Exposition in To Kill a Mockingbird

Plot Sequence

Exposition:To Kill a Mockingbird starts off with narrator telling the reader about the setting. We learn that the narrator is Jeanne Louise “Scout” Finch, and the story takes place in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama around the 1930’s. In the first couple of chapters the reader is introduced to Atticus Finch, Jeremy “Jem” Finch, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, Charles Baker Harris “Dill”, Tom Robinson, Bob Ewell and Boo Radley. The story mainly follows the lives of Scout, Jem and Atticus Finch in Maycomb and in the beginning of the story one of the emerging conflicts in the story is Scout and Jem becoming older and facing the realities and challenges of adult life.

• Scout and Jem meet Dill and tell him about the story of Boo Radley, and how he never comes out of his house. They tell him there is a myth that says that Boo is forced to stay inside because he supposedly stabbed his father with a pair of scissors when he was a boy.
• The children soon become very interested in Boo Radley and the different stories about him
• School started in the fall and soon after that when Scout and Jem walk home from school they find gifts in an old oak tree in front of the Radley place. The kids decide to keep these items that they believe are from Boo Radley. By the end of the year they collect bubble gum, Indian head coins and soap carvings of Jem and Scout.
• Atticus is confronted with the trial that will change his life. He was asked to defend Tom Robinson, a black man that was accused of rape.
• In the next summer when Dill comes back to Maycomb the kids get into more mischief surrounding Boo Radley. They decide to sneak onto the Radley lot in hopes to sneak a glance at Boo inside. But, Mr. Nathan Radley hears the noise and shoots a gun to scare whatever it was away. Jem's pants get caught in the fence when they were running away and he has to leave them behind. When Jem went back to get his pants he found them folded and the cut was stitched up on the fence.
• The trial began next summer and Atticus presented a case that clearly showed that Tom Robinson was innocent. But since the story takes place during a time of racism, a white man’s word was always taken over a black mans. So the jury believed Bob Ewell instead of Tom Robinson and Tom was found guilty.
• Bob Ewell is angry at everyone who helped Tom Robinson in the case and swears revenge on Atticus.
• When Tom Robinson was being transferred to prison he tried to escape but was shot seventeen times and died.

Climax: The high point of To Kill a Mockingbird is when Scout and Jem are walking home from the Halloween pageant and Bob Ewell attacks them. Then Boo Radley comes out of his house to save the children from their attacker.

Falling Action:

• Bob Ewell is stabbed to death by Boo Radley.
• Jem broke his arm while trying to fend off Bob Ewell.
• Sherriff Heck Tate comes over and tells Atticus that they will say Bob Ewell fell on his own knife. Even though they knew Boo killed him they are protecting Boo from all the publicity.
• Scout finally meets Boo Radley and gets to talk to him.

Resolution: Scout walks Boo home and finds herself standing on Boo Radley's porch. She finally realizes what Atticus meant by saying you never know someone until you put yourself in their shows. And on the porch Scout say the world from Boo's perspective and realizes that choses to stay inside and is normal. She then knows that the way she treated Boo by playing games about him was wrong.

You can find this storyboard in the following articles and resources:

Plot Diagram and Narrative Arc

By Katherine Docimo and Kristy Littlehale

Narrative arcs and the prototypical “Plot Diagram” are essential for building literary comprehension and appreciation. Plot diagrams allow students to pick out major themes in the text, trace changes to major characters over the course of the narrative, and hone their analytic skills.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Lesson Plans by Rebecca Ray

This classic story has touched generations since it was written in the late 1950s. Set during the Great Depression in Maycomb, Alabama, the story centers around the Finch family. Atticus, the father and a prominent lawyer, takes a case defending an innocent black man. Although Atticus proves his client is innocent, the all-white jury still convicts the defendant.

3 Tips to Help Struggling Students

By Emily Swartz

Often, struggling students just need a push in the right direction. One way to help students is to create the assigned storyboard - whether that be a plot diagram, vocabulary chart, or timeline - and pass it along to students’ Storyboard That accounts as a template.

Storyboard Description

To Kill a Mockingbird plot diagram - To Kill a Mockingbird summary comic strip

Storyboard Text

• EXPOSITION
• POLICE
• CONFLICT
• RISING ACTION
• The Finch family lives in Maycomb, Alabama. Although it is the 1930s, a time of depression, the family is not struggling. Atticus, the father, is a prominent lawyer. The narrator explains that it is a time of racism and prejudice.
• CLIMAX
• Guilty!
• A young black man is accused of raping a white woman, and Atticus is asked to defend him. This is not easy; Atticus must overcome the prejudice and preconceptions people of Maycomb have against Tom Robinson.
• FALLING ACTION
• Atticus’ children, Scout and Jem, become a center of attention because their father is representing a black man. Throughout the trial, the children go through tribulations of their own as they learn valuable lessons about justice, commitment, and what is right.
• RESOLUTION
• Tom is found guilty, and Atticus’s innocent children cannot believe that the people they knew could send an innocent man to the electric chair.
• One man in particular, Bob Ewell, has made his disapproval of Atticus well known. During the move, he threatened both Atticus, and Tom’s wife, Helen. The children fear he will do something to hurt their father.
• In the end, Ewell goes after Scout and Jem, instead of Atticus. In the process, their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley, comes to the children's rescue. He grabs Ewell's knife and kills him.

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