To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
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Book Reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird
Book Review: "A truely memorial book with its in-depth thought"
Summary: 5 Stars
To Kill a Mocking Bird This unforgettable classic by Harper Lee features a little girl around nine whom throughout this book matures and develops in significant ways. She learns all about prejudiced people through the town's folk when a young black man is accused of raping a young white woman. No matter how innocent the boy who is accused of rape is, the people of the town are so prejudiced that they will not listen. They believe that just because this young man is black, he is guilty beyond a doubt. The reader will also cross some details such as a better understanding of life in general. Scout learns not only by her teacher, or father, but by her brother, town's people, and especially Boo Radley that one must understand something to criticize it. Scout Finch is put into a position of major responsibility in these depressed times in southern Alabama. This book traces her ongoing development in what really is an incredible charge.When Scout Finch first hears about Tom Robinson and the crime he committed, she believes he should be prosecuted for his actions. What she later found out was that her father was defending the man she had so wrongly judged. Predigest was a word that Scout Finch had not ever heard, nor had she felt guilt's for feeling what she did not know was wrong. She was, weather she consciously know it or not, guilty of being prejudiced against black people. When kids at her school called her the daughter of a "Nigger Protector" she went home and questioned her father on the matter. Her father being so unprejudiced said" don't use that word, its not right" and that "all people are equal and should not be judged by the color of their skin." He was very serious on the matter and made it very clear that he hoped Scout would be to. "No matter what anybody says to you, don't let them get your goat." From this aspect of the book, The author shows how Scout Finch was just starting to understand the use of race, and prejudiced amount people.
When Scout Finch and her brother had to go to a black church due to absence of her father, she is greeted with a surprising welcome. "What you doing bringin white chillin into a Nigger church?" One person, Lula, found it very distasteful to bring white children, into a black church. Now most of these people where not insulted to see that Calpurnia had done this, one man even stood up to welcome them. These people, who have been mistreated, insulted, wrongly judged, and over all disliked just because they are black, welcome the children in with no hatred in there mind. The reverend of this church was very friendly to the Finch children and treated them as if they were regular common black children. This is just one incident of how these so wrongly treated people could be so warm to the wrong doers.
Book Review: A twentieth century masterpiece!
Summary: 5 Stars
I taught this book to eighth graders seventeen times and never got sick of it. Why do I love this book? Let me count the ways:
1. The protagonist, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, is such a great character Demi Moore named one of her daughters after her.
She's funny, smart, and she's got a stronger will than Catherine the Great. Atticus, Scout's father, is almost as compelling. He is willing to defend a black man accused of rape, despite living in racist, depression-era Maycomb, Alabama.
2. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a great story we can all identify with. How many of us have known a weird neighbor who refuses to come out of the house? The first part of the book follows Scout and her brother Jem as they try to get a look at "Boo" Radley. The second half involves Tom Robinson's rape trial and its aftermath.
3. The book is simply teeming with great vignettes. Jem and Scout are ashamed of Atticus because he doesn't play football, until he shoots down a rabid dog with one shot. Miss Maudie Atkinson's house burns down. Jack, Atticus's brother, makes Scout laugh and is able to painlessly pull a sliver from her hand. The Footwashing Baptists come to town for the rape trial. There are dozens more.
4. The minor characters are simply wonderful. There are over a hundred (I know because I had my students count them). X-Billups has three sets of teeth. Aunt Alexandra tries to make Scout act like a lady. Cecil Jacobs gets into a fistfight with Scout. Dill, Jem and Scout's neighbor boy develops a crush on Scout and asks her to marry him. Calpurnia, Atticus's housekeeper, acts as a surrogate mother to the children. Bob Ewell rivals Simon Legree as a villain. They're all so real you'll want to visit Maycomb to see if they're still alive. Too bad it's a fictional town.
5. Many lessons are learned, the most important of which is "Don't judge a book by its cover." Mayella Ewell, who accuses Tom Robinson of rape, is actually a sympathetic character. The town's social structure condemns her to a life of drudgery and she grasps at straws. Mrs. Dubois, the old woman down the street from the Finches, who calls Atticus a racial slur, dies brave, refusing to take her medication because she wants to die clean.
This book doesn't get enough credit; it's rarely listed as a masterpiece of the twentieth century. A masterpiece wouldn't be so easy to read. Certainly it's taught in just about every junior high in the country, but it wasn't written for teenagers. The book is a flashback, told by Scout as a grown woman; she uses New York Times' syntax, not S.E. Hinton's.
Some of my students rented the movie instead of reading it page by page. Big mistake. Not only did they fail the test, but they failed themselves by missing out on the best book they'd ever read.
Book Review: Read To Kill a Mockingbird!!! Aideen Farrelly,Dublin,Ireland
Summary: 5 Stars
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Book Review by Aideen Farrelly-Dublin, Ireland
In normal circumstances, the books we are required to read in school are boring, dull, old-fashioned and impossible to relate with. `To Kill a Mockingbird' however is the complete opposite to everything I have just mentioned.
Despite being set in the 1930's, this classic novel's words, morals and humour are still completely relevant today.
The small town of Maycomb, Alabama, is home to a host of wonderful characters. We are told the story by Scout, a six-year-old tomboy struggling to understand `grown-up' attitudes, while staying true to her overalls and troublesome streak.
Her father, Atticus, is my personal favourite character. Atticus Finch is a widowed lawyer who decides to take on the case of Tom Robinson-A black man charged with the rape of a white girl, Mayella Ewell. The story, of course, is set during the time of segregation in America so Atticus' decision cause uproar in the extremely racist and prejudiced town.
Scout's 10-year-old brother Jem, is also a main character in the book. We learn of his aspirations to be a lawyer like his Dad. We view through his sister's eyes how he matures and grows during the time of the trial.
Some more memorable characters are Calpurnia, the Finch Family's black housemaid, who is really more like a member of the family. Aunt Alexandra, Atticus' sister, who comes to stay to `fix' the family with her prude ideas and change Scout into a young woman. Dill, the nephew of the Finch's neighbour, Miss. Rachel, who comes to stay during the summer. Mrs. Dubose, a dying old woman addicted to morphine determined to die clean. She backs up the strong theme of courage that runs throughout the book.
Also Boo Radley. Boo is always on the children's minds, whether it is because something out of the ordinary has happened or they're just trying to catch a glimpse of him as he hasn't left his house in 15 years. Boo has a big impact on the plot of the book.
This book is suitable for anyone who is capable of being completely captivated by an amazingly compelling read.
I would completely recommend this book. This is because of everything I have mentioned. Its characters, the story, the lessons that can be learned from it, everything!
Whether it's just to see what you're missing out on, for school or just to find out what all the fuss is about, read To Kill a Mockingbird. I promise that you will not be disappointed!
Definitely 5 stars!!!
Book Review: The Finch and the Mockingbird.
Summary: 5 Stars
This superb book contains several moral lessons and subtly points out faults that many of us share. Most importantly, we must follow our conscience and do what we know is right no matter the possible cost. That takes a great deal of courage and most of us have at one time or another failed in this respect. Harper Lee's Atticus Finch on the other hand was more than up to the task even though most of the town and his family were against him. Lee makes no effort to hide the fact that often there will be consequences for those who take a stand and those consequences will not always be pleasant.
Atticus Finch is not the main character of this story however. The main characters are Atticus' son Jem and his daughter Scout who tells the story. I advise that you forget looking for the moral implications of the story for they are evident and it is much easier to enjoy this book if you just read it and don't try to dissect it. Jem (Jeremy) and Scout (Jean Louise) are probably the most interesting literary children since Tom and Huck and some of their adventures will remind the reader of Twain's creations. In short, this book is just plain fun to read and I regret terribly having waited so long to read it!
During most of the story the children's adventures tend to revolve around the Radley house and it's most sinister occupant, Boo (Arthur) Radley. Boo is a recluse that hasn't been spotted out of his house by a reliable source in many years and of course the rumor mill in a small town has turned him into a monster that eats raw squirrels. In the end, the Boo Radley story line presents the reader with yet another moral lesson but the trail that leads to this lesson takes many interesting twists and turns.
One will also find a very good description of the twentieth century South in Lee's work. From sleeping on the porch in the Summertime to watching the old men loaf around the courthouse I can honestly say I have been there and done that. Class distinction has always been very important in the South and Harper Lee works hard to bring that distinction out. Thankfully African-Americans are currently judged on their merit and not their race so that they fall into the caste system all up and down the ladder. In the 1930s though things were much different. The three lowest rungs on the ladder were poor white trash (the Cunninghams) and low down white trash (the Ewells), with blacks at the bottom. The significance of this being that at that point in time even the lowest whites would be believed over any African-American.
Atticus Finch was for his time and place a fairly odd bird and thank God that there really were Finches out there to look out for the mockingbirds of the world.
Book Review: "Lawyers Were Children Once Too": To Kill a Mockingbird
Summary: 5 Stars
Oddly, I'd never read To Kill a Mockingbird as a high school student. Nor had I ever seen the famous film with Gregory Peck. Fortunately, I also avoided learning the entire plot through cultural osmosis. Sure, I knew who Boo Radley was-- didn't I? Atticus Finch... yeah, I know who that is... right?Boy, was I wrong. Last week I finally decided it'd been long enough, and I sank into Harper Lee's only novel with high expectations. And I was certainly not disappointed. With its slow, warm and evocative opening chapters, Mockingbird starts off like a sulty summer day in the South. Lee depicts a South of "whistling bob white," biscuits and warm milk, and ladies who on the hottest days bathe twice by noon and then douse themselves in lavender-smelling powder.
Jean-Louise Finch, better known as Scout, narrates the story with the keen eye of an adult looking back on a childhood rich with incidents that shaped who she has become. Scout reminded me of some of Carson McCullers's heroines (Member of the Wedding, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter), but without the morbid loneliness and heartbreak. Scout might be described as a tomboy, but that would be doing her a disservice. Her adventures with her older brother Jem, and their dimunitive friend Dill (real name: Charles Baker Harris. "Your name's longer'n you are," Jem points out) evoke the timeless place of childhood.
As for Atticus Finch, what can one say about a father who seems to embody the greatest of virtues? He is tolerant, patient, kind, and understanding. He does not meddle with his children's affairs, he speaks to them as fellow adults (he allows them to call him "Atticus"), and his skill as a lawyer is legendary. Lee presents Atticus in a tough and sensitive manner, so that his believability is paramount.
The other characters in the book are also depicted with great skill: Aunt Alexandra, bane of Scout's existence; Miss Maudie, who gives as good as she gets when harassed by intolerant neighbors; Calpurnia, the ever-present black maid who has as much a hand in Jem and Scout's well-being as Atticus; and of course the Ewells, whose poverty and ignorance help set the plot in motion.
Harper Lee has written a wonderful book that pulses with life, with compassion, and easy good humor. Watching Atticus face down an angry mob set on lynching a black man, or racing with Jem as he escapes gunshots from the Radley house, or sitting with Scout as she forced to join her aunt's church lady reception, or taking that long midnight walk with Jem and Scout, is pure joy; these are scenes that reverberate in the reader's mind and surely in the minds of several generations of readers. I'm glad I can now say I'm one of them.