Sunday, September 15, 2013

Review: To Kill A Mockingbird

There is profound clarity when serious issues are viewed from a child's innocent eye. Without prejudiced ideas about rank and race in a society they make judgements solely on the happenings of an event. Although Scout often asked her father, Atticus Finch, about the happenings around her, she was far from an ignorant child. She was most often puzzled by the folly of the ways of the grownups. Children understands much more than grownups often assumes, as was pointed out constantly throughout the story.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a book ahead of its time. Even when viewed in the 21st century, where humankind has advanced so much since the 1930s, the story can still call its readers to reflect upon the issues of bully, racism, and government. Interestingly, to readers of different ages, the effect it have would be as different as the land and the sea. It preaches about morality, how to face assaults, and how to stand in other people's shoes;
"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
It captured the horror of racism and yet does not despair in the state of events; It is a story about how there are people that uses what power they can to change the things that were wrong;
"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win."
It tells of successful parenting (Even though Atticus Finch had been continuously accused of letting his children "run wild," readers will not object to his being a real moral model); It allows us a peek of the life in a Southern town in the 30s; It is a story of how normal people are heroes many different ways.

As a first time reader, and knowing nothing in advance about the plot, the story line caught me by surprise. What started out as an innocent looking, child narrated, summertime events in a quiet little Southern town, turned into a thought provoking roller coaster ride. I regret not having read it in my teens. Because of the many layers contained, this book is worth rereading every ten years. With every new built experience one will view the story at a new level, yet be constantly reminded of how to be a human being.

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