To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Link to buy the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Mockingbird-Harper-Lee/dp/0446310786

My Rating: 5/5 stars

To Kill a Mockingbird is not a typical book that I would pick up at the store and read for pleasure, it is actually a book I had to read for my grade 9 English course. At first I really doubted if I would enjoy reading this book, but now I have to say that this piece of literature is one of my favourites.

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is set during the three years (1922-35) of the Great Depression in a small, old town of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. The protagonist, six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (Scout), her older brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus, a lawyer.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. Before starting to read this novel, I did not think I was going to find it engaging, to start off with, I did not really understand the title, To Kill a Mockingbird. The title is an aspect that helps make the book stand out, and make it appealing to me. Although the title is quite unique and makes it seem like it is hiding a deeper, more secretive meaning, I feel like it lacked engaging me and providing me information regarding the theme of the book, I thought the book would be about actual birds, and that would be the main subject of the novel.

For me, the title was a drawback in attracting me to the book to begin with, however, once I started to read, my doubts disappeared, once I discovered the uniqueness of this novel, compared to others. The novel is comprised of many themes that people can learn from, and possibly relate to, in their day to day lives. One of the major themes is to kill innocence, in the sense that the mockingbird in the title represents innocence, and killing it.

Throughout the novel there have been many innocent people, that have had that taken away from them, Jem, Dill, Boo Radley, to name a few. Mockingbirds are innocent, and have done no harm, thus killing a mockingbird would be to kill innocence.

I feel like many individuals can learn a lot from this novel, and learn historical aspects in a fictional setting. You learn about the discrimination within the society and vision it through the perspective of a six-year-old child.

Another major theme is the exploration of good and evil. The novel focuses on Scout and Jem’s transformation from a perspective of childhood innocence, to a more adult perspective, where they learn to understand that there is hate and evil in any world and community, but they should learn to accept it, and go about their lives.

Along with an interesting, semi-fictional theme (fictional events/characters), this novel also expresses important life lessons and really demonstrates the degrees of discrimination within the society of Maycomb County, this really helped to engage me in the novel.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes to learn about particular historical events but in a story context, with characters, etc. I also believe this is best for ages 13+, as they may be able to better comprehend the themes and storyline a bit better.

Please leave your own reviews and comments below, we can start a discussion!

Image Source: http://bookriot.com/2015/07/14/many-book-covers-kill-mockingbird/