To Kill a Mockingbird Book Review
“Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favorite child” –Don King. In the bildungsroman, southern gothic novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper lee, we are set in Maycomb County, a discriminating community in Alabama in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. The protagonist, Jean Louise Finch (Scout), an eight-year-old girl experiences racist neighbors, segregation, and biased courts while growing up. Scout and her brother Jem experience love and hate from different kind of people. Likewise, they learned about their neighborhood. They learned about innocence and how an innocent person shouldn’t be harmed.
The story is about Jem and Scout’s dad Atticus is a lawyer defending a black man who was accused for rape of a white girl. Jem and Scout go through insults, dirty looks, and fights about their dad being a nigger lover. They also experience unfair courts and a very surprising ending. They learn about the people of their community, how they are very racist and how they would do anything to take revenge. In the same time, this story is about Jem breaking his arm, and all the events that happened those years. Scout, Jem and their friend Dill, which would only come in summer, had many games and adventures with each other, mostly about finding Boo Radley.
Boo Radley (Arthur Radley) is a man who never comes out of his home, at first, it was part of a punishment from his father, but then he never felt like coming out because he was afraid he would be isolated and didn’t want to be part of this prejudice world. Personally, Boo is my favorite character. He was described incorrectly at the start of the book, however throughout the book we come to see his real intentions, which also shows Jem and Scout’s maturing and understanding different perspectives. He is an introvert who does not mean to harm, only to help. Boo does not come out of his home, however he tries to interact with Jem and Scout by helping them and leaving them gifts, some small gifts and some big gifts.
Another interesting character is Scout, who has demonstrated growth and maturing throughout the book. In the end, she understood true meaning of innocence and she came to see the real feelings, personality and character of the people who surround her. I can relate to Scout because growing up, she was tomboy. Trying to fit in with her two best friends, trying to go with their ideas even if she was against it, if not Jem would always tell her to stop.
This book relates to Harper Lee, because she grew up in a similar town in the South of United States where racial segregation and prejudice, in the same time period of the Great Depression. She experienced similar controversies and feelings Scout experienced. Lee grew up as a tomboy, and Scout was described similarly. Similarly, Lee’s father was a lawyer and so was Atticus.
I really enjoyed this book. This was Harper Lee’s first and only published book, but it was a perfect one. Lee did a fabulous job writing it, choosing the correct diction to give us hints and leave us in suspense. She also kept two plots going, and I enjoyed that a lot because we come to see not so important characters at the start, to have a great significance at the end. One plot has to do with Scout, her adventures and feelings, another one about the case and racial discrimination in her County. Personally, the ending left me satisfied. Scout was able to sleep well and calmly after a very hard day, which also shows peace and everything would be fine.
This book has won several prizes like the Pullitzer Prize. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read; they would not regret learning about a historic event and how people used to live back then. Also, how people were treated back then, about racial prejudice and how people would do anything to take revenge.
Tanya M 