To Kill A Mockingbird

Haper Lee

Novel

June-July

My views on this novel gave me a lot to think about. This story is set back in the days when black and white people were kept apart. In this story you really see how unfair the white people are to the black people after a black man is accused of raping a white woman. In the story, a man named Atticus Finch is a lawyer and he has two kids, Jem and Jean Louise nicknamed ‘Scout’.

The story is set in Maycomb and there is tension between black and white people who don’t mix together. Atticus is a lawyer and defends a black man in court. As soon as word gets out about this, Jem and Scout are called “nigger lover” everywhere they go. Scout says “With this in mind, I faced Cecil Jacobs in the schoolyard next day: ‘You gonna take that back, boy?’ ‘You gotta make me first!’ he yelled. ‘My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!’ I drew a bead on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away with ‘Scout’s a coward!’ ringing in my ears. It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight.” I think this story was written to show how hard it was for Atticus having to look after two children while blocking out the threats that were fired his way. I think it was hardest for Jem and Scout to face these people who are calling their father these names. Scout doesn’t know what it means but knows it’s a put-down by the way they said it. Scout asks Atticus what it means but he tells her it means nothing.

Meanwhile, in the courtroom many white witnesses say in their own words what happened. They all say that the black man (who is called Tom Rob) is a criminal. Atticus starts to see holes appearing in the witnesses’ statements. When Tom is called to give evidence, he tells a different story to the one Mayella Violet Ewell (the girl who has claimed Tom raped her) tells. He says that he was a victim of racism. I think Harper has explained the story in an interesting way.

The characters I found interesting were: Atticus Finch, Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem) and Charles Baker Harris (Dill). Atticus is the father of Jem and Jean Louise Finch (Scout) (Jem’s little sister). Atticus is a lawyer and I think he has some interesting ways of solving problems. “‘First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-‘ ‘Sir?’ ‘-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'” This is a very meaningful statement from Atticus and can be applied to real life. He is one of those characters who could make a wise comment wherever he was and in whatever situation he was placed in. I once acted in a play as a lawyer in a courtoom like Atticus and I had to learn how this person would behave. My ‘client’ was accused of a bank robbery but I was able to show that he was in a different country when the robbery happened.

Jem is the big brother of Scout and Scout is a Tomboy. Jem wants Scout to stop acting like a girl. “‘See there?’ Jem was scowling triumphantly. “Nothin’ to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’.'” I had a good friend in Junior High School who really should have been a boy! She was a girl and was very good at karate and soccer but when I talked to her, her girl-side came out.

Dill is a character who becomes a friend of Jem and Scout. He gives them an idea how to make Boo Radley come out of his house, (Boo is a boy who is kept in the house because his father doesn’t want him to go out). “But by the end of August our repertoire was vapid from countless reproductions, and it was then that Dill gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out”. The Radley Place fascinated Dill.” Jem likes the idea and as goes to help Dill, he comes up with some new ideas and soon looses interest in Boo. After a while, Dill can’t come to Maycomb anymore so they stop trying to make Boo Radley come out.

The main message in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is that racism isn’t ok and we shouldn’t just push people down because of their skin colour or what they think. ‘They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ I think this quote plays a huge part in the title of this story. The message in this story is shown by all characters in one way or another. In this story “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the mockingbird is an innocent person. In this case, a black man is on death row for a crime he did not commit, and he is killed trying to escape from prison. Most of the witnesses in the court case were white and the people who decided the verdict were white. So the only reason they asked him to tell his side of story in his words was because of the way the court works – they must listen to both sides of the story, but the decision had already been made.

The challenges faced in this story are mostly based around Atticus. There are other characters that face their own challenges throughout the book. Most of them are related to Atticus in some way. For example, Jem and Scout have been told to just walk away when someone says “nigger lover” to them. This must have been awful for them. I was bullied. I was called names. I felt as though I was worthless. I could escape it because when I got home they would send me a message with a bunch of rude names that they would call me. I would fight the bully but when I did, he would beat me up and call me more names. Back in the day when black and white were kept apart, the black people’s place was lower quality than the white people’s. Black people were accused of many crimes and punished even though they were innocent. Presently, black people fought for equal rights in the Black Lives Matter Protests. Maori people have harsher punishment in court than pakeha people. They are also disproportionately represented in prison in comparison to Pakeha. This evidence all shows that although there has been some improvements from the time of To Kill a Mockingbird, there are still problems with racism in the world.

The title of this story is the perfect title for book. I think the book is called this because they are killing an innocent man who is like a mocking bird. I can’t think of a better title. The title has a huge impact on the story if you research what the Mockingbird means in the title. You will see that definition means innocent. The title is the first thing that you look at, it should snatch the reader. In this case the author needed to think deeply about the title. Harper Lee has done a tremendous job choosing the title.

I recommend this book to anyone who is in year 12-13 because it shines a light on a massive problem on racism in the world today. This book is very complex but it makes us more aware of racism even though we know it’s there. We all know this continues to be a problem in today’s world but this book shows the issue is much bigger than we thought. Having this racism in our world today makes me glad that white and black people are fighting for equal opportunities. Atticus would be pleased if he was real.