Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion
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To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird
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Final Thoughts
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Becky
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rated it 5 stars
Jul 30, 2010 11:33PM
Now that you are finished with the book, what do you think?
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I've read this book over 100 times. When the movie came out in 1962 I was 9 and I saw it with my parents. I read the book for the first time in 1965 when I was 12. I've read it over 100 times, probably 25 times the year I was 12. It's probably my favorite book, definitely in the top 25 favorites.
I read this book as part of the required reading for my class in 8th grade, and I found it to be good, but honestly I don't see why it's so incredibly famous. I enjoyed the characters and the story, but it doesn't really have a lasting effect on me. I think I can trace that back to the fact that the characters are all decent, but I really can't relate to them on a meaningful level. Also, because the book is about a time in history that I only know about through books, I can't relate to it either. With these two factors against me (which probably isn't the case for others), I found the book to be okay but no worth all the hype it is given.
I'm about to start reading it, and I honestly hope it has a better effect on me than it did the first time I attempted it. I also don't really understand what the big hype was about...
Alyssa... wrote: "I'm about to start reading it, and I honestly hope it has a better effect on me than it did the first time I attempted it. I also don't really understand what the big hype was about..."It's not just the characters that matter - it's the story. I think that's why the book has such staying power. It was first published in the middle of the struggle for racial integration but it's still relevant today because of what we can learn from it about race, class and age prejudice.
I'm always worried to reread classics that I loved years ago. This one didn't disappoint. It was as amazing as I remembered. And I loved that even though it's a classic, it doesn't read slow or ever drag like classics can sometimes do. Scout and Atticus are such strong characters (all of them really) and Scout's voice so strong that I wanted to read more about their lives and the setting is so vivid it pulls you right into the story. Even though it's set at such a pivotal moment of US History, it has timeless themes. It's just a beautiful story. The book got me excited to rewatch the movie.
Every reread of this book for me brings wonderful new gems and discoveries. I try to read it every 5 years or so. Just the best!
I've just finished reading the book for only the second time in my life. Although that's a rather low count, the book has stuck with me. I didn't remember details but I remember really enjoying it the first time.Now that I've completed it, I understand better why the book has such staying power. It's extremely well-written. You never doubt that the events are being told from a child's perspective but it's done with the deeper understanding of an adult.
There's so much we can learn from this book. In my opinion, one of the biggest lessons is that it's not enough to call yourself a Christian if your actions and thoughts promote hate.
I finished it last night, and i loved it!!! it has been one of the best books that i have read so far. i loved all the charaters and they way that they were. I also liked how the book touch different subjects that people really dont think about.
Annalisa wrote: "I'm always worried to reread classics that I loved years ago. This one didn't disappoint. It was as amazing as I remembered."I was worried about re-reading - nearly 30 years later - a book that I loved so much in high school. But it was actually even better than I remembered, perhaps because the themes are even more important to me as a "grown-up" with more life experience than I had at age 17.
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I also love on page 51... when Miss Maudie tells Scout that "you never know what goes on behind closed doors". How true and I really hope young people learn from this. When I was a teen I judged... now in my 30s I realize that all homes are different. Really you just don't know.
I suppose I read this book as a teen. I certainly saw the movie numerous times.I read it ten years ago and did not care for it. At the time I was reading it for a ninth grade class of poor and non readers and a lot of what they read was YA. (BTW, the kids loved it!) This has a skewed and offsides approach to racism: that the story was told by a white girl blunts it. But Scout was necessary as a narrator in 1960.
And then there's so very much about all the neighbor ladies: Miss Stephanie, Mrs. Dubose, Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra. Ten years ago I had no patience for any of them. Is still don't know why Atticus thinks Mrs. Dubose is so brave. This time I liked Miss Maudie. I think as a short story or novella I would like it more. It isn't those, but it is a play and I will read that.
I think this is one of those books that gets better with age. I first read it when I was a naive twelve year old and I remember thinking that this was not a children's book. The abuse Boo suffered at the hands of his father and brother and the dialogue of the rape trial disturbed me. At the time, all of those negative elements eclipsed the good parts. This was my third time reading the book, and I've grown to enjoy Harper's visual writing style. Her words paint vivid pictures in your mind's eye. My favorite example is the mob scene at the jail. When Scout calls out, “Hey, Mr. Cunningham.” it’s like a celestial ray of light piercing through the dark cloud of mob rule, helping Mr. Cunningham and the others find their individual conscience away from the anonymous collective mindset of the mob.
Julia wrote: "Is still don't know why Atticus thinks Mrs. Dubose is so brave. "Would you agree that someone who kicks an addiction is brave...especially when the drug you're addicted to is keeping your pain at bay?
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Angie,Harper Lee's sister Alice Finch Lee was one of the first women lawyers in Alabama. At 99 years old, I believe she still practices law. Harper Lee studied to be a lawyer, but dropped out the semester before she graduated. She was also studying writing and preferred that.
We chose it as the book of the month at my library, at least in part, because the mayor and Town Supervisor in my Village in Upstate NY were caught on tape using the n-word. The mayor resigned after a few weeks; eight weeks later the Town Supervisor has adamantly refused to resign. He thinks it'll blow over. I -- and others-- am bound and determined to not let that happen.
When Harper Lee was still giving interviews (she stopped in 1964) many times she said she was Boo Radley. "...Dragging him with his shy ways into the limelight -- to me, that's a sin."
As to why Boo is in the novel, it's because like the others, there was a man very much like him who was one of her actual neighbors growing up. It gives us a broader picture of Maycomb, Alabama and everyone who lives there.
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Angie wrote: "It wasn't his family's choice it was his choice to not leave." I don’t think that’s necessarily true. If you remember Atticus tells Jem, in regards to Arthur, that “there were other ways of making people into ghosts.” We’re initially told that Arthur’s father was a sort of religious fanatic. When he learns of his son’s arrest, Arthur’s actions become an emotional blow to everything Mr. Radley believes in and upholds. When the judge releases Arthur into his father’s custody, Mr Radley states that he’d “see to it that Arthur [would give:] no further trouble.” And Arthur’s never seen again. Harper Lee seems to be hinting at physical and emotional abuse, with his father acting as a jailor.
Then after the father’s death, his son, Arthur’s older brother takes up the role. Consider the scene where he cements the hole in the tree. But then again after all of those years being locked up inside that house, it’s too late for Arthur to be acclimated back into society—it would be too much of an emotional toll for him. Remember what Mr. Tate says at the end, “To my way of thinkin’ Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me that’s a sin.”
Angie wrote: "So it sounds to me then that Boo didn't want to leave the house. It wasn't his family's choice it was his choice to not leave. Maybe a form of social anxiety?"Angie, Yes, he was kept in the house because he'd brought "shame" on the family. That was his punishment. I do think he developed phobias as the years went by. All he knew was inside that house so he eventually (by the time we're introduced to him) did probably prefer to remain in the house. But he'd been kept there as a prisoner for years.
On page 13 Calpurnia says of Mr. Radley: "There goes the meanest man God blew breath into." On page 51 (chapter 5) Miss Maudie tells Scout: "...That is a sad house. I remember Arthur Radley when he was a boy. He always spoke nicely to me, no matter what folks said he did..."
"You reckon he's crazy?"
Miss Maudie shock her head. "If he's not he should be by now. The things that happen to people we never know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets--"
I think Boo Radley is in the novel to serve as a visual vehicle for what Scout understands of her community and its social codes. In the beginning, she is afraid of the unknown of Boo, taking the neighborhood word on him (which you could relate to the way children learn about racism from parents and their harassing Boo goes along with the harassment they receive because of Atticus and black people received), but by the end Scout understands that maybe she should trust her own instincts about Boo from her own interactions with him because adults don't always know what they're talking about.This growth happens right along with her understanding of the trial. She's old enough to understand the moral crime committed against Tom (if not the full implications of the rape charge), despite the word of the law, which helps her understand the social crime it would be to expose Boo, despite the standard of the law that crimes be reported. And that maybe it isn't fair for Boo to pay for the cruelty of his father and brother, just as it isn't fair for Tom to pay for Marella's discretion, but there's nothing Scout can do to change that except do all within her conscience to protect those who are too weak, too innocent, too targeted in a way an innocent mockingbird would be targeted by a shooter.
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