To Kill a Mockingbird

The novel ends with Bob Ewell attacking Scout and Jem on Halloween night, and Boo Radley saving them by killing Ewell in the struggle.

As Scout and Jem walk home in the dark, someone follows and suddenly attacks them. Jem’s arm is broken in the fight, and Scout is nearly suffocated inside her costume. In the chaos, an unseen figure intervenes, and afterward Scout realizes that the man who saved Jem and Scout is Boo Radley. When Sheriff Tate arrives, he determines that Bob Ewell is dead—stabbed during the struggle—but insists on saying Ewell fell on his knife to protect Boo from public attention and legal trouble.

Scout understands this decision. She tells Atticus that exposing Boo would be “like killing a mockingbird,” because Boo is an innocent person who only helps others. This connects back to Atticus’s earlier lesson that it’s wrong to harm those who do no harm themselves.

After Bob’s death, Scout finally meets Boo face-to-face. She takes his arm and walks him home, treating him with quiet respect. Standing on his porch, she imagines the past few years from his perspective and realizes how he had been watching over and caring about her and Jem all along.

The novel closes with Scout at home as Atticus tucks her into bed. She reflects on everything she’s learned—especially that Boo is much nicer than he seemed at first. As Atticus tells her, “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” The ending shows Scout moving from fearing and judging others to understanding them, fulfilling Atticus’s lesson about “climb[ing] into [another’s] skin” and seeing the world from their point of view.