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To Kill a Mockingbird: Happy 50th Anniversary!
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I learned a few years ago the character Dill was based on Truman Capote. He was a perpetual storyteller as Dill was, and had a soaring imagination. That made me love the book even more.Harper Lee and Truman Capote grew up together and were neighbors. That was a different time and place and I get transported back there to that long hot summer and fall. It is a wonderful coming of age book.
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I read this for the first time a few summers ago. While I really enjoyed it, I think I would have had a greater reaction to it had I read it when I was younger and less jaded.
Interesting, Lori. I've read it so many times, both as a girl and as an adult. But hard to say if it would have had the same impact if I hadn't read it first when I did.I most recently reread it this winter, after reading a piece in the New Yorker "The Courthouse Ring: Atticus Finch and the Limits of Southern Liberalism,":
"On what side was Harper Lee’s Atticus Finch? Finch defended Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of what in nineteen-thirties Alabama was the gravest of sins, the rape of a white woman. In the years since, he has become a role model for the legal profession. But he’s much closer to Folsom’s side of the race question than he is to the civil-rights activists who were arriving in the South as Lee wrote her novel."
I actually just read it in March and I was really impressed! I'm not sure if it would have had more of an impact if I'd read it when I was younger. Carol: I had no idea Dill was based on Truman Capote, but now that you say that I can definitely see it!
We studied it at school and being liberal-minded nerds were all very impressed. I have read it since and although I was still moved by the content I found the writing style less charming.
As a teen I thought the foot-washing baptists were outrageous and Boo Radley is still my favourite character.
Carol (Kitty) wrote: "I learned a few years ago the character Dill was based on Truman Capote. He was a perpetual storyteller as Dill was, and had a soaring imagination. That made me love the book even more.Harper Lee a..."
I find that so strange because for me Dill was very masculine in that 1960 teenage boy sort of way (Not macho just very boyish). While going by all the portrayals I've seen of him, Truman Capote was not.
Dill was the consummate storyteller. He had a whopper for every occasion. Truman Capote was a storyteller of the first degree. It really was not about masculine verses non masculine. There were many traits alluded to the Dill character that were straight Truman Capote. If you read about Capote's life you will see a lot of the little boy Dill.
Carol (Kitty) wrote: "Dill was the consummate storyteller. He had a whopper for every occasion. Truman Capote was a storyteller of the first degree. It really was not about masculine verses non masculine. There were man..."I can understand the connection intellectually but they just don't 'feel' similar to me.
I was in 9th or 10th grade when I read To Kill A MockingBird and the daughter of a radical Republican. By the time the Civil Rights Movement came Along I was primed to see what bigotry was all about.Although it wasn't untill Kent State when I was on a nearby campus,that I politically became a Democrat,this book was definitely part of the growth progress.Re-reading this book, I am re-amazed at how well Harper mLee portrayed the character of Scout. She wrote as a child would think.
I read this for the first time earlier this month, as a semi-adult. I found it to be extremely progressive and really appreciated the view that Scout had of the world; not clouded by life. I thoroughly enjoyed the carefree way Scout, Jem and Dill played together during the summer and their curiosity about Boo Radley. The house next door to the one I grew up in had a similar appeal to my brother and the kids across the street as the Radley house had to Scout (a really old man lived in the house and he never came out, and then he died and his body was carried out of the house; it was very traumatic and exciting when I was 8 or 9. Whether it happened like that or not, is another story, but thats what we thought happened as kids). I loved Atticus and Boo. Atticus stood up for what he believed in even though he knew he couldn't win. And Boo was a terrifying enigma throughout most of the story, until he turned out to be a hero. I was just as surprised and unsurprised as Scout when he ended up in Jem's room after saving him from Ewell. Can't believe I waited as long to read it as I did.
I recently re-read this for the first time since discovering it in the eighth grade. I loved it back then, and I loved it again this time around. The part that sticks out the most to me was Atticus's speech in the courtroom. That is the part that brought tears to my eyes this time, while back in the eighth grade it was the ending. It's strange how our perceptions change over time, and how this book still manages to be relevant and touching all the same.
To Kill a Mockingbird remains one of my favorite books of all time, packed with some of my favorite characters of all time. I know that's not an original thought, but I love that it's not. I love that I'm not unique in loving this book, because it deserves to be loved. It says so much in such a small-seeming way, and its impact is still... impacting. I don't think this book will ever stop saying what it has to say, and I love that I'm not the only one that hears Harper Lee. Also, the closing lines really shake me, in a really great way.
Also also, I've always wanted to name my dog Boo, after one of my favorite characters ever, but that really sounds like I'm calling my dog my biddy, doesn't it? So frustrating!
Hah, Michelle. We recently brought a little pug into our lives and I find myself calling him "Boo" all the time. It's such a cute nickname for him. :)
I seem to be in the minority, but I did not like TKAM. I appreciated how brave it was of Harper Lee to write it during that time period. I thought it was well-written, but I thought it was boring and flat. I'm sorry, but that was my view on it.
Catamorandi wrote: "I seem to be in the minority, but I did not like TKAM. I appreciated how brave it was of Harper Lee to write it during that time period. I thought it was well-written, but I thought it was boring..."I also thought the book was boring and flat sometimes, but I attibute that to the fact that I am 50 years old. I gave it a four. I would had loved to read this book in my teens.
I just read TKAM for the very first time. For some reason it was never required reading at any of my schools. I loved it. It started slowly for me, but that worked for the setting and the story line. I literally got chills reading Atticus's closing arguments. It is definitely going to be a reread for me at some point.
Please post your own thoughts on this wonderful book!