Thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird

(Originally written on February 20, 2013)

I was first assigned to read the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when I was a freshman in high school.  I decided to use it as a selection for my book discussion at work; after more than 50 years, it's still considered a classic of American literature.  It's an interesting story with lots of themes and subplots; everyone who reads it has their own experiences and takes something different from it.  I would imagine that what I focused on and what I have learned from my two times reading it is probably just as different as the next person's.

There are two elements of the book that I focused on the most.  One of them is the innocence of childhood and the memories that come from it.  My childhood was a lot different from that of Jem, Scout, and Dill, but when I was reading this, especially the first part of the book, I couldn't help but think back to my own childhood.  Some of my favorite memories include playing baseball from dawn until dusk with my friends, building massive snow forts the day after the first winter storm of the year, playing my Game Boy and Super Nintendo with my brother, watching movies with my parents, and talking to my grandparents.  There are plenty of advantages to being an adult, but when you're a child, you don't have a care in the world.  It's a time that everyone should cherish.

The other theme I thought about frequently was the many differences in society between Alabama in the 1930s and the Midwest in the 2010s.  In the era that To Kill a Mockingbird portrays, there was a lot more interaction within neighborhoods.  In this book, everyone knew everything about everyone else; nothing was a secret.  When something happened, word spread quickly.  And people were much more tied to their land, homes, and communities.  Families had certain reputations; if a father acted one way, then his father likely did, and it was expected that his children would too.  We don't have this nearly as much today.  People don't stay in the same location for a long time nearly as often; they move around for jobs or for other adventures.  Meanwhile, it's not uncommon for people who live right next door to almost never talk.  Think about the people that you interact with the most, especially on a site like Facebook.  How many of them live close by?  How many of them do you even see in person on a regular basis?

Of course, there are more differences in racial attitudes as well.  The racism that is portrayed in this book, if not completely gone, is much more frowned upon today.  Even though the testimony of the witnesses at Tom Robinson's trial all but proved his innocence, he was still found guilty.  To many people today, it seems incomprehensible that a man's testimony would be virtually ignored just because of his race, but that's exactly what happened in this book.  Atticus fully expected that the jury would quickly convict Tom; he thought it a positive sign that the jury took a long time and wrestled with this, but was still dissatisfied with the result.  It was nice to see children like Jem and Scout, and even adults like Atticus and Miss Maudie, realize that justice was not served and to be upset about it.

So, in this book we see both the light and the dark side of human nature.  There is so much more to discuss from this book, but in writing a short essay like this, these are the points that were most important to me.  If anyone else has thoughts on this book, I would be glad to hear them.  Or, if you haven't read it yet, I would recommend it.  I'm more of a nonfiction person, but in this book I still think there are plenty of lessons and plenty of things to discuss for readers of all kinds.