What is the outline of To Kill a Mockingbird?

Brief Outline of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

• Scout, her brother Jem, and her father, Atticus Finch (a lawyer) are introduced.


• They live in Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression.


• Jem and Scout make friends with Dill.


• Jem, Scout, and Dill become interested in the Radley house, and especially Arthur (Boo) Radley.


• Scout begins school but doesn't like it.


• Jem and Scout find gifts left for them in the knothole of an old tree.


• The children act out stories about Boo Radley, but Atticus tells them to stop and to consider another person's point of view.


• The children sneak onto the Radley property and Mr. Radley shoots at them.


• Jem loses his pants but gets them back mended.


• Dill leaves.


• The children find more presents.


• Mr. Radley plugs the knothole with cement.


• There is a fire at a neighboring house and someone slips a blanket over Scout's shoulders as she watches.


• Jem tells Atticus about the presents and the mended pants.


• Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman.


• Other children bully Jem and Scout because their father is defending a black man.


• Calpurnia, the Finch family cook, takes the family to the local black church.


• Alexandra, Atticus's sister, comes to live with the Finches.


• Dill returns.


• A lynch mob gathers to lynch Tom Robinson.


• Atticus faces the mob down. Scout innocently convinces a man to disperse the mob.


• The trial begins. Jem and Scout sit in the "colored balcony."


• Atticus provides evidence that the defendant, Mayella Ewell, and her father are lying. He proves that the defendant propositioned Tom, and that it would have been impossible for Tom to inflict the wounds on her.


• The all-white jury convicts Tom despite the overwhelming evidence that he is innocent.


• Tom tries to escape from prison and is shot to death.


• Jem loses faith in justice.


• Bob Ewell, the defendant's father, feels he has been made a fool of during the trial and vows revenge.


• Ewell attacks Jem and Scout in the woods. Boo Radley intervenes. He stabs Ewell to death.


• Boo carries Jem home to Atticus.


• The sheriff reports that Ewell tripped and fell on his own knife to protect Boo.


• Scout realizes that Boo Radley is not a monster, but a human being.


• Scout learns to be sympathetic and understanding towards others.