Why is this a classic?

[Anne]

It's a classic because it deals with eternal themes- truth, justice, compassion, growing up- and because it is beautifully written.

[Joe]

* eats dog food*
Welp
*uwu*
*masterś slap thighs*

[Mike]

The biggest help to the book was the timing of its release. If it had been produced 10 or 15 years later it would have gone under its proper category as a YA novel, and would've won some awards like the Newbery, and kept a low profile. (And before anyone flies off the handle of sanity I would remind you that the author herself agreed it is a YA book). In any event, it was packaged as "serious literature" and adults who couldn't "get" Faulkner or Roth or others of the type could easily grasp the superficial themes and 2-dimensional stock characters and put it on their shelf and say "Those other stuffy authors whom colleges tell me I'm supposed to like are just BORING, and TKAM proves that I can read and understand GREAT literature". There are really great novels that cover the same themes; if you've come to TKAM after high school, or even middle school, you're too late to the party. Put it down and pick up 'The Dean's December' or 'The Chaneysville Incident' or many, many others.

[Clark]

Yes, what makes... “why” was worse. It’s a classic because it is the greatest novel in all aspects ever written. And that is an unknown fact. If you can open your mind to your own gender you’d only bring this up to let people know it is THE CLASSIC. Understand what is a “classic,” first.

[Andrew]

It’s a morality tale told from childs perspective. And it mainly promotes values we are expected to embrace. It’s descriptively effective has a wide range of characters, and is mercifully quite short . That’s partly why I think it gets taught a lot in schools despite the fact it’s long ceased to be contemporary. Is it good, TBH I’d put it well below Huckleberry Finn or The Diary of Anne Frank but each to their own.

[Uzair]

Because...
idk it's in my next-to-read list

[Soraida]

I don't think that it's just about the historical context and what is presented at the time that makes it classic, but that it can still be relevant today. We see in the story the failure of the judicial system when racism enters the court. While it's not like that today, there are issues that present themselves in courtrooms that lead to unfairness. Aside from this, the book displays the way that social classes can lead to being treated differently. People below the lower-class were treated so poorly, but when we look around how different is it really? When people give money to the needy, they rarely make eye-contact, they never ask, "how are you?" Maybe it isn't the same, but I think there is something relevant to be pulled out of this book.

[Nick]

It depends how you define classic. This is how I would interpret classic, a work of art recognized and has established value.
"his books have become classics"