To Kill A Mockingbird ( Book Review)

"It's a sin to kill a mockingbird"

Exams have dragged on longer than they should have and I have been excited at the prospect of becoming a 'born-again' bibliophile. Just to be able to sit and read brought a familiar minimalism back into my avid routine: reading something out of my own free will rather than being forced to memorize it that is!

After years of seeing tattered edged, note filled copies in the high school English classrooms and telling myself I'll read it one day, I finally bought a copy of the novel studied inside out by students over the 50 years of its publication - To Kill A Mockingbird.

Having read 'Of mice and men' which addresses similar themes of poverty in the great depression, racism and crime, I was intrigued at the prospect of reading something similar. But from the very first chapter, I found that Lee's portrayal of 1930's America would be a learning experience for me.

It starts off with Scout- an 8 year old girl being naive to the ways of the adults in the book, she learns of the mistreatment of African-American's and the hierachal structure of society, the Black at the bottom, the people most hit by the depression coming after them, and that 'it isn't becoming of a lady' to wear overalls.

The children of a lawyer defending a Black man, Jem and Scout learn the hard way that what's fair and plain simple to them doesn't necessarily mean it's what will happen. Their father, an honest personality amidst the thriving racism and single parent, teaches them that nothing is higher than the truth and to ignore the whispers in the street, despite of the harassment from others in the community, he does all he can to defend an innocent soul accused of raping a white girl.

To kill a mockingbird is exclusive in the way that it paints out the prejudiced settings of those superior in society by the thoughts and feelings of a minor. Lee expertly shows the how the pure hearted in a close knit community in search of the American Dream, come together in times of need, including its outcasts. 

Essentially, to kill a mockingbird is a gem, a literary translation of life in all era's, not just the American depression. Each new chapter reminds the reader of the basic morals we need in society, such as wanting equal justice, all through the practices of three strong individuals; Atticus, Jem and Scout.

Freidnship, innocence and acceptance. It certainly is the novel of a lifetime.

Rimsha