Background
Though To Kill a Mockingbird is set in 1930’s Alabama, it was published by Southern writer Harper Lee in 1960 and was immediately popular, earning Lee a Pulitzer Prize. Set in fictitious Maycomb, Alabama in 1933, the story is a remembrance of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch who serves as the narrator to tell a dual plot story of the years between her sixth and 8th years. One aspect of the plot is a coming of age story for both Scout and her brother Jem as they experience the mythology of Maycomb’s most famous recluse, Arthur “Boo” Radley, a story of ambiguous justice in the failure to free Tom Robinson, and the willingness to ignore Boo Radley’s murder of Bob Ewell to protect his need for solitude. The hero of the movie is Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch, who raises his two children with the help of their cook Calpurnia following the death of their mother. Atticus serves as the anchor of the story and the anchor in the lives of his children whose adventures throughout the neighborhood often get them a stern but loving lecture from their father. Atticus, a lawyer, agrees to defend Tom Robinson, who is an African American man falsely accused by a white woman of rape. Atticus and his children endure the ire of the community for his purposeful defense of his client. The first plot ends with an unsurprising guilty verdict against Tom Robinson, who later attempts to escape prison and is shot and killed. The second plot ends when the father of Tom Robinson’s accuser, Bob Ewell, attacks Scout and Jem, and Boo Radley comes to their aid and kills Ewell.
The film adaptation was released quickly, in 1962, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards. The screenplay was written by Horton Foote who also wrote the 1992 screenplay for Of Mice and Men, and it was directed by Robert Mulligan who was nominated for the Best Director Oscar for To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Atticus Finch.
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