To Kill A Mockingbird is a film based on Harper Lee’s best selling novel about a lawyer in a small southern town dominated by prejudice who defends a black man accused of murdering a white woman. The main race issue the film explores is how in a prejudiced and racist society a black man can be put to death merely for trying to help someone, with only circumstantial evidence and the word of disreputable white people as evidence against him. The story is also about the courage and strength it takes to fight against racism and prejudice in a town where they are reinforced by every authority figure and institution. To Kill A Mockingbird is also a coming-of-age story for the Finch children. The film is narrated by the voice of the adult Scout, a six-year-old tomboy originally named Jean Louise Finch. Scout will discover the dark secrets lying beneath the pleasant exterior of Maycomb as she endures the trial of Tom Robinson, a man who will die solely because of the color of his skin.
Atticus Finch, the father of Scout and Jem, is the only one in town brace enough to combat the hostile world of hatred and prejudice in Maycomb. As Bob Ewell, the father of the raped Mayella, tells him “I’m real sorry they picked you to defend that nigger that raped my Mayella. I don’t know why I didn’t kill him myself instead of goin’ to the sheriff. That would have save you and the sheriff and the taxpayers lots of trouble.”
Atticus teaches his children to read at a very early age and he reasons with them on serious issues as if they are adults and understand. In this way they come-of-age learning to question the blind hatred and prejudices of those they view around them in Maycomb, particularly due to the trial of Tom and because of the way Boo is misunderstood and mistreated. The title is very significant in this work because it represents racism and the sin of hatred and prejudice. Atticus
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