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To Kill a Mockingbird: Literary Analysis Essay Example

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To Kill a Mockingbird: Literary Analysis Essay Example
To Kill a Mockingbird: Literary Analysis Elizabeth Capron
By Harper Lee Period 2

The Plot
The novel starts out in the Alabama town of Maycomb, where Scout, Jem and their widowed father, lawyer Atticus Finch, lived during the Great Depression. During one of their summers, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill who came to live in their neighborhood for the summer. While playing, Jem and Scout tell Dill of the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place. Nathan Radley owns the house, and his brother Arthur (known as "Boo") lives there also. Boo becomes a person of legend to the children as he has stayed inside the house for years without ever been seen coming out. After their summer had ended, Scout goes to school for the first time. At the end of the day she concludes that she hates school, in that her teacher explained that she was taught incorrectly how to read by her father and that she cannot read anymore. On their way home from school, Jem and Scout discover gifts left for them in the knothole of a tree on the Radley property. Dill returns the next summer, and they begin to play pretend games that enact the story of Boo Radley. Atticus learns of this new game, and puts a stop to it, saying that they need to see it from Boo's perspective before judging him. But towards the end of summer, the three trespass on the Radley property and are shot at by Nathan Radley. In their hustle to escape, Jem loses his pants while scrambling underneath a wire fence. When he goes back to retrieve it, the pants are found mended and folded over the fence. During the next school year Jem and Scout find more presents in the tree, and suspect that Boo might be the person giving it to them. But later, Nathan Radley seals the knothole with cement. Shortly afterwards, a fire breaks out in the neighborhood, and while the children watch their neighbor's house burn,

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