To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

To kill a Mockingbird

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a classic novel by Harper Lee, an American novelist, first published in 1960, it won the Pulitzer price in 1961, it was later made into an Academy award-winning movie, also a classic. It is set in the 1930s in a small sleepy Southern town named Maycomb, and tells the story of a young girl, Jean Louise Finch, « scout ». The novel follows her childhood and her thrilling adventures alongside Jem her older brother and Dill her good friend who comes during summer.

The two main threads of the book are the mysterious Boo Radley who never came out of his terrifying house and Tom Robinson’s case, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, who is taken on by Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finch, a compassionate and fair-minded lawyer. The three children throw themselves into both these stories and go from kid’s concerns about ghost and mysterious affairs to considerations about the society they live in. As for the title, in this novel filled with innocence harmed by evil, the « mocking bird » represents the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is destroying innocence, at some point scout says « remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird » because he does nothing but sing for us, he is pure.

This book is directly related to the issue of race in the US as it portrays the life of a young girl who is coming of age in the midst of racial tensions and prejudice. Indeed, through the novel, Scout faces the harsh realities of racism and injustice and she comes to understand the value of standing up for what is right, even and especially when it’s difficult, her father did it despite facing immense resistance and hostility from the white community.

This book allowed to discover the way racism was deeply rooted in people’s mind at that time, even normal people having black men or women working for them were fully racist as it was the way of things. But some of them were ahead of their time and were a support for the African-American community. It also made me learn more about the American culture through the description of Scout’s everyday routine.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, the authentic vivid and innocent observations Scout makes facing events of her life made her really relatable to me, and the tender relationship of the Finch children with their father and Dill’s friendship were deeply moving. I was deeply involved in every raid to the Radley place and later on with every steps of Tom Robinson’s trial. Closing this book instantly made me regret Atticus reading in the living-room and Scout Dill and Jem enjoying summer while eating cakes on Miss Maudie’s porch. In fact you easily get really attached to these characters before you know it. I thought I was just reading the peaceful story of a young girl’s childhood but at the end I was given a life lesson.

To kill a Mocking bird is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature, despite being called a simple love story by its author, and has been widely praised for its enduring themes and timeless appeal. It makes you realize the strength people needed to formally stand against racism at that time, furthermore you’ll find some great exemple of moral courage and integrity among those pages. It tackles the issue of race from a white young girl’s perspective

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