Blue Archipelago

To Kill a Mockingbird - Buy this book

Rating

5 stars - everyone needs to read this book

Description - from Amazon

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.

Why did you choose to read this book?

A week or so back Jill wrote about saving books from hypothetical fires and aside from The Book Thief I hadn’t read any of the books on the list - around the same time Sarah posted about To Kill a Mockingbird being her favourite book ever - and then I found it on the shelf in ASDA - seemed like fate to me so I popped it in the basket!

A review of the book

This book - told through the eyes of young Scout - the daughter of Atticus - was a revelation to me - I can’t quite believe I’ve never read it before now.

Harper Lee has a great writing style - she covers difficult issues with a rare kind of humour and irony that make the novel a joy to read. The issues covered in this short novel are wide ranging, from rape and racism, to courage and compassion, gender roles, the unwritten rules we all live by and the death of innocence.

If you’ve not read this book before you need to do so - order a copy from Amazon or pick it up at your local store - but put it on your reading list today!

Book exploration - SPOILER ALERT

I can’t read a novel of this type and not explore the themes in more detail - but it will require spoilers - so if you plan to read the novel you should come back to this bit once you have.

Did the plot pull you in; or did you feel you had to force yourself to read the book?

I have to admit I thought this book would be staid and heavy and a really tough read - I was pleasantly surprised though - it was an enjoyable read and I found myself not wanting to put it down. Lee does a great job of tying together all of the different themes and events.

Share a quote from the book

Several quotes stood out as I went through the book - here are just a few:

“…you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.”

Atticus encourages Scout to walk in another’s shoes in order to understand their viewpoint; this advice helps her empathise with those around her and become more compassionate. At the end of the book she stands on Boo Radley’s front steps and considers the events from the last three years from his point of view - from his viewpoint near that porch - and understands things that she hadn’t realised before.

“I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that’s what they seemed like…”

Jem is so sure that the jury will find Tom Robinson innocent that when he is convicted he loses faith in the folks of Maycomb - he cannot understand why a man so obviously innocent can be convicted by people who always seemed to pride themselves on living in a “decent” society. As I read the description of the trial - and the lengths Attics went to to establish Tom’s innocence I wanted the jury to do right by him - just as Jem did - and even though I knew the timeframe for the novel I was still shocked and appalled when they found him guilty. It was easy to empathise with Jem and I think the trial prompted the end of Jem’s childhood as it rocked his innocent view of the world up to that point.

“Equal rights for all, special privileges for none!”

During the trial it struck me that this was 1935 and that at around this time Hitler and the Nazi party had begun the persecution of the Jews - and soon enough it was mentioned by Lee. The scene in the class room where the students and teachers discuss the difference between America and Germany - America is a democracy and Germany a dictatorship. Cecil suggests that “there ain’t no cause to persecute ‘em. [the Jews] - They’re white, ain’t they?”. The irony here is so strong, it’s wrong to persecute people based on their religion - but acceptable to do the very same thing because of the colour of someone’s skin.

“Shoot all the bluejays you want if you can hit ‘em, but remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

Atticus’ instruction to the children as they go off to practice with their shotguns rings true during the course of the novel - Tom Robinson, a mockingbird if ever there was one - was shot down by the jury in favour for the bluejays. At the end of the novel Heck attempts to right this wrong by protecting Boo Radley when he defends the children against Mr Ewell.

I could go on and on with this - there are so many themes and ideas and things to consider - while I am happy that I have finally read this book - and thankful to Sarah for sharing her thoughts and encouraging me to read it - I actually feel saddened that I wasn’t given the opportunity to study it during my school years.

Have you reviewed this book?

If you have reviewed this book on your site please fill in the boxes below to link me up to your review - don’t forget to link to the specific post to make it easy to find:

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