Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
# of pages: 281

Plot Summary:

Scout and her older brother, Jem, are children of a fairly wealthy family living in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930's. Dill visits his aunt in Maycomb every summer, and he becomes close friend with Scout and Jem. They are frightened by Boo Radley, a reclusive and feared neighbour who has not exited his house for more than 30 years. They soon become friends with Boo, as he provides them with gifts, and they often curiously peek at the Radley house when they walk to and from school.

Their father, Atticus, is a lawyer, who is eventually assigned to defend a black man accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. In the racist Southern society, the black man, Tom Robinson, is widely believed to be a criminal, without a doubt. Despite all of Atticus' efforts to win the case, the all-white jury convicted Tom Robinson and he was eventually killed while imprisoned.

Even after the case, the father of Mayella Ewell is constantly looking for ways to attack Scout and Jem as revenge for Atticus shaming him. As they return from the Halloween pageant without adult supervision, Bob Ewell takes the opportunity...

Opinion:

It is easy to understand why To Kill a Mockingbird has been hailed as a modern classic, a masterpiece of contemporary literature. Harper Lee intertwines several morals within the novel, that there is tremendous symbolism behind every single event in the story. The language may be coarse at times, particularly in some dialogue by racist members of the Maycomb community, but it helps contribute to the overall truthfulness of the story.

I admire Harper Lee's ability to add in some mild humour while maintaining a serious attitude toward the situation that each of the characters face. Looking back on Southern society in the 1930's, compared to our multicultural society in modern Toronto, I can easily tell the remarkable differences from her accurate descriptions of what life was like back then - horrifying they may be.


Main themes:

• To understand one, we must stand in his or her shoes
• It is a sin to kill a mockingbird
• We should treat everyone equally as human beings
  

Subjects:

• Racial discrimination
• Crime
• Social classes

Target audience: People of all ages

Genre: Historical fiction (also somewhat autobiographical)

Rating: 4/5

Book review by Fiona T.
* 18 hours so far
* Can be published in the Teen Newsletter