To Kill A Mockingbird

Why does my head hurt so much? I have many things to do this weekend and I still have homework... ugh.

I don't know what it says in the Korean subtext. "nwi chanh eum x100"??? idk don't trust me with that

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To Kill A Mockingbird | Harper Lee
Genre: Fiction, Southern Gothic, Classics, Bildungsroman
Published: July 11, 1960
Read: April 2014

I've read this book 2 times. This fact in itself is an anomaly itself as I tend to dislike rereading anything that I don't find intensely interesting or in need of analyzing. I've only done so with this book because different people made me read this at different times.

The first time I read this, I was in the 7th grade. My teacher had us read bit by bit and I reluctantly trekked through the pages of the book, stumbling over Harper Lee's vast and confusing language. It's not that I thought it was boring, there's much to love about the book and its plot and its characters. I just didn't care much for it. I figured it was just another story whose title had nothing to do with its content. Another notable assumption I made was that nearly everyone in the book was black. Why did I think that? Maybe it was because this is all staged in the South, maybe because someone talked about the book helping combat racism, maybe because I got the message that Atticus was a savior of all black people.

I knew the Finches were white but I was pretty convinced everyone else was black. I don't know how I missed it but I should mention this is no longer the case.

Now, 5 years later, I'm reading it again, also as a school assignment. I know what the mockingbird means, I know that the book featured like 3 black people. I understand (or at least, I like to think I do) the social impact this book had on people's perspectives of race. I understand the importance of a book like this.

The narrator is named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. She's really young at the start of the novel and the story progresses throughout the length of her childhood. The story is written half as a flashback, half as an in the moment recounting. I love her voice as a narrator. You're exposed to her innocence, childhood naivety, and frank humor as she gives her perspective on events during a couple summers during her youth. I love reading her thoughts and observing her thought processes as she experiences various events. You get to see her first reactions and her later reflections. I really appreciate that sort of seamless time travelling writing.

She experiences it with her brother, Jeremy "Jem" Atticus Finch.  You get to learn about him and his views almost as clearly as you learn Scout's. His growth as a person and as a character is more evident because you aren't constantly in his head, Scout is always with him, Scout is super observant, and Jem starts going through puberty about halfway through the book. (If you've ever read the Harry Potter series, It's like that feeling in Order of the Phoenix when Harry turns all ugh and teen angst and kind of infuriating).

It's as if you find yourself growing alongside Scout and Jem. Their moral education is yours as well. The events are recorded through the eyes of children so it ends up being served to you pretty raw. Nothing is tainted with bias nor prejudice. If there is dishonesty or injustice apparent, Scout points it out. The reactions of the adults are also something to be marveled at. I liked learning about 1930s Southern courtesies and hospitality practices. I liked to see how they all knew and genuinely cared about each other.

It was also pretty amazing to see how hypocrisy and ignorance were left to run rampant. Often times it seemed like Atticus and Maudie Atkinson were the only level headed decent people in all of Maycomb. I'd like to think that in the depths of their conscience, all citizens of Maycomb county are fully cognizant of their blatantly racist ways. I'm not sure how one goes about believing that they are superior or that an entire group of people is inferior. What would be the point? A majority of the white Maycomb residents mention that they feel "Negroes/niggers/black folks/colored people" were decent enough. They had no problem but always seemed to hold this reservation about them, as if expecting them to start killing their men, raping their women, and grooming their children to become thieves and gamblers.

Thankfully, being the children of a lawyer/decent man, Scout and Jem realize that that is not a way to treat others. While they might not believe that black people might be their equals, they can point out hypocrisy and generally disapprove of discrimination. Their morals and values stand strong throughout the novel and I feel many people can benefit from their lessons in morality and humanity as well.

I think that this book clearly demonstrates the ridiculousness of believing in concepts such as a family's worth is based on how long they have stayed on a piece of property yet not believing that people of all appearances just may be on equal playing ground. There is no superiority inherent in the white race. Bob Ewell is a clear example, the ladies' club that Alexandra Finch holds is a clear example. The reader is forced to acknowledge the absurdity of Maycomb's racism and is hopefully lead to perform an introspective analysis of their values and beliefs.

It's a book that makes you think and for it, I'm glad.