Who saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Book cover for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, featuring a silhouette of a child under a tree and a large moon, with the title in script and — To Kill a Mockingbird This book cover is one of many given to Harper Lee's classic work *To Kill a Mockingbird* (1960). The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and the next year was made into an Academy Award-winning film.

In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Arthur ("Boo") Radley saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell.12

When Ewell attacks the children on Halloween, Boo intervenes and kills him in the process. Following the incident, the town sheriff, Heck Tate, decides to report that Ewell’s death was an accident caused by falling on his own knife to protect the reclusive Boo from unwanted public attention. Scout ultimately agrees with this decision, observing that exposing Boo to the spotlight would be like "shootin’ a mockingbird".12