To Kill a Mockingbird

Original Title

The Exploits of Charles Baker Harris

Summary

The story begins with an introduction of Maycomb, a Southern Alabama town in the grips of the Great Depression. The narrator, Scout Finch, explains the origins of her family in Maycomb and the beginning of her and her brother Jem's childhood obsession with the enigmatic Boo Radley in the summer of 1933, an obsession heightened by the arrival of Dill Harris, an eccentric visitor from Meridian who is befriended by the children after they find him in Mrs. Rachael's collard patch. Dill, upon hearing Jem's grotesque description of Boo is enthralled by the tale and immediately makes a point of making Boo Radley come out. After days of speculation and careful espionage, the children's curiosity culminates when Dill dares Jem to touch the Radley place, and so begins a profound story of self discovery.