To kill a mockingbird at To kill a mockingbird

Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Harper Lee tackles the notion of prejudice in all of its forms: racial, gender, and class. Maycomb, Alabama, is a dusty, tired old town during the Depression years. One day is pretty much like the next. On their front porches, Miss Stephanie waters her faded geraniums, pauses, and dabs a lace hankie to her forehead; Miss Maudie fans herself, pauses, and takes a sip of jasmine tea. Next door eight year old Scout Finch, a precocious tomboy, her older brother and protector Jem, and their friend, Dill, a circus chasing dreamer try yet again to lure the reclusive Boo Radley from his father's house. They pause... It is on such a day that widower Atticus Finch is appointed to defend Tom Robinson. The black man is accused of beating and raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Most of the county is immediately convinced Tom is guilty. Atticus is convinced "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Innocence is lost this day. Mockingbirds don't do one thing 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. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.