Nicknamed Scout, the narrator, who is six years old at the beginning of the book, lives with her older brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. One popularly given scientific reasoning behind the hoaxes is that a heavy wave of electro-magnetic/radio waves can be unleashed to do serious damage to the brain and cause death. Young views the novel as "an act of humanity" in showing the possibility of people rising above their prejudices. So, Kitty’s on a mission to rid the world of ‘bad men’ and while the plot is a bit out there and is laced with humour and sarcasm , it is born from the world women live in. David Lister in The Independent states that Lee's refusal to speak to reporters made them desire to interview her all the more, and her silence "makes Bob Dylan look like a media tart".

History is everywhere around him in the Peak District landscape - particularly in the ‘plague village’ of Eyam, where an outbreak of Black Death has been turned into a modern-day tourist attraction. I found Kitty intriguing – obviously there’s the serial killer streak – but I wanted to know about her past, there’s hints throughout that her childhood wasn’t completely plane sailing. However, in 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument to Atticus in Monroeville, marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history".Johnson cites examples of letters to local newspapers, which ranged from amusement to fury; those letters expressing the most outrage, however, complained about Mayella Ewell's attraction to Tom Robinson over the depictions of rape. Zorn, Eric (July 9, 2010), 'Mockingbird' still sings after 50 years Archived July 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, The Chicago Tribune.

One of the most significant impacts To Kill a Mockingbird has had is Atticus Finch's model of integrity for the legal profession. It was nominated for five more Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout. When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook he taught from was To Kill a Mockingbird, and an article in the Michigan Law Review claims, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession," before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun".As scholar Alice Petry explains, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person.