To Kill a Mockingbird

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber

Product Description
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of two children, sister Scout and brother Jem, and their childhood during three years in the midst of the Great Depression. Scout and Jem spend most of their summers with their summer-neighbor, Dill, making up plays and spying on the town recluse, Boo Radley. During the school year (minus Dill, who goes back home to Mississippi), Scout finds herself in trouble one too many times and struggles with the concept of being a lady, especially when all she wants to do is wear overalls and beat up her classmates.

Then everything changes one fall.... Scout and Jem's father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer in their town of Maycomb, Alabama, is appointed to the defense of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman (although not of the highest caliber), Mayella Ewell. The fact of this case rocks the town of Maycomb, and with Scout and Jem feeling the brunt of their classmates ridicule when they realize Atticus is on Tom's side.

I was simply floored while reading this novel. I wasn't expecting a "classic" to be so readable. Now I know what I've been missing! To Kill a Mockingbird is a piece of our American history that depicts racism and prejudice, childhood innocence, and the perseverence of a man who risked it all to stand up for what he believed in. Wonderful portrayal and one I will read again.


This Book Deserves 6 *!   March 15, 2000
anna-joelle (Malaysia)
78 out of 99 found this review helpful

This classic should be made required reading for every person in every culture and in every country. If only everyone would read it, and truly understand, identify with and 'learn' from the story and the message found within its pages, I believe the world would be a happier and peaceful place to live in for all.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a 'rich' and compelling story set in 1930s Alabama. It's a story about the purity and innocence of children, about justice (or the lack of it), racism, hypocrisy, human compassion, trust and love (all issues we can relate to) told from the experiences and perspectives of a small child (Scout).

The writing is wonderfully beautiful and charming. You'll fall in love with the depth of inner beauty and innocence found in the 2 children (Jem, and especially his sister, Scout/Jean Louis). You'll find yourself rooting passionately for their father (Atticus Finch) to win his case when he chooses to defend a black man on trial for life, despite much social pressure on Finch to give up the case and veiled threats against him and his family. Watch for the part where Finch cross-examines the "victim" (a white girl who accuses the black man of rape) and during his closing speech. Both are excellent courtroom drama (the best I've come across) and they also reveal a lot of the (ugly) truth behind the case.

Atticus Finch's sense of justice, perseverence and fighting spirit (the way he stood his ground) are most inspiring and touching. Based on what he believes in, he knows he must "do the right thing", all the more since he has 2 young children who look up to him for guidance on the difference between right and wrong.

I also loved reading the precious scenes involving Atticus and his children - Atticus is really a "beautiful" person and a perfect role-model of a dad - at once loving and understanding and patience and fair.

And what about the mysterious recluse, Arthur "Boo" Radley who hasn't left his house in years and has become some sort of a terrifying yet intriguing "legend" among the neighbourhood children? Is he really the madman or evil spirit that the children believe him to be?

This book (and another winner, "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt) should rank highly in everyone's list of must-reads. What a true gem! Read it and be charmed.


No wonder why it's a classic   November 19, 2001
Busy Mom (Ohio)
31 out of 34 found this review helpful

With 700 plus reviews, I will keep this one short. I must confess I have read this book either in high school or junior high, but I barely remember it. After reading it again the second time, I have to say, that it is one of those books that every time you read it, it leaves with a greater impact on your soul. I plan to read this book again in 10 or 20 years just to see what new insights I can glean from this book.

The story is told from a young girl's eyes, as she witnesses some doings in Maycomb. Scout and her brother Jem are the town's lawyer's children. While growing up, they begin to discover why their father is really a gentleman, especially when he defends a black man accused of rape. That trial is not only felt throughout the town, but it affected Jem and Scout too in coloring their viewpoints of the world around them.

This is not your typical coming-of-age book. This is a book meant to provoke people to think and ponder on some of the issues she deals with in this book. It is a book I think every one should read ~~ regardless of their values and beliefs. I know that it is one book I plan to have my children to read as well as the nieces and nephews in my family. It is a book designed to get people to think and act ~~ not to live life passively.

It's a book for the classics. One for the ages ahead to read as well as those in the present too.


A Book To Savor For A Lifetime   May 19, 2000
Barron Laycock (Temple, New Hampshire United States)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful

I first read this wonderful novel as a teenager while waiting for the movie starring Gregory Peck to be released that same summer. Again and again over the intervening decades since have I pulled down my hard-bound copy to read in whole or in part on a rainy afternoon because of its sheer drawing power. In today's complex world one tends to lose perspective as to how explosive, provocative, and sensational the issues of cross-race rape was in the early 1960s when Miss Lee's novel was originally published. Yet despite the sizzling if subdued sexual content and the divisive issues surrounding the book, it quickly rose to best-seller status and easily delivered the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Harper Lee with this, her first novel.

It is probably the character of Atticus Finch who deserves most of the credit for the novel's enduring popularity. Seldom has such a quietly heroic figure been so favorably and memorably described in such loving detail in an American novel as is fortyish Atticus Finch, the highly principled and somewhat befuddled widower-lawyer trying his level best to raise his two young children alone in the midst of the deep South during the early years of the Depression. As daughter Scout remembers, there was little that Atticus couldn't charm or talk his way out of. And, as played by Gregory Peck in the memorable movie, this thoughtful, moral, and courageous man became a model of modern American manhood for all who read or watched his story unfold.

Of course, the other characters are also lovingly and carefully drawn and described, and the way in which the importance and relevance of the mockingbird parable is sown at a number of different levels with a number of different characters is also one of the enduring treasures found within the pages of this book. Whether considering Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, or Atticus himself, we all come to better understand the ways in which all the individuals' stories and fate are intricately and inextricably interwoven with each other and into the fabric of a particular time and place.

Thus, we see the degree to which Atticus relies and depends on their black governess, and the degree to which he is concerned for her welfare as well. On the other hand, we watch as Bob Ewell acts despicably to mistreat people of color. There are volumes of wisdom herein regarding the treatment of human beings and the problems associated with trying to live in any particular place at any specific time. So well and accurately drawn are the characters of this fable of the life and times of Scout Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird", that one can only hope it continues to be widely read and appreciated as a modern American classic.