TKAM Elements Flashcards
Setting
Maycomb, Alabama; Great Depression/1933 (1930s)
Characters
Scout, Jem, Atticus, Auntie Alexandra, Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, Miss Caroline Fisher, Tom Robinson, Dill, Mrs. Dubose, Judge Taylor, Heck Tate, Dolphus Raymond, Mayella, Bob Ewell
Protagonist
Scout Finch
Antagonist
Racism in the Southern United States, exemplified by Bob Ewell, Miss Gates, etc.
Conflict
Scout Finch, an innocent young girl, is exposed to the evils of racism in the South during the Great Depression, causing her to be involved in serious, mature situations dealing with the sheer harshness of racism, like Tom Robinson, and her loss of innocence.
Climax
The jury reaches the guilty verdict of the Tom Robinson trial, rendering Atticus’s attempts to reach racial equality useless.
Protagonist cannot accept:
The evils and ambiguity surrounding different people in the South, caused by racism and generalizations.
Resolution
Tom Robinson dies when attempting to escape prison, and is shot. Bob Ewell tries to attack Jem and Scout on the way home from a pageant, but Ewell is foiled by Boo Radley, who Atticus does not want to acknowledge as the murderer of Ewell. Scout realizes the meaning of “stepping in somebody else’s shoes.”
Theme statement
When a young southern girl experiences racism and prejudice in her own local community, she realizes that people are not always who they seem to be.
Theme (3 examples)
Appearance vs. Reality
- Dolphus Raymond tricks others into thinking that he is a drunkard, but he is hiding the fact that he loves a black woman.
- Boo Radley is said to be a monster-like for most of the novel, but instead, his humanity is shown in saving Scout and Jem.
- Bob Ewell tries to convince the people of Maycomb that he is a normal father who loves his children, when he actually beats his own daughter.
