - III

To Kill A Mockingbird

By Nelle Harper Lee

Published in 1960, this book won the Pulitzer Award in 1961. It was acknowledged as a classic in American literature. Truman Capote, the author of the book In Cold Blood, was the basis of the character Dill in To Kill A Mockingbird.

The story period is 1933–35 during the Great Depression in a fictional town in Maycomb, Alabama. It focuses Atticus a widowed lawyer and his two children, Jem and his younger sister, six year old Jean louise (Scout). The children befriend a boy named Dill. The three children are terrified of their reclusive neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone leaves them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.

Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability inspite of disapproval of other whites. Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob.

Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main floor, so by invitation of Rev. Sykes, Jem, Scout, and Dill watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that the accusers—Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunk—are lying. It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, and that her father caught her and beat her. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice becomes badly shaken, as is Atticus', when the hapless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.

Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial as Atticus had shredded his credibility at the trial. 

What happens thereafter is for the reader to find out. Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. It was adapted into an Oscar winning film in 1962.

One of the best novel ever written.


Namaste


Prabir