To Kill a Mockingbird

[Zeeshan]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars


Scout finch is a young girl growing in 1930’s southern america. She enjoys the freedom of youth innocence, which comes with her brother Jem and new friend Dill, yet begins to become more aware of her surroundings through her black maid Caluprinia and to treat people as you would want to be treated. Scout’s father Atticus is shown, at least in this book(the second book, according to me, was a travesty that never should have been released) is a strong man, and elects to take a case that may decide his career: the case of Tom Robinson, a young man accused of sexual assault, verses Mayella Ewell, part of the disgraced, just barely above the negro, social line. This case shapes the town, and Scout and Finch and Atticus in a way they will never forget and be the same from.

I loved Boo Radley, as the childhood innocence of Scout came to the fore, and not for the first time, drew in an adult’s sympathy. Boo was probably an 1920’s example of how someone with a severe mental disability should be treated and it’s mind-boggling to see how much we have progressed since then. Jem was also an impeccable character, his manning up a sign of a maturing young man.

You can’t really relate to the book itself, just its concepts. With all due respect, even taking into account the time and location of the book, some of the action is highly unrealistic(Bob Ewell)and some of the words, especially now, are really hard for a teenager to understand. Scout being allowed to talk to someone clearly mentally unstable is an aspect that would never have happened in this day and age and alas, some of the language is also inappropriate. However,for readers 14 and over, this is a great, but not as great as it is proclaimed, book about the true value of mankind.