"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."
Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression,To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.
Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes fromDracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking,To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often.--Alix Wilber
A classroom favorite Out of all the books that I've taught to 10th graders, this is by far the most popular. More discussion comes from Mockingbird than any other I've required students to read. It's amazing to me that this was Lee's first and apparently last work. How many Pulitzer-winning authors can claim they only wrote one book? And then to have it win such acclaim! There must be good reason why it is still ranked in the Top 1000, an amazing fact when you consider how many books have been written. I just wonder how many new books today in the Top 10 will be virtually unknown five years from now. To Kill a Mockingbird deals with a number of individual and social issues. No doubt the most sensitive issue is racism. I read a newspaper article this past summer where some big-shot scholar is claiming that Mockingbird is actually racist and should be read/taught with politically correct glasses. Give me a break! Lee was way ahead of her time and dealt with reality in a quite appropriate manner. The story line is crisp and never bogs down. It will make you think, and I believe it will create an urge in you to dialogue with others about vital contemporary issues of our day.
It's creepy and it's kooky, mysterious and spooky *I loved Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird." It starts as a flashback, as told through the eyes a sweet girl nicknamed "Scout." *Through most of the story, it seems like the book is going to be based on the life of the creepy neighbor that Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill try to get out of seclusion. The mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley, seems to be the focus of the story early on, but later, a new topic shows the point. *The ideal father, Atticus, seems to be the only man in Maycomb County willing to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. This is very important because the story takes place in the deep South during the Depression. The trial helps the kids (especially Jem) realize that even the town they've lived in all their life, is not as it seems. *My favorite quotes come from Sheriff Heck Tate and Scout, the two quotes are unrelated, and won't make sense until the whole story has been read. Tate says, "...there's just some kind of men you have to shoot before you can say hidy to 'em. Even then they ain't worth the bullet it takes to shoot 'em." Scout says, "Mr. Tate was right...it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" The quotes alone are enough to read the book, and I know that once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down; I know I couldn't.To Kill a Mockingbird Only growing up in the south would enable Harper Lee to capture the vicious sweetness that pervails there. Not only to capture it but then be able to transfer that on to the reader. You can smell the sweetness of the talcum through the sticky of the hot summer days. Sickly sweet. The church group women are vicious in their sweetness. Ardently praying for the savages in Africa while embracing the savage mores of the south. And in the midst of all of this she tells one of the greatest coming of age stories ever written. Fabulous. One I read every summer.
