Briefly, the story of To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, for the rape and assault of a white woman in a rural Alabama community in the 1930s. Told from the point of view of Scout, the daughter of Tom's lawyer Atticus Finch, much of the racial prejudice inherent in early 20th-century southern society is revealed through the course of Scout's adolescent experiences in the town during the trial.
The book, written by Harper Lee, was first published in 1960 to critical acclaim, and it was made into a movie only two years later, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus. When asking some of the previous questions, we can discern some of the important similarities and differences between the two versions of the story.
Fortunately, the plot of both is largely the same. Atticus reluctantly agrees to defend Tom at the behest of his friend, a local judge. As a result, a series of incidents occur before, during, and after the trial that portray the ugly side of the quaint rural town.
For example, at one point Atticus goes down to the local jail to stop a white mob from lynching Tom, who is awaiting trial. This incident, and several others, occur in both versions. Both the film and the book also show the evidence in the trial clearly pointing to his innocence. In both, he is still found guilty by an all-white jury and is shot and killed shortly after the trial ends. While some scenes are left out of the movie, likely for the sake of time, most of the events important to the overall plot are included.
But while the general plot is the same between the book and the film, the perspective is not. The book is told from the point of view of Scout. Furthermore, she is the main character, and the book revolves around how she experienced various events. Though the movie begins with Scout's voice narrating, most of the movie quickly centers around the actions of Atticus. While he is an important character in the book, he's not nearly as prominent as he is in the film version.
Gregory Peck, was an enormous movie star in the 1960s and Harper Lee approved of the casting. Nonetheless, it alters the story significantly, as the trial and the defense of Tom Robinson takes center stage—and not, as in the book, the everyday experiences of Scout. In part due to this decision, the movie highlights even more the racial prejudices of the South in the 1930s, even if doing so in a less nuanced fashion.
In addition, the largest change in the movie is the role played by the Finch's black housekeeper, Calpurnia. Calpurnia is an important part of the book. She accompanies Scout to the trial where they sit in the balcony reserved for blacks, and she plays a key role in Scout's early understanding of the racial tension in the community.
Symbolically, her presence in the book—the black housekeeper of the only white man in town willing to defend a black man—highlights the practical contradictions present in Scout's own household. It questions Atticus' own views on race, which are never fully expressed. Is he friendly with blacks? Does he believe in full equality? Or, does he secretly hold racist views but is representing Tom Robinson as a favor to a friend or out of a sense of duty to the right of law? In the movie his progressive ideology is made apparent, whereas in the book, it is not nearly so clear.
Even though Calpurnia's character is much-diminished in the film compared to the book, she is still in a few important scenes. For example, she is the one who calls Atticus at his office and asks him to come home because a rabid dog is approaching their house, and he proceeds to shock his children by being a perfect shot with a rifle. In another important scene, when one of Scout's schoolmates is having dinner with them and Scout laughs at the little boy when he pours a ton of gravy on his meat, Calpurnia serves as the disciplinarian explaining to Scout that a guest of their house, whether poor or wealthy, is still a guest and she needs to learn to respect this. Yet this lesser role in the movie version helps to remove the contradictions and questions and serves to further Atticus Finch's (as in Gregory Peck's) image as the white knight in shining armor. It simplifies (and ignores) an important facet of a key character, and this is perhaps the movie's largest failing when compared to the original form.
