Hey hey! I’m so sorry, I totally thought that I’d already posted this review. Spoiler alert: I hadn’t. Jokes! So, I have finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird and it was pretty damn great! I have a lot to say about this book.
So so, To Kill A Mockingbird is a story told by Scout (Jean Louise) a young girl who lives with her father, a widower, and her elder brother Jem. Their small, isolated southern town, in Maycomb, Alabama, has a racism deeply rooted in it’s culture as a result of it’s history enslaving African Americans. The town is very conservative and the majority of the people have very archaic views. They were very radical racist, the N word so common that it’s even in the children’s vocabulary. The story follows Scout as she goes on through life, starting school, learning more about her townspeople and their attitudes as she decides what she wants to think. It also tackles social ideals and the morality of people at the time regarding the treatment of black people through the court case of a black man accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Tom was helping Mayella do her chores when she decides to accuse him of raping her.
Scout’s father Atticus is a lawyer. When he is assigned the case of Tom Robinson, the mockingbird, Scout and her brother learn life lessons about prejudice, injustice and arrogance. On the back cover of the book is a quote from when Atticus is talking to Scout and he tells her that ‘it is a sin to kill a Mockingbird’. This one quote holds all the meaning to the book. During the court case, Tom says that he ‘felt sorry’ for Mayella so he decided to help her and in his status as a a black man this is seen as arrogance. It is arrogant of him to see himself as better of than a white person and to think that a white person might be in need of his help despite their situation. His sympathy is used against him simply for speaking the truth, which is perceived as him suggesting that Mayella is lower enough than him to warrant his pity. After all you only pity someone who has less than you or is not in as good a situation as you.
Honestly it took me a while to fully understand this book after talking to my English teacher (thanks Ms!) and discussing with others. Now I think I do, it has just made think more about the extent to which the racism went. Essentially, it was ludicrous, something that I’m glad to know we would never accept now as human beings and have progressed. It’s hard to believe that people ever thought that way, simply being of a different colour it became a crime to help someone out of goodwill and you weren’t in a position to do that. I loved this book and it is likely one of those books that I’ll buy and read again and again and continue to recommend to others. While some argue that the message and lessons taught in this book are no longer as relevant, I believe that it is even more important that we read it now and it’s lessons can still be applied to today’s world. This is a bit unusual but whilst this is up I will keep adding to it as I understand the book more. I don’t think what I have written covers the entirety of it.
Thank you for reading, this was long overdue but I’m glad I wrote it now because I feel like I understand it more than I did. I highly recommend for everyone to read this book and just persevere because it takes a while but once you’ve finished you realise that everything at the beginning was there for a reason. Read it once, twice or even more, it’s a book you appreciate more each time you ponder over it. That’s the end! My next post will likely be a recipe so watch this space!
F,
XO
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