query: who played bob ewell in to kill a mockingbird?

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: At the trial, it is undisputed that Tom came to Mayella's home at her request to help with the chopping up of a chifforobe, and that Mayella showed signs of having been beaten around that time. Among Atticus' chief arguments is that Tom has a crippled left arm, yet the supposed rapist would have had to make extensive use of his left hand in assaulting Mayella before raping her. Atticus then points out that Mayella's father, Bob Ewell (James Anderson), is left handed, implying that he – rather than Tom – was the one who beat Mayella. Atticus also states

title: Mary Anderson (actress, born 1918)

text: Mary Anderson (actress, born 1918) Mary Bebe Anderson (April 3, 1918 – April 6, 2014) was an American actress, who appeared in 31 films and 22 television productions between 1939 and 1965. She was best known for her small supporting role in the film "Gone With the Wind" as well as one of the main characters in Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 film "Lifeboat". Mary B. "Bebe" Anderson was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She attended Howard College (now Samford University). Her younger brother James Anderson (1921–1969) was also an actor, best known as Bob Ewell in "To Kill a Mockingbird"

title: James Anderson (American actor)

text: James Anderson (American actor) James Anderson (July 13, 1921 – September 14, 1969), sometimes billed as Kyle James, was an American television and film actor of the 1950s and 1960s. He is probably best known for his role as Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell in "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962). He made more than 120 appearances, mostly in television and several films between 1941 and 1969. He made three guest appearances on "Perry Mason", including the role of murder victim Frank Anderson in the 1958 episode, "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client," and murder victim Stanley Piper in the 1960

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Ewell and Mr. Radley represent a form of masculinity that Atticus does not, and the novel suggests that such men, as well as the traditionally feminine hypocrites at the Missionary Society, can lead society astray. Atticus stands apart as a unique model of masculinity; as one scholar explains: "It is the job of real men who embody the traditional masculine qualities of heroic individualism, bravery, and an unshrinking knowledge of and dedication to social justice and morality, to set the society straight." Allusions to legal issues in "To Kill a Mockingbird", particularly in scenes outside of the courtroom, have drawn

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". Confused, Scout approaches her neighbor Miss Maudie, who explains that mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. She points out that mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." Writer Edwin Bruell summarized the symbolism when he wrote in 1964, "'To kill a mockingbird' is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson." Scholars have noted that Lee often returns to the mockingbird theme when trying to make

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever." After remaining at number one throughout the entire five-month-long voting period in 2018, the American public, via PBS's "The Great American Read", chose "To Kill A Mockingbird" as America's Favorite Book. An earlier draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird", titled "Go Set a Watchman", was controversially released on July 14, 2015. This draft, which was completed in 1957, is set 20 years after the time period depicted in "To Kill a Mockingbird" but is not a continuation of

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. During the ceremony, the students and audience gave Lee a standing ovation, and the entire graduating class held up copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" to honor her. Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 5, 2007 by President George W. Bush. In his remarks, Bush stated, "One reason "To Kill a Mockingbird" succeeded is the wise and kind heart of the author, which comes through on every page ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" has influenced the character of our country for the better. It's been a

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: an honorary special membership to the Alabama State Bar for creating Atticus who "has become the personification of the exemplary lawyer in serving the legal needs of the poor". "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been a source of significant controversy since its being the subject of classroom study as early as 1963. The book's racial slurs, profanity, and frank discussion of rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms across the United States. The American Library Association reported that "To Kill a Mockingbird" was number 21 of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000–2009. Following

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education, literary analysis of it is sparse. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" by several authors and public figures, calls the book "an astonishing phenomenon". In 2006, British librarians ranked

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: the narrative. This earlier version of the story follows an adult Scout Finch who travels from New York City to visit her father, Atticus Finch, in Maycomb, Alabama, where she is confronted by the intolerance in her community. The "Watchman" manuscript was believed to have been lost until Lee's lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it, but this claim has been widely disputed. "Watchman" contains early versions of many of the characters from "To Kill a Mockingbird". According to Lee's agent Andrew Nurnberg, "Mockingbird" was originally intended to be the first book of a trilogy: "They discussed publishing "Mockingbird" first, "Watchman" last,

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: book, or Lee herself. Local residents call them "Mockingbird groupies", and although Lee was not reclusive, she refused publicity and interviews with an emphatic "Hell, no!" To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story is told by the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: 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, Atticus explaining that he "destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial." Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into

title: To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture

text: To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture Since the publication of" To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1960, there have been many references and allusions to it in popular culture. The book has been internationally popular for more than a half century, selling more 30 million copies in 40 languages. It currently (2013) sells 750,000 copies a year and is widely read in schools in America and abroad. Harper Lee and her publisher did not expect "To Kill a Mockingbird" to be such a huge success. Since it was first published in 1960, it has sold close to one million copies

text: well as their impact on readers and viewers. To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture Since the publication of" To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1960, there have been many references and allusions to it in popular culture. The book has been internationally popular for more than a half century, selling more 30 million copies in 40 languages. It currently (2013) sells 750,000 copies a year and is widely read in schools in America and abroad. Harper Lee and her publisher did not expect "To Kill a Mockingbird" to be such a huge success. Since it was first published in 1960,

text: 50th anniversary of publication in 2010. In honor of the 50th anniversary, famous authors and celebrities as well as people close to the book's author, Harper Lee, shared their experiences with "To Kill a Mockingbird" in the book "Scout, Atticus, & Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird". The book features interviews with Mary Badham, Tom Brokaw, Oprah Winfrey, Anna Quindlen, Richard Russo, as well as Harper Lee's sister, Alice Finch Lee. The 2010 documentary film "Hey, Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird" focuses on the background of the book and the film as

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: Scout what happened, she sees a man standing quietly in the corner behind the door of Jem's room. Atticus formally introduces Scout to Arthur Radley, whom she has known as Boo, the man who came to the aid of Jem and Scout in the woods. It is revealed that Boo had overpowered Bob Ewell before carrying Jem home. The sheriff reports that Ewell was discovered dead at the scene of the attack with a knife in his ribs. Atticus assumes that Jem killed Ewell in self-defense. Sheriff Tate, however, believes that Boo killed Ewell in defense of the children, and

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: Sarabande Film Classics series. To Kill a Mockingbird (film) To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. "To Kill a Mockingbird" marked the film debuts of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success, earning more than six times its budget. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck,

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: To Kill a Mockingbird (film) To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote is based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. It stars Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch and Mary Badham as Scout. "To Kill a Mockingbird" marked the film debuts of Robert Duvall, William Windom, and Alice Ghostley. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success, earning more than six times its budget. The film won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Peck, and was nominated for

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: and a shorter connecting novel between the two." This assertion has been discredited, however, by rare-books expert James S. Jaffe, who reviewed the pages at the request of Lee's attorney and found them to be only another draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Nurnberg's statement was also contrary to Jonathan Mahler's description of how "Watchman" was seen as just the first draft of "Mockingbird". Instances where many passages overlap between the two books, in some case word for word, also refutes this assertion. The book was made into the well-received 1962 film with the same title, starring Gregory Peck as

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die". It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was Lee's only published book until "Go Set a Watchman", an earlier draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird", was published on July 14, 2015. Lee continued to respond to her work's impact until her death in February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: book. She also steadfastly refused to provide an introduction, writing in 1995: "Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. "Mockingbird" still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble." In 2001, Lee was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. In the same year, Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley initiated a reading program throughout the city's libraries, and chose his favorite book, "To Kill a Mockingbird", as the first title of

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. Historian, J Crespino explains, "In the twentieth century, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." As a Southern Gothic and "Bildungsroman" novel, the primary themes of "To Kill a Mockingbird" involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South.

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story is told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: but Lee renamed it "To Kill a Mockingbird" to reflect that the story went beyond a character portrait. The book was published on July 11, 1960. The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies. In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said, I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: he tells Atticus that to drag the shy and reserved Boo into the spotlight for his heroism would be "a sin". To protect Boo, Sheriff Tate suggests that Ewell "fell on his knife". Scout draws a startlingly precocious analogy, likening unwelcome public attention to Boo to the killing of a mockingbird. In the order of the film's opening credits: The producers had wanted to use Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama for the set. Harper Lee used her experiences as a child in Monroeville as the basis for the fictional town of Maycomb, so it seemed that would be the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: reason he became a lawyer, and Richard Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence. One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook he taught from was "To Kill a Mockingbird", and an article in the "Michigan Law Review" claims, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession," before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun". In 1992, an Alabama editorial called for the death of Atticus,

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Alabama after Autherine Lucy and Polly Myers were admitted (Myers eventually withdrew her application and Lucy was expelled, but reinstated in 1980). In writing about the historical context of the novel's construction, two other literary scholars remark: ""To Kill a Mockingbird" was written and published amidst the most significant and conflict-ridden social change in the South since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Inevitably, despite its mid-1930s setting, the story told from the perspective of the 1950s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition." Scholar Patrick Chura, who suggests Emmett Till was a model for Tom Robinson, enumerates

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: McDonagh Murphy interviewed celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rosanne Cash, Tom Brokaw, and Harper's sister Alice Lee, who read the novel and compiled their impressions of it as children and adults into a book titled "Scout, Atticus, and Boo". One of the most significant impacts "To Kill a Mockingbird" has had is Atticus Finch's model of integrity for the legal profession. As scholar Alice Petry explains, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person." Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center cites Atticus Finch as the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (2018 play)

text: by May 2018. The production began previews at the Shubert Theatre on November 1, 2018, prior to an official opening on December 13, 2018. To Kill a Mockingbird (2018 play) To Kill a Mockingbird is a 2018 play based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, adapted for stage by Aaron Sorkin. It is scheduled to open at the Shubert Theatre on December 13, 2018. It was announced in February 2016 that Aaron Sorkin would bring the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to Broadway, in a new production produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Bartlett Sher. The

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (2018 play)

text: To Kill a Mockingbird (2018 play) To Kill a Mockingbird is a 2018 play based on the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, adapted for stage by Aaron Sorkin. It is scheduled to open at the Shubert Theatre on December 13, 2018. It was announced in February 2016 that Aaron Sorkin would bring the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to Broadway, in a new production produced by Scott Rudin and directed by Bartlett Sher. The book had previously been adapted for the stage but Rudin specified that this production would be completely unrelated to the prior pieces. On February

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: for with the use of first-person narration, she indicates that Scout/ Jean Louise still maintains the ambivalence about being a Southern lady she possessed as a child." Absent mothers and abusive fathers are another theme in the novel. Scout and Jem's mother died before Scout could remember her, Mayella's mother is dead, and Mrs. Radley is silent about Boo's confinement to the house. Apart from Atticus, the fathers described are abusers. Bob Ewell, it is hinted, molested his daughter, and Mr. Radley imprisons his son in his house to the extent that Boo is remembered only as a phantom. Bob

text: a year and has been the second-best-selling backlist title in the United States. Whether they like the book or not, readers can remember when and where they were the first time they opened the book. Because of this, "Mockingbird" has become a pillar for students around the country and symbol of justice and the reminiscence of childhood. "To Kill a Mockingbird" is not solely about the cultural legal practices of Atticus Finch, but about the fatherly virutes he held towards his children and the way Scout viewed him as a father. Parties were held across the United States for the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: any other film he has ever done. In 1995 "To Kill a Mockingbird" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It is also Robert Duvall's big-screen debut, as the misunderstood recluse Boo Radley. Duvall was cast on the recommendation of screenwriter Horton Foote, who met him at Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City where Duvall starred in a 1957 production of Foote's play, "The Midnight Caller". The American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century. Additionally, the AFI

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: learning the school administrators were holding hearings to decide the book's appropriateness for the classroom, Harper Lee sent $10 to "The Richmond News Leader" suggesting it to be used toward the enrollment of "the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice". The National Education Association in 1968 placed the novel second on a list of books receiving the most complaints from private organizations—after "Little Black Sambo". With a shift of attitudes about race in the 1970s, "To Kill a Mockingbird" faced challenges of a different sort: the treatment of racism in Maycomb was not condemned harshly

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: it can't be any good.") and that general readers seem to feel they do not require analytical interpretation. Harper Lee has remained famously detached from interpreting the novel since the mid-1960s. However, she gave some insight into her themes when, in a rare letter to the editor, she wrote in response to the passionate reaction her book caused: "Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that "To Kill a Mockingbird" spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners." When the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: characters. The second part of the novel deals with what book reviewer Harding LeMay termed "the spirit-corroding shame of the civilized white Southerner in the treatment of the Negro". In the years following its release, many reviewers considered "To Kill a Mockingbird" a novel primarily concerned with race relations. Claudia Durst Johnson considers it "reasonable to believe" that the novel was shaped by two events involving racial issues in Alabama: Rosa Parks' refusal to yield her seat on a city bus to a white person, which sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the 1956 riots at the University of

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: which allows the children a glimpse into her personal life, as well as Tom Robinson's. Scout falls asleep during the Halloween pageant and makes a tardy entrance onstage, causing the audience to laugh uproariously. She is so distracted and embarrassed that she prefers to go home in her ham costume, which saves her life. Scholars have characterized "To Kill a Mockingbird" as both a Southern Gothic and a "Bildungsroman". The grotesque and near-supernatural qualities of Boo Radley and his house, and the element of racial injustice involving Tom Robinson, contribute to the aura of the Gothic in the novel. Lee

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: historian of the Birmingham civil rights campaign, asserts that "To Kill a Mockingbird" condemns racism instead of racists, and states that every child in the South has moments of racial cognitive dissonance when they are faced with the harsh reality of inequality. This feeling causes them to question the beliefs with which they have been raised, which for many children is what the novel does. McWhorter writes of Lee, "for a white person from the South to write a book like this in the late 1950s is really unusual—by its very existence an act of protest." Author James McBride calls

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: victims, and Granville Hicks labeled the book "melodramatic and contrived". When the book was first released, Southern writer Flannery O'Connor commented, "I think for a child's book it does all right. It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is." Carson McCullers apparently agreed with the "Time" magazine review, writing to a cousin: "Well, honey, one thing we know is that she's been poaching on my literary preserves." One year after its publication "To Kill a Mockingbird" had been translated into ten languages. In the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: calling Atticus a "repository of cracker-barrel epigrams" and the novel represents a "sugar-coated myth" of Alabama history. Barra writes, "It's time to stop pretending that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature. Its bloodless liberal humanism is sadly dated". Thomas Mallon in "The New Yorker" criticizes Atticus' stiff and self-righteous demeanor, and calls Scout "a kind of highly constructed doll" whose speech and actions are improbable. Although acknowledging that the novel works, Mallon blasts Lee's "wildly unstable" narrative voice for developing a story about a content neighborhood until

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: ... I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like". This leads him to struggle with understanding the separations of race and class. Just as the novel is an illustration of the changes Jem faces, it is also an exploration of the realities Scout must face as an atypical girl on the verge of womanhood. As one scholar writes, ""To Kill a Mockingbird" can be read as a feminist Bildungsroman, for Scout emerges from her childhood experiences with a clear sense of her place in her community and an awareness of

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: magazine's 1960 review of the book states that it "teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life" and calls Scout Finch "the most appealing child since Carson McCullers' Frankie got left behind at the wedding". The "Chicago Sunday Tribune" noted the even-handed approach to the narration of the novel's events, writing: "This is in no way a sociological novel. It underlines no cause ... "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a novel of strong contemporary national significance." Not all reviewers were enthusiastic. Some lamented the use of poor white Southerners, and one-dimensional black

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: it begins to impart morals in the courtroom drama, following with his observation that "the book has begun to cherish its own goodness" by the time the case is over. Defending the book, Akin Ajayi writes that justice "is often complicated, but must always be founded upon the notion of equality and fairness for all." Ajayi states that the book forces readers to question issues about race, class, and society, but that it was not written to resolve them. Many writers compare their perceptions of "To Kill a Mockingbird" as adults with when they first read it as children. Mary

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: years since, it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages. The novel has never been out of print in hardcover or paperback, and has become part of the standard literature curriculum. A 2008 survey of secondary books read by students between grades 9–12 in the U.S. indicates the novel is the most widely read book in these grades. A 1991 survey by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress Center for the Book found that "To Kill a Mockingbird" was rated behind only the Bible in books that

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: schools, and attending events honoring the book. In 1961, when "To Kill a Mockingbird" was in its 41st week on the bestseller list, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, stunning Lee. It also won the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the same year, and the Paperback of the Year award from "Bestsellers" magazine in 1962. Starting in 1964, Lee began to turn down interviews, complaining that the questions were monotonous, and grew concerned that attention she received bordered on the kind of publicity celebrities sought. Since then, she declined talking with reporters about the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: the judge's house, and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout while they walk home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm in the struggle, but amid the confusion someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley. Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has died during the fight. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of charging Jem (whom Atticus believes to be responsible) or Boo (whom Tate believes to be

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: said that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is not an autobiography, but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully". Nevertheless, several people and events from Lee's childhood parallel those of the fictional Scout. Lee's father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was an attorney, similar to Atticus Finch, and in 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated, he never tried another criminal case. Lee's father was also the editor and publisher of the Monroeville newspaper. Although more of a proponent of racial segregation than Atticus, he

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Kill a Mockingbird" was physically impaired, which made him unable to commit the act he was accused of, but also crippled him in other ways. Roslyn Siegel includes Tom Robinson as an example of the recurring motif among white Southern writers of the black man as "stupid, pathetic, defenseless, and dependent upon the fair dealing of the whites, rather than his own intelligence to save him". Although Tom is spared from being lynched, he is killed with excessive violence during an attempted escape from prison, being shot seventeen times. The theme of racial injustice appears symbolically in the novel as

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: the attention of legal scholars. Claudia Durst Johnson writes that "a greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals". The opening quote by the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb reads: "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once." Johnson notes that even in Scout and Jem's childhood world, compromises and treaties are struck with each other by spitting on one's palm, and laws are discussed by Atticus and his children: is it right that Bob Ewell hunts and traps out of season? Many social codes are broken

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: best place. However, the town had changed significantly between the 1920s and the early 1960s so they made the backlot in Hollywood instead. The Old Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville was used as a model for the film set since they could not use the courthouse due to the poor audio quality in the courthouse. The accuracy of the recreated courthouse in Hollywood led many Alabamians to believe that the film was shot in Monroeville. The Old Courthouse in Monroe County is now a theater for many plays inspired by "To Kill a Mockingbird" as well as a museum dedicated

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: ranked the movie second on their "100 Years... 100 Cheers" list, behind "It's a Wonderful Life". The film was ranked number 34 on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movies of all time, but moved up to number 25 on the 10th Anniversary list. In June 2008, the AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was acknowledged as the best film in the courtroom drama genre. In 2007 Hamilton was honored by the Harlem community for her part in the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: Atticus and Jem go to the Robinson family home to inform them of Tom's death. Bob Ewell, Mayella's father, appears and spits in Atticus' face while Jem waits in the car. Atticus wipes his face and leaves. Autumn arrives, and Scout and Jem attend a nighttime Halloween pageant at their school. Scout wears a large hard-shelled ham costume, portraying one of Maycomb county's products. At some point during the pageant, Scout's dress and shoes are misplaced. She is forced to walk home without shoes, wearing her ham costume. While cutting through the woods, Scout and Jem are attacked by an

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: Best Cinematography, while Patty Duke was awarded Best Supporting Actress for her work in "The Miracle Worker". The film was selected for the 1963 Cannes Film Festival in feature film category, winning the Gary Cooper Award. Elmer Bernstein's score for "To Kill a Mockingbird" is regarded as one of the greatest film scores and has been recorded three times. It was first released in April 1963 on Ava; then Bernstein re-recorded it in the 1970s for his Film Music Collection series; and finally, he recorded the complete score (below) in 1996 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for the Varese

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: a moral point. Tom Robinson is the chief example among several innocents destroyed carelessly or deliberately throughout the novel. However, scholar Christopher Metress connects the mockingbird to Boo Radley: "Instead of wanting to exploit Boo for her own fun (as she does in the beginning of the novel by putting on gothic plays about his history), Scout comes to see him as a 'mockingbird'—that is, as someone with an inner goodness that must be cherished." The last pages of the book illustrate this as Scout relates the moral of a story Atticus has been reading to her, and, in allusions

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: house. 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. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: (Brock Peters), against an accusation of rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). Atticus accepts the case. Jem and Scout experience schoolyard taunts for their father's decision. Later, as Atticus is sitting in front of the local jail to safeguard Robinson, a lynch mob arrives, which includes Mr. Cunningham. Scout, Jem and their friend, Dill (John Megna), interrupt the confrontation. Scout, unaware of the mob's purpose, recognizes Cunningham as the man who paid her father in hickory nuts and tells him to say hello to his son, who is her schoolmate. Cunningham becomes embarrassed and the mob disperses.

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: by people in symbolic courtrooms: Mr. Dolphus Raymond has been exiled by society for taking a black woman as his common-law wife and having interracial children; Mayella Ewell is beaten by her father in punishment for kissing Tom Robinson; by being turned into a non-person, Boo Radley receives a punishment far greater than any court could have given him. Scout repeatedly breaks codes and laws and reacts to her punishment for them. For example, she refuses to wear frilly clothes, saying that Aunt Alexandra's "fanatical" attempts to place her in them made her feel "a pink cotton penitentiary closing in

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: responsible). Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective, and regrets that they had never repaid him for the gifts he had given them. Scout then goes back home to Atticus and stays up with him for a while in Jem's room. Soon Atticus takes her to bed and tucks her in, before leaving to go back to Jem. Lee has

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: as Lee explores Jem's development in coming to grips with a racist and unjust society, Scout realizes what being female means, and several female characters influence her development. Scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to describe the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider. Scout's primary female models are Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie, both of whom are strong-willed, independent, and protective. Mayella Ewell also has an influence; Scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her desire for him.

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: movie. She was the last surviving African-American adult who had a speaking part in the movie. When told of the award, she said, "I think it is terrific. I'm very pleased and very surprised". The film won three Academy Awards out of the eight for which it was nominated. Other nominations were for Its main competition was "Lawrence of Arabia", which won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Score. Peter O'Toole had been nominated for Best Actor for his performance as T. E. Lawrence, but Peck won for "Mockingbird". "The Longest Day" claimed the award for

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: on [her]". Johnson states, "[t]he novel is a study of how Jem and Scout begin to perceive the complexity of social codes and how the configuration of relationships dictated by or set off by those codes fails or nurtures the inhabitants of (their) small worlds." Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. Their family name Finch is also Lee's mother's maiden name. The titular mockingbird is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (2018 play)

text: 15, 2018, it was announced that Jeff Daniels would star in the production as Atticus Finch. Celia Keenan-Bolger and Will Pullen were also announced to play Scout and Jem Finch, respectively. In March 2018, the Harper Lee estate filed a lawsuit against the play's production company based on allegations that the play deviates too much from the novel; Sorkin had previously admitted that “As far as Atticus and his virtue goes, this is a different take on Mockingbird than Harper Lee’s or Horton Foote’s.” The following month, producer Scott Rudin countersued for breach of contract. The legal dispute was settled

title: Dana Ewell

text: 9, aired January 25, 2000) and the "Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice" episode "Tailspin" (season 3, episode 5, aired September 5, 2003). City Confidential ("Fatal Inheritance"), American Justice ("Millions of Reasons to Kill"), and Solved also did episodes on the case. Dana Ewell Dana James Ewell (born January 28, 1971) is a convicted American murderer who was sentenced to three life sentences for ordering the killing of his father, mother, and sister in 1992. Dana was the younger of two children born to Dale Alan (b. 1932) and Glee Ethel (Mitchell) Ewell (b. 1935). Dale was a US Air

title: Fred Weller

text: 2018 he appeared on Broadway as Bob Ewell in Aaron Sorkin's "To Kill a Mockingbird", an adaptation of Harper Lee's novel. Weller has also played lead roles in many successful independent films, including Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things" (with Paul Rudd, Rachel Weisz and Gretchen Mol), James Toback's "When Will I Be Loved" (opposite Neve Campbell) and "The Business of Strangers" (with Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles). Weller starred in the USA Network comedy-drama series "In Plain Sight" as Deputy U.S. Marshal Marshall Mann. He worked closely with Mary McCormack (Deputy U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon) during filming. Weller married

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: it like Scripture; yet Harper Lee herself refused to attend any performances, because "she abhors anything that trades on the book's fame". To underscore this sentiment, Lee demanded that a book of recipes named "Calpurnia's Cookbook" not be published and sold out of the Monroe County Heritage Museum. David Lister in "The Independent" states that Lee's refusal to speak to reporters made them desire to interview her all the more, and her silence "makes Bob Dylan look like a media tart". Despite her discouragement, a rising number of tourists made Monroeville their destination, hoping to see Lee's inspiration for the

title: A Time to Kill (Grisham novel)

text: the case of the rape and assault of 12 year old Marcie Scott and her 16-year-old sister Julie Scott. Unlike Grisham's depiction, however, the Scotts were white and their assailant, Willie Harris, was black. According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants." He spent three years on "A Time to Kill" and finished it in 1987. Grisham has also cited Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" as an influence. This book is set in 1984. Another stated inspiration was

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Actress in a Supporting Role for Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout. Lee was pleased with the film, "In that film the man and the part met ... I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused. That film was a work of art". Peck met Lee's father, the model for Atticus, before the filming. Lee's father died before the film's release. Lee was so impressed with Peck's performance that she gave him her father's pocket watch, which he had with him the evening he was awarded the Oscar

title: To Mock a Mockingbird

text: in a certain enchanted forest, then goes to an unnamed forest, then to Curry's Forest (named after Haskell Curry), then to Russel's Forest, then to The Forest Without a Name, then to Gödel's Forest and finally to The Master Forest where he also answers The Grand Question. To Mock a Mockingbird To Mock a Mockingbird and Other Logic Puzzles: Including an Amazing Adventure in Combinatory Logic (1985, ) is a book by the mathematician and logician Raymond Smullyan. It contains many nontrivial recreational puzzles of the sort for which Smullyan is well known. It is also a gentle and humorous

title: To Mock a Mockingbird

text: To Mock a Mockingbird To Mock a Mockingbird and Other Logic Puzzles: Including an Amazing Adventure in Combinatory Logic (1985, ) is a book by the mathematician and logician Raymond Smullyan. It contains many nontrivial recreational puzzles of the sort for which Smullyan is well known. It is also a gentle and humorous introduction to combinatory logic and the associated metamathematics, built on an elaborate ornithological metaphor. Combinatory logic, functionally equivalent to the lambda calculus, is a branch of symbolic logic having the expressive power of set theory, and with deep connections to questions of computability and provability. Smullyan's exposition

title: Don Ewell

text: Don Ewell Don Ewell (November 14, 1916 – August 9, 1983) was an American jazz stride pianist born in Baltimore, Maryland, known for his work with Sidney Bechet, Kid Ory, George Lewis, George Brunis, Muggsy Spanier and Bunk Johnson. Ewell played with Bill Reinhardt's Jazz, Ltd. band in Chicago in 1947, 1948 and 1949. From 1956 to 1962, Ewell was a leading member of the Jack Teagarden band. Following Teagarden's death Ewell did some European tours, and then moved back to New Orleans and played clubs and hotels there. From 1976 to 1978 Ewell concertized, battled alcoholism, while living with

title: To Kill a Mockingbird (film)

text: role because the book reminded him of growing up in La Jolla, California. "Hardly a day passes that I don't think how lucky I was to be cast in that film", Peck said in a 1997 interview. "I recently sat at a dinner next to a woman who saw it when she was 14-years-old, and she said it changed her life. I hear things like that all the time". The 1962 softcover edition of the novel opens: Harper Lee, in liner notes written for the film's DVD re-release by Universal, wrote: Upon Peck's death in 2003, Brock Peters, who played

title: Northern mockingbird

text: poisoning in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. populations. It also features in the title and central metaphor of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee. In that novel, mockingbirds are portrayed as innocent and generous, and two of the major characters, Atticus Finch and Miss Maudie, say it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because "they don't do one thing for us but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." "Hush, Little Baby" is a traditional lullaby,

title: To Mock a Mockingbird

text: calls by a succession of birds. Deep inside the forest dwells the Mockingbird, which imitates other birds hearing themselves. The resulting cascade of calls and responses analogizes to abstract models of computing. With this analogy in hand, one can explore advanced topics in the mathematical theory of computability, such as Church–Turing computability and Gödel's theorem. While the book starts off with simple riddles, it eventually shifts to a tale of Inspector Craig of Scotland Yard, who appears in Smullyan's other books; traveling from forest to forest, learning from different professors about all the different kinds of birds. He starts off

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: in the UK starting at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2006, and again in 2011 starting at the York Theatre Royal, both productions featuring Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch. The play also opened the 2013 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London where it played to full houses and starred Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus Finch, his first London appearance in 22 years. The production returned to the venue to close the 2014 season, prior to a UK tour. According to a "National Geographic" article, the novel is so revered in Monroeville that people quote lines from

title: Richard S. Ewell

text: "The Making of a Soldier", published posthumously in 1935. Ewell was portrayed by Tim Scott in the 1993 film "Gettysburg", based on Michael Shaara's novel, "The Killer Angels"; he appears only in the credits and in the Director's Cut release. In that movie, Ewell is criticized for not "taking that hill". Ewell is the main character in the 1963 gospel film "Red Runs the River" and is portrayed by Bob Jones, Jr. The film, directed by Katherine Stenholm, details Ewell's relationship with Stonewall Jackson and Ewell's conversion to Christ following his wound at the Second Battle of Bull Run. It

title: The Tom Ewell Show

text: The Tom Ewell Show The Tom Ewell Show is an American sitcom that aired on CBS during the 1960-61 television season under the alternate sponsorship of Quaker Oats and Procter & Gamble. Tom Ewell stars in this half-hour sitcom as Tom Porter, a real estate agent whose entire life, away from the office, was dominated by females: Recurring characters included Norman Fell as co-worker Howie Fletcher, heavy-set actor Barry Kelley as friend Jim Rafferty, and child-actor Vance Meadows as a neighborhood youngster. "The Tom Ewell Show" was created by Madelyn Martin and Bob Carroll, Jr. (of "The Lucy Show" fame),

title: Mockingbird (Erskine novel)

text: colour.' Kirkus Reviews found that 'Erskine draws directly and indirectly on To Kill a Mockingbird and riffs on its central theme: The destruction of an innocent is perhaps both the deepest kind of psychosocial wound a community can face and its greatest opportunity for psychological and spiritual growth.' In the beginning of the book Erskine dedicated the book to the victims of the Virginia Tech Shooting, which happened 3 years prior. Mockingbird (Erskine novel) Mockingbird is a young adult novel by American author Kathryn Erskine about a girl with Asperger syndrome coping with the loss of her brother. It won

title: Howie Seago

text: Bob Ewell in "To Kill a Mockingbird", Duke Senior in "As You Like It", King Cymbeline "Cymbeline", Little John in "The Heart of Robinhood", and Wolf in "Into the Woods." Seago has been honored many times, including being a recipient of the Helen Hayes Award. Seago spoke candidly about the effect his disability has had on his life and work in the book "" written by Jean Kennedy Smith and George Plimpton and published by Random House. Seago's wife Lori is a fan of "Star Trek". They have two sons, Ryan and Kyle Seago, neither of whom is deaf. The

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: The female characters who comment the most on Scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view. For example, Mrs. Dubose chastises Scout for not wearing a dress and camisole, and indicates she is ruining the family name by not doing so, in addition to insulting Atticus' intentions to defend Tom Robinson. By balancing the masculine influences of Atticus and Jem with the feminine influences of Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, one scholar writes, "Lee gradually demonstrates that Scout is becoming a feminist in the South,

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: treasure. She's someone who has made a difference ... with this book. The book is still as strong as it ever was, and so is the film. All the kids in the United States read this book and see the film in the seventh and eighth grades and write papers and essays. My husband used to get thousands and thousands of letters from teachers who would send them to him. The book has also been adapted as a play by Christopher Sergel. It debuted in 1990 in Monroeville, a town that labels itself "The Literary Capital of Alabama". The play

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: community. The children internalize Atticus' admonition not to judge someone until they have walked around in that person's skin, gaining a greater understanding of people's motives and behavior. The novel has been noted for its poignant exploration of different forms of courage. Scout's impulsive inclination to fight students who insult Atticus reflects her attempt to stand up for him and defend him. Atticus is the moral center of the novel, however, and he teaches Jem one of the most significant lessons of courage. In a statement that both foreshadows Atticus' motivation for defending Tom Robinson and describes Mrs. Dubose, who

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: whether the characters are heroes or fools. She guides the reader in such judgments, alternating between unabashed adoration and biting irony. Scout's experience with the Missionary Society is an ironic juxtaposition of women who mock her, gossip, and "reflect a smug, colonialist attitude toward other races" while giving the "appearance of gentility, piety, and morality". Conversely, when Atticus loses Tom's case, he is last to leave the courtroom, except for his children and the black spectators in the colored balcony, who rise silently as he walks underneath them, to honor his efforts. Despite her editors' warnings that the book might

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: Finch (nicknamed Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jeremy (nicknamed Jem), and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified yet fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his

title: Ewell Brown General Store

text: Ewell Brown General Store The Ewell Brown General Store is a commercial property in Lake Park, Georgia, located at the junction of Railroad Ave. with Lawrence Street, across the street from the railroad. It is a one-story Folk Victorian commercial building built out of brick about 1890. A brick sidewalk with a herringbone pattern was built in the early 1900s. The inside is one large room with a raised office space. The store was originally a drug store and general merchandise store. Ewell Brown bought the store in 1899 and along with his brother, Bob, operated it was a general

title: Collin Wilcox (actress)

text: Burt Reynolds on Broadway. She replaced another actress in the 1963 revival of Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" and then went on to do the 1965 play "The Family Way", both on Broadway. A life member of The Actors Studio, Wilcox is perhaps best known for her role in the 1962 film "To Kill a Mockingbird", in which she played Mayella Violet Ewell, who falsely accuses Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) of raping her. Following that cinematic acting success, she performed two very memorable roles for television in 1964: "The Twilight Zone" episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" and "The Alfred

title: Ewell, Virginia

text: Park. As the Williamsburg community expanded even beyond the city limits, Ewell lost its individual identity and became part of an area popular with tourists for outlet shopping, hotels, restaurants and attractions. Ewell is no longer a mailing address, and is now considered one of the former counties, cities, and towns of Virginia. Ewell, Virginia Ewell was an unincorporated town in James City County west of Williamsburg, in the U.S. state of Virginia. Ewell was named for Benjamin Stoddert Ewell (1810–1894) who was a U.S. and Confederate army officer, and civil engineer. A local farmer, he is best remembered for

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: New York City, where she worked as a reservation clerk for British Overseas Airways Corporation; there, she began writing a collection of essays and short stories about people in Monroeville. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote. An editor at J. B. Lippincott, who bought the manuscript, advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing. Donations from friends allowed her to write uninterruptedly for a year. After finishing the first draft and returning it to Lippincott, the manuscript, at that point titled "Go Set a Watchman", fell into

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: power to "challenge the way we think about things" (Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has attracted similar controversy). Arne Duncan, who served as Secretary of Education under President Obama, noted that removal of the book from reading lists was evidence of a nation with "real problems". In 1966, a parent in Hanover, Virginia protested that the use of rape as a plot device was immoral. Johnson cites examples of letters to local newspapers, which ranged from amusement to fury; those letters expressing the most outrage, however, complained about Mayella Ewell's attraction to Tom Robinson over the depictions of rape. Upon

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: saying that as liberal as Atticus was, he still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. The editorial sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession because of him and esteemed him as a hero. Critics of Atticus maintain he is morally ambiguous and does not use his legal skills to challenge the racist status quo in Maycomb. However, in 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument to Atticus in Monroeville, marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history". In 2008, Lee herself received

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: to both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, states about a character who was misunderstood, "when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things ... Atticus, he was real nice," to which he responds, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them." The novel exposes the loss of innocence so frequently that reviewer R. A. Dave claims that because every character has to face, or even suffer defeat, the book takes on elements of a classical tragedy. In exploring how each character deals with his or her own personal defeat, Lee builds a framework to judge

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: enough. This has led to disparate perceptions that the novel has a generally positive impact on race relations for white readers, but a more ambiguous reception by black readers. In one high-profile case outside the U.S., school districts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attempted to have the book removed from standard teaching curricula in the 1990s, stating: Furthermore, despite the novel's thematic focus on racial injustice, its black characters are not fully examined. In its use of racial epithets, stereotyped depictions of superstitious blacks, and Calpurnia, who to some critics is an updated version of

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: impressive imagination and a gift for fascinating stories. Both Lee and Capote loved to read, and were atypical children in some ways: Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, and Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter that Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people". In 1960, Capote and Lee traveled to Kansas together to investigate the multiple murders that were the basis

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: well. For example, Atticus must shoot a rabid dog, even though it is not his job to do so. Carolyn Jones argues that the dog represents prejudice within the town of Maycomb, and Atticus, who waits on a deserted street to shoot the dog, must fight against the town's racism without help from other white citizens. He is also alone when he faces a group intending to lynch Tom Robinson and once more in the courthouse during Tom's trial. Lee even uses dreamlike imagery from the mad dog incident to describe some of the courtroom scenes. Jones writes, "[t]he real

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: same purpose" to display Southern prejudices. Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, and whose death is credited as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, is also considered a model for Tom Robinson. The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in "Time" was called "tactile brilliance". Writing a decade later, another scholar noted, "Harper Lee has a remarkable gift of story-telling. Her art is visual, and with cinematographic fluidity and subtlety we see a

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: is determined to break herself of a morphine addiction, Atticus tells Jem that courage is "when you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what". Charles J. Shields, who wrote the first book-length biography of Harper Lee, offers the reason for the novel's enduring popularity and impact is that "its lessons of human dignity and respect for others remain fundamental and universal". Atticus' lesson to Scout that "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb around in his skin and walk around in

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: for Best Actor. Years later, he was reluctant to tell Lee that the watch was stolen out of his luggage in London Heathrow Airport. When Peck eventually did tell Lee, she told him, "Well, it's only a watch". He said, "Harper—she feels deeply, but she's not a sentimental person about things". Lee and Peck shared a friendship long after the movie was made. Peck's grandson was named "Harper" in her honor. In May 2005, Lee made an uncharacteristic appearance at the Los Angeles Public Library at the request of Peck's widow Veronique, who said of Lee: She's like a national

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: in the novel. Scout's Aunt Alexandra attributes Maycomb's inhabitants' faults and advantages to genealogy (families that have gambling streaks and drinking streaks), and the narrator sets the action and characters amid a finely detailed background of the Finch family history and the history of Maycomb. This regionalist theme is further reflected in Mayella Ewell's apparent powerlessness to admit her advances toward Tom Robinson, and Scout's definition of "fine folks" being people with good sense who do the best they can with what they have. The South itself, with its traditions and taboos, seems to drive the plot more than the

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: in "The Guardian" states that Lee, rare among American novelists, writes with "a fiercely progressive ink, in which there is nothing inevitable about racism and its very foundation is open to question", comparing her to William Faulkner, who wrote about racism as an inevitability. Literary critic Rosemary Goring in Scotland's "The Herald" notes the connections between Lee and Jane Austen, stating the book's central theme, that "one's moral convictions are worth fighting for, even at the risk of being reviled" is eloquently discussed. Native Alabamian sports writer Allen Barra sharply criticized Lee and the novel in "The Wall Street Journal"

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: the injustices endured by the fictional Tom that Till also faced. Chura notes the icon of the black rapist causing harm to the representation of the "mythologized vulnerable and sacred Southern womanhood". Any transgressions by black males that merely hinted at sexual contact with white females during the time the novel was set often resulted in a punishment of death for the accused. Tom Robinson's trial was juried by poor white farmers who convicted him despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, as more educated and moderate white townspeople supported the jury's decision. Furthermore, the victim of racial injustice in "To

title: To Kill a Mockingbird

text: voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans' conception of the causes of racism and segregation." Lee's use of the middle-class narrative voice is a literary device that allows an intimacy with the reader, regardless of class or cultural background, and fosters a sense of nostalgia. Sharing Scout and Jem's perspective, the reader is allowed to engage in relationships with the conservative antebellum Mrs. Dubose; the lower-class Ewells, and the Cunninghams who are equally poor but behave in vastly different ways; the wealthy but ostracized Mr. Dolphus Raymond; and Calpurnia and other members of the black