NAME: Alex Freitag DATE: March 9, 2008
TITLE: To Kill a Mockingbird TIME: 180 min. HOURS: 3
AUTHOR: Harper Lee PAGES: 323
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 151-323

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus, being a lawyer, has to defend a colored man in court, much to the dislike of most of the town. The name of the man he's defending is Tom Robinson, charged with the rape of Mayella Ewell, a white girl. Although the Ewell's are disliked by society, and live like wild animal's, Most of the town has gotten a sort of mob mentality, getting mad at Atticus for actually wanting to help a colored man. Jem knows something's up when Atticus goes out for a walk, since the book described itself that no one in Maycomb went out for a walk for no reason. When he tries to sneak out, Scout says she's going with him, and he knows he can't resist because if he fights her, their Aunt Alexandra would hear. So Jem unhappily takes her along. When they finally find Atticus sitting in the hallway of a jail, They're relieved, but right then, a group of cars drive up and a bunch of men come out of them and start walking towards Atticus. They start talking and it becomes obvious that they're trying to get to the jail cell that Atticus is sitting in front of and obviously guarding. Scout and Jem know that something bad is going to happen to their father, so they jump out of their hiding place, and go join Atticus. Scout looks around the men to see if there's anyone she knows that she can reason with. She does, and starts talking to him about his son. Eventually, Scout gets him to leave. They learn that the man in the cell Atticus was guarding was Tom Robinson. When they got home, Jem and Scout's Aunt Alexandra was mad at them saying they were irresponsible, but Atticus stops her, telling her that they may have saved his life. After that night, there were no more attempts to get Tom Robinson.
During the day of the trial, The court is long, but Atticus keeps his wits about him, and eventually, finds irrefutable proof that Tom is innocent, but the racism prevails, and Tom is pronounced guilty. Atticus could still get him free, but both he and Tom knew that he was good as dead. So Tom tried to escape, but got shot and killed by the prison guards. His employer Mr. Link Deas, felt sorry for Tom's wife Helen, and gave her a job to help her pay for her children's needs. Although, Bob Ewell was prepared to make trouble for her. he started following her to work, but Mr. Link Deas forced him to stop it. But that wasn't the end of Bob Ewell's trouble.
When Halloween rolled around for Jem and Scout, they're school was holding a sort of celebration and a pageant in which Scout would be in. Scout recieved thirty cents to do whatever she wanted with. When she had spent it all, it was time for the pageant. She fell asleep though, and almost missed her turn. But she still got on stage and did a job good enough for her to feel proud of herself. When everything is over, she starts heading home with Jem. Suddenly Jem stops and shushes her, But they can't hear anything, so they keep walking. Jem stops them again and insists that whenever they start walking, another person does. They continue doing this, but finally, whether they're walking or not, they hear someone running right at them. Jem tells Scout to run, but she trips. Jem comes back to help her, but she hears a funny noise and Jem yells in pain. Then she feels Jem get off of her, and suddenly everything's silent. Someone starts carrying her home. She calls for Jem and Atticus, but soon realizes that her savior is neither of them. They get inside, and realize that Jem's arm had been badly broken. They learn another interesting thing. Their attacker was Bob Ewell. He had tried to stab them, but his knife is sticking out of him now. Scout describes the story to everyone, and when they ask who her savior was, she points to the man in the corner, and then realizes that her savior is Boo Radley. She walks him home, and convinces Atticus that Jem did not stab Bob Ewell, and that Bob Ewell simply fell on his knife.
The story ends there unfortunately, but the ending was extremely good, so I don't feel disappointed at all with this book. This author has immense talent and I would like to read some of their other books.