Mockingbird Summary

As the scene continues, the adult Jean-Louise - in voice-over - praises her father:

There just didn't seem to be anyone or anything Atticus couldn't explain. Though it wasn't a talent that would arouse the admiration of any of our friends, Jem and I had to admit he was very good at that, but that was all he was good at, we thought.

In the next memorable sequence, Atticus proves his Lincoln-esque stature to his children. Although Scout is disbelieving and yells out "He can't shoot" when Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) hands his rifle to her father, Atticus takes aim with a rifle at a rabid dog moving erratically down the street outside their home. He raises up his glasses a few times on his forehead to see better, and then removes them altogether by dropping them on the street. Jem and Scout are both dumbfounded and stunned when the rifle cracks and the dog flops over dead. The Sheriff tells Jem about the hidden abilities of his modest father who hasn't shot a gun in twenty years: "Didn't you know your daddy's the best shot in this county?"

That night, Jem and Scout join their father as he rides into the country to compassionately talk to his client's family - twenty-nine year-old Helen Robinson (Kim Hamilton), the wife of the man he is defending. While Atticus is in the Robinson house, an unshaven and drunken Bob Ewell staggers toward the car, holds onto it to steady himself, and stares at the two children. Atticus appears and after they face off, Ewell hatefully snarls at him: "You nigger lover." Jem's understanding of the world is altered and he needs reassurance: "No need to be afraid of him, son. He's all bluff." As they drive away, the camera takes Jem's point-of-view as he watches the prejudiced, gesturing and threatening figure standing in the middle of the road. When they return