Goodreads | To Kill a Mockingbird (Hardcover) by Harper Lee

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Denise rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

01/25/08

bookshelves: bookgroup, books-i-love-so-much-i-bought, classics, made-into-movie

Read in December, 2004

recommended to Denise by: Bookgroup
recommends it for: Everyone

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I looked up Harper Lee online this is her only published book. However, she did write a few articles that one can find and read online:
Love in other Words - Vogue
Christmas to me - McCalls
When Children Discover America
Romance and High Adventure

Her full name is Nellie Harper Lee - I bet she dropped the Nellie part so publishers would mistakenly think she was a man and read her material. She is also still alive and living in Monroeville, Alabama. And once you read about her and her fami...more

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gieb rated it:

(review of isbn 9793269400)

08/22/08

Read in August, 2008

kalau hanya ada satu jenis manusia, mengapa mereka tidak bisa rukun? kalau mereka semua sama, mengapa mereka merepotkan diri untuk saling membenci (hal 431)

kutipan di atas berhasil mengingatkan saya, bahwa beda itu perkara besar pada zaman kita. bahkan, kondisi hari ini, beda tak lagi dilihat dari luar, dari kulit tubuh dan pakaian, tapi dari dalam, dari iman.

ketakutan mbah harper lee ini sekarang lebih merajalela. hari ini, dengan mudah darah muncrat dari seorang manusi...more

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Hasna Diana rated it:

(review of isbn 9793269400)

11/26/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in November, 2008

Buku ini akan menjadi buku fave-ku sepanjang masa.. TOP BGT! Serasa sudah lama banget ga ketemu buku yang bagus, tapi baca buku ini, mengobati rasa kehilangan itu.. alhamdulillah..

Membaca halaman awal buku cerita setebal 533 halaman ini, benar-benar sebuah upaya yang tidak ringan. Tidak terlalu paham apa yang dimaksud penulisnya, tapi biarlah, tetap saja dibaca halaman demi halamannya, mungkin nanti juga akan mengerti.

Cerita ini dikisahkan dari sudut pandang Scout, seorang gadis tomboy b...more

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nanto rated it:

(review of isbn 9793269400)

08/24/08

bookshelves: history-and-sociology, nant-s-book, novel

Read in August, 2008

Alurnya masih terasa lambat. Sepertinya memang begitu seharusnya untuk menggambarkan ketegasan Aticus yang berpesan kepada anaknya tentang usaha melawan rasialisme dengan pemikirannya. Ia tetap menghormati pendapat mayoritas yang berbeda dengan dirinya, yang utama buat Aticus adalah, "sebelum aku mampu hidup bersama orang lain, aku harus hidup dengan diriku sendiri. Satu hal yang tidak bisa tunduk pada mayoritas adalah nurani seseorang(hal. 206)."

Perlawanan atas rasialisme y...more

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Jennifer Brown rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

12/07/07

bookshelves: american-literature, books-i-ve-named-pets-after, classics, fiction, own

Read in March, 2005

Notes from an academic discussion about the book:

Each time I read this book, a different “universal truth” jumps out at me. When I was younger, I pondered the themes of prejudice, kindness, and dignity that run through the book, but now that I’m considerably older, what stuck out to me this time were the themes of innocence, and loss of innocence running through the whole book.

This reading I was particularly caught by the child-like perspective that the book gives each of the event...more Notes from an academic discussion about the book:

Each time I read this book, a different “universal truth” jumps out at me. When I was younger, I pondered the themes of prejudice, kindness, and dignity that run through the book, but now that I’m considerably older, what stuck out to me this time were the themes of innocence, and loss of innocence running through the whole book.

This reading I was particularly caught by the child-like perspective that the book gives each of the events. From the kids all thinking anything that touches the Radley property is poisoned, to Scout’s minimal understanding of the words used in the trial, but her complete understanding of the concepts. Likewise, with the exception of the trial, throughout the book innocence trumps experience. A particular example was when Scout first finds the goodies in the Radley tree. She finds the gum, ponders its origins, and decides that she’d like chewing the gum better than being all grown up about it. Jem, who always represents a more mature (but not much more until near the end) perspective, and he makes her spit it out when he finds out where she got it from. In the end though, Scout’s innocence let her get a good chew out of a wad of gum.

I think the fact that the book takes place over three years helps show the contrast between the innocent time at the beginning of the book, when Scout was six, and Dill, Jem and she played as relative equals, to Scout’s first day of school where Jem begins to brush her off as the “little sister.” By the end of the book, when Scout is nine, she may be physically older, but it seems that she is even more sheltered by Jem, who thinks the concept of the trial may be too grown up for her. He moves through the story from her equal to her protector, which only helps to keep Scout innocent through the book.

In the end though, the book really proves that there is something magical and golden about innocence. There is a purity and truth in innocence—whether it’s a dignified response to an unfair world, or simply an acceptance of things even if they are strange and different.

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Núria rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

09/23/07

bookshelves: 2007, 4-muy-buenos, literatura-en-ingles, mios, siglo-xx

Read in August, 2007

No sé por qué, yo siempre me había imaginado que 'Matar a un ruiseñor' estaría todo más centrado en Atticus Finch y lo noble y buen abogado que es, todo muy judicial, así que me he llevado una grata sorpresa al ver que todo estaba narrado desde el punto de vista de una niña que va creciendo y las historias de niñas, no niños, que crecen son mi debilidad. Así que podemos ver toda la hipocresía y las injusticias de la sociedad a través de sus ojos. La protagonista es Scout y tiene un ...more No sé por qué, yo siempre me había imaginado que 'Matar a un ruiseñor' estaría todo más centrado en Atticus Finch y lo noble y buen abogado que es, todo muy judicial, así que me he llevado una grata sorpresa al ver que todo estaba narrado desde el punto de vista de una niña que va creciendo y las historias de niñas, no niños, que crecen son mi debilidad. Así que podemos ver toda la hipocresía y las injusticias de la sociedad a través de sus ojos. La protagonista es Scout y tiene un hermano que se llama Jem; los dos se han criado en un ambiente liberal, en que les han enseñado a pensar por si mismos y a intentar ser justos con todo el mundo. Por eso cuando descubren que en realidad la sociedad no siempre se rige por los mismos principios que les han enseñado en casa (básicamente que la justicia no se pone siempre de parte de quien se la merece), la decepción y el golpe que se llevan es considerable, sobre todo para Jem. Quizás no lo sea tanto para Scoutt porque las niñas ya estaban acostumbradas a que no se las tratara con justicia respecto a los chicos.

Atticus es el padre de Scout y Jem. Y realmente está hecho del material que están hechos los literary crushes. Es noble, tranquilo, pacífico y valiente, lucha por lo que cree aunque sepa de antemano que va a perder, no le gusta salir por ahí y se queda en casa leyendo, lleva gafas y va notando que se hace mayor. Scoutt es una niña algo muchachote. Por eso consideran que es una niña rebelde, porque hace las mismas cosas y juega a los mismos juegos que se ven naturales en los chicos. Cuando aún es pequeña aún le permiten comportarse como un muchachote, pero a medida que va creciendo incluso ella se va dando cuenta que tendrá que dejar atrás todo esto para ser una dama y comportarse correctamente. Pero aún siendo una dama puede conservar su personalidad y no convertirse en una chismosa superficial más, como ha conseguido hacer la señorita Maudie, su vecina, que es casi como una figura materna para los dos hermanos. La señorita Maudie es un personaje que me ha fascinado, porque es una mujer que, aunque aparentemente ha aceptado las normas, sigue siendo ella misma, sigue teniendo su carácter y no mordiéndose nunca la lengua.

Me han encantado todos los pasajes referentes a la casa donde vive encerrado Boo Radley, porque en cualquier infancia ha habido una casa que decíamos que estaba encantada y que nos daba miedo, pero a la vez suponía una tentación irresistible para ir a investigar y a explorar. Y también me ha encantado el detalle de que en la escuela regañen a Scoutt porque ya sabe leer, porque se considera que sólo la escuela tiene derecho a dar una educación uniformizada para convertir a los niños en cabezudos que piensen todos igual, mientras que todo el conocimiento que viene de fuera es rechazado, porque es como peligroso.

Y el final me ha parecido magnífico. Es una novela redonda, porque al final se recupera una anécdota que se había mencionado justo en la primera página y de la que yo ya me había olvidado. Me gusta como Scout se hace mayor. Me gusta que el libro nos diga que nos hacemos mayores cuando ya no miramos tanto al futuro con ilusión sino al pasado con nostalgia; cuando nos damos cuenta que ya hemos aprendido lo esencial, que ya no aprenderemos nada más realmente importante, porque las bases de nuestra personalidad ya están cimentadas; cuando entendemos que ya no tenemos que tener miedo de fantasías que nosotros mismos nos hemos inventado; cuando somos capaces de ponernos en el lugar de otra persona, porque al fin y al cabo esto es lo principal que les ha enseñado Atticus a sus hijos: a ser capaces de ponerse en el lugar de los otros y entenderlos. Es por todo esto que es una novela tan valiosa. Y preciosa. Y acabas queriendo tanto a los personajes que cuando se termina te da pena tener que despedirte de ellos.
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Mona rated it:

(review of isbn 0446310786)

07/25/07

bookshelves: favorites, law, literature

Read in July, 2007

I read this book a long time ago, when I was ten years old. I remembered nothing from it except thinking it was really, really good. And here I am, thirteen years later. I picked it up again because I was curious about what my reaction would be to it now.

The book follows three years in the life of Scout Finch, her brother Jem, their father Atticus, and their fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the era of the Great Depression. The first half of the novel focuses mainly on Scout and Jem's c...more

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Roos rated it:

(review of isbn 9793269400)

08/13/08

bookshelves: furious

Read in August, 2008

Dah selesai...bentar baru nulis reviewna nih...hehehehe.
Duh mau nulis apa yah...bukunya Bagus banget ternyata...

"Kau tidak akan pernah bisa memahami seseorang hingga kau melihat segala sesuatu dari sudut pandangnya...hingga kau menyusup ke balik kulitnya dan menjalani hidup dengan caranya." Harper Lee.

Quotation ini sebenarnya sudah lama diajarkan sama orangtuaku, jika kita terlalu sempit dalam menanggapi suatu permasalahan. Terutama saat kita mengeluarkan koment...more Dah selesai...bentar baru nulis reviewna nih...hehehehe.
Duh mau nulis apa yah...bukunya Bagus banget ternyata...

"Kau tidak akan pernah bisa memahami seseorang hingga kau melihat segala sesuatu dari sudut pandangnya...hingga kau menyusup ke balik kulitnya dan menjalani hidup dengan caranya." Harper Lee.

Quotation ini sebenarnya sudah lama diajarkan sama orangtuaku, jika kita terlalu sempit dalam menanggapi suatu permasalahan. Terutama saat kita mengeluarkan komentar mengenai tindakan atau perilaku seseorang yang kita anggap tidak atau kurang baik, pasti keluar pertanyaan: Bagaimana kalo kamu diposisi mereka? Apa yang kamu lakukan?...Wakkkssss.

Ini pertanyaan yang tidak mudah dijawab...Persis apa yang dikatakan Atticus kepada Jem dan Scout, ketika mereka selalu menanyakan tindak-tanduk orang-orang yang tinggal di Maycomb County. Dengan latar belakang Kehidupan warganya yang beragam kita jadi bisa memahami apa yang dilihat Scout melalui mata pemahaman seorang anak terhadap orang dewasa disekitarnya. Dan bahwa manusia itu tidak selalu yang kita sangka, kadang mereka bertingkah aneh dan diluar nalar karena mereka memang menginginkan seperti itu. Contoh saja nih Mr.Dolphus Raymond yang selalu membawa botol dibungkus kertas coklat dan cara minum seperti orang setengah mabok...anak-anak pikir dia minum wisky atau minuman beralkohol lain dan pantas untuk dijauhi, tapi ternyata botol itu selalu berisi Coca Cola. Anehnya, dia lebih suka orang berprasangka terhadap dirinya sebagai orang yang mabok. Disini Faktor MANUSIA-lah yang membedakan satu dengan yang lain. Selain mengajarkan mengenai kedewasaan melalui keterbukaan dan kasih sayang, To Kill a Mocking Bird juga mengajarkan bagaimana menjadi Wanita Terhormat...*halah*. Dibagian ini aku agak geli...

Beruntung juga Jem dan Scout mempunyai ayah seperti Atticus meski membesarkan dua anak seorang diri dia cukup mampu menjadi ayah dan ibu sekaligus. Dan Jem maupun Scout pun bukan tipe anak pembangkang, tapi anak-anak pintar yang suka menanyakan apa yang mereka pikirkan.

Buku yang bagus dan Wajib untuk dibaca...
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Amang "Po" rated it:

(review of isbn 9793269400)

08/29/08

bookshelves: goodreads-indonesia, indonesian, world-literature

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Amang "Po" by: Goodreads Indonesia
recommends it for: Goodreaders Indonesia

Tahun 1930-an. Suatu periode yang disebut Great Depression, ketika Perang Dunia I menyedot uang begitu banyak hingga akhirnya ekonomi dunia ambruk. Amerika, negara yang kuat saja akhirnya ikutan mengalami zaman susah. Sesusah kisah hidup petani Cunningham yang diceritakan dalam buku ini, sampai-sampai si Walter Cunningham --teman sekelas Scout di kelas 1-- bersekolah tanpa sepatu dan cuma punya satu baju bersih. Atau dalam film-film Charlie Chaplin, digambarkan saking susahnya sampai-sampai Char...more

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Ashley rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

11/07/08

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”(p. 20)

I love this book and this idea of reading being like breathing. As Scout did, I read early too, and often. Every night before bed I would read and still do. I saw a Twilight Zone Episode once where the main character loved to read and only wanted to be left alone to do so. After falling asleep in the vault of the bank where he worked, he awoke to a post-disaster world where only he was left. ...more “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”(p. 20)

I love this book and this idea of reading being like breathing. As Scout did, I read early too, and often. Every night before bed I would read and still do. I saw a Twilight Zone Episode once where the main character loved to read and only wanted to be left alone to do so. After falling asleep in the vault of the bank where he worked, he awoke to a post-disaster world where only he was left. He busily gathered together all the books he wanted to read, all organized and stacked up. Just as he chose one to start with, his glasses fell and he stepped on them trying to find them. It was terrible and I remember feeling horrified that this man would never get to read again! Such a thought had never occurred to me. This semester I had to get glasses myself after suffering migraines from reading. I was so nervous at the eye doctor because the thought of not being able to read was too much for me. Of course, I only needed readers, but when I ran across this quote, I thought about how much like breathing reading is for me.

“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (p. 87)

Never say die! Fight the good fight no matter what! I love the anti-defeatist message in this quote. Even though Atticus knows the deck is stacked against him, he tries anyway. He understands that sometimes you have to fight the un-winnable fight just for the chance that you might win. It makes me think that what he’s trying to teach his children is never to give up just because things look dim.

“...before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.” (p. 120)

As Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.” That’s really all that matters. At the end of the day, when you lay down, you have to know that you did the right things, acted the right way and stayed true to yourself. Again, Atticus understands that the town is talking; he has to explain to his kids why he continues against the tide of popular thought. He sums it up so well here.

“We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.”(p. 320)

I love the sad way this quote sounds. It is clearly the thoughts of a child, for hadn’t Scout just given Boo his dignity as they were walking home? Hadn’t she and Jem given him children to care for and watch over? But she knows too, even from her child’s perspective, that they could never give him anything close to what he had given them—their lives. It just sounds so beautifully sad.
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Razzberry rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

06/05/07

Read in May, 1982

A beautiful, if painful, coming-of-age story. Set in fictional small town in Alabama, the story talks about life in Depression-hit America. It starts out with an affectionate description of the sleepy southern county. Scout and her brother Jem are raised by their widowed father Atticus and their housekeeper, Calpurnia. Their summers are consumed by grand plans to lure the recluse Arthur “Boo” Radley out of his spooky home. The ladies meet for missionary teas and “bathed before noon, after ...more

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Deanna rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

01/06/08

Read in January, 1982

recommends it for: Anyone, period

Mrs. Pat Brunner, my 8th grade English teacher, first taught me this book. Mrs. Brunner was a very special teacher to have, passionate and sweet and charming and knowledgeable (hey, Mrs. B!). So when I saw how excited she was about this book - she clearly and unabashedly showed us that she was over the moon about it - I was all-in. (And by the way, that was a very dangerous position for her to be in with a junior high English class - one wrong move and we all would have written her off as a c...more Mrs. Pat Brunner, my 8th grade English teacher, first taught me this book. Mrs. Brunner was a very special teacher to have, passionate and sweet and charming and knowledgeable (hey, Mrs. B!). So when I saw how excited she was about this book - she clearly and unabashedly showed us that she was over the moon about it - I was all-in. (And by the way, that was a very dangerous position for her to be in with a junior high English class - one wrong move and we all would have written her off as a crazy adult we couldn't relate to no matter what.)

The detail of Lee's descriptions is captivating - right off the bat. "Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o'clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum." I felt like I lived there in Maycomb County with Scout and her family. Mrs. Brunner was positively radiant as she read this passage aloud to us, as her first example of Harper Lee's beautiful writing style. You can see further evidence of Lee's detailed approach to writing simply by reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, which Lee helped him research and to which she contributed a great deal of material (without much credit from Capote - check out Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields).

Harper Lee's ability to weave deep-seated morality lessons into a highly enjoyable story is another reason I love this book. She never seems preachy, and her meanings are close enough to the surface to be accessible to every reader, but her widespread symbolism and allegories do not interrupt the flow of Scout's childish (okay, so she's a very intelligent child) narration of seemingly simple events.

The biggest reason, however, that I continue to go back to this book to stay in touch with Atticus Finch. What a noble man - loving and disciplined father and teacher, stalwart member of his community, and the one person the judge knew he could count on to fairly represent Tom Robinson. We could all do much worse than to strive to emulate Atticus in our own lives.

Finally, I agree heartily that the film version is remarkably brilliant and really managed to capture the essence of this incredible book....less

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Dacia rated it:

(review of isbn 0446310786)

04/08/08

bookshelves: audiobook, childrensnovels, kid-stuff, notsooldclassics, thoughtplay, veryemotional

Read in March, 2008

I really enjoyed this book. However, I do not understand why so many people try to use it to teach "deep thoughts" about human nature, freedom, equality, etc. to high school students. It seems to me to not work as an adolecent book at all.

The story was written in language and manner that would appeal to children. There was a story in it for children. 10-12 year olds would probably like the book for its humor and adventures. They probably would absorb little of the deeper mean...more I really enjoyed this book. However, I do not understand why so many people try to use it to teach "deep thoughts" about human nature, freedom, equality, etc. to high school students. It seems to me to not work as an adolecent book at all.

The story was written in language and manner that would appeal to children. There was a story in it for children. 10-12 year olds would probably like the book for its humor and adventures. They probably would absorb little of the deeper meanings, but that's ok. Adults are far enough removed from childhood to be able to look back at the book and understand all the deeper trains of thought. However, adolecents are not. They lack the distance to truly appreciate the innocence that Scout portrays. They lack the experience to CARE about the bigger lessons. I imagine any 8th - 10th grade literature class would find this book a bore and miss both the beauty and wisdom within it.

As an adult though, I found both. The story was beautiful. Scout was a classic heroine: tomboyish enough to appeal to boys as well as girls, a rebellious streak that endears her to frustrated children, a quick mind and impetuous insight that reminds adults of just how intelligent a child can be. In so many ways she reminds me of Mary from "A Secret Garden" taken out of 19th century England and put down in 1930's Alabama. There was so much history and idealism in her life in a small southern town so long ago. So different and yet so similar to my own upbringing in a small Texan town a half century later. The way Scout saw problems, grew INTO problems, and learned to deal with them was remarkably accurate considering the limitations of language within a child's tale. I thuroughly enjoyed this book, and learned something as well. To me the most valuable lesson wasn't in the way Atticus (spelling? I listened in audio)taught Scout and Jim to be "colorblind". Instead, the lesson I found most valuable to myself was how he taught them to deal with their peers and neighbors who weren't. This day in age, racism isn't quite dead yet. I see far less of it in my own generation, but old habbits die hard, and there is still plenty in the generation of my parents and grandparents. Even more important - people have begun to discriminate in ways that have nothing to do with race. Sexual orientation is of course the "hot button" issue right now. When one sees his/herself as "tolerant", it's hard not to believe yourself also morally superior to others. Atticus takes pains to remind us all that while we don't have to absorb the beliefs of others, the fact that they hold such beliefs doesn't make them monsters. I'm not advocating hatred or discrimination, and I certainly believe that anyone who displays such things violently should be punnished. However, it made me reconsider some people in my life I'd written off as hopelessly narrowminded, and made me realize that just because they were narrowminded in one way didn't mean they were totally worthless in all ways. That's a hard lesson to internalize, but it's an important one. ...less

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Jill rated it:

(review of isbn 0446310786)

08/01/07

Read in June, 2005

recommends it for: Republicans

It's too easy to write a review about this book that describes the adventures of a young girl nicknamed "Scout," who only looks at the world through precocious eyes. It's too easy to describe Harper Lee's only published, though brilliant, novel as a biography, if you will, of the Jim Crow South. Yet for all the straightforward simplicity of the story, we do find in it the tremendous depth of raw human depravity, as well the supremacy of ethics and righteousness that all mankind can as...more

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Steve rated it:

(review of isbn 0061120081)

04/11/08

The following was a review I wrote April 1. I've since come to view it in a different light, and now believe it's one of the finest books ever written.

April 1

It's funny how things can change. I recall really liking this book the first time I re

To Kill a Mockingbird

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