Thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird - Anthony
Mockingbird tells the story of the white Finch family living in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the early 1930s. The book is narrated by the young and innocent Jean Louise Finch, known to her friends as Scout. She has a caring (and somewhat reckless) older brother named Jem. Their ever-loving father, Atticus, is a lawyer. When they’re bored, Scout and Jem do a little trolling: they try to lure the mysterious Boo Radley out of his house, who is described as a “malevolent phantom” that never comes out of his house.
On their way to school, Scout and Jem occasionally find small gifts in a knothole of one of the Radleys’ trees. Once, a fire breaks out in a neighbor’s house, and while Scout watches the fire level the house, someone mysteriously slips a blanket onto Scout, and Jem is convinced it was Boo.
Later, news breaks out that a black man named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping white Mayella Ewell. Atticus, believing that Tom is innocent, steps up to defend Tom. Unfortunately, the racist white citizens of Maycomb are not very happy about this. They harass Atticus, and at school, even Scout and Jem are called “n*gger lovers”. The night before the trial, a mob even attempts to lynch Tom. All of this leads up to the final trial (guess what the all-white jury’s verdict is!). In the aftermath, the elusive Boo Radley even makes a special appearance.
To Kill a Mockingbird has been criticized for its excessive use of the n-word – it’s used almost 50 times in total. Mockingbird has also been accused of being a “white savior” story, because it almost portrays Atticus as a white “god” who swoops down from the heavens to extend his loving, white hand to save some random, helpless, good-for-nothing black man. Despite it having some arguably racist ideas, I enjoyed reading and writing about Mockingbird. In particular, I found it interesting how this whole drama about ‘adult’ topics (racism, rape, etc.) was viewed through the lens of an innocent 8-year-old. I enjoyed watching Scout slowly learn from her experiences and ‘come of age’ (kind of). To conclude, Mockingbird is a great novel and you should go read it!!
- Anthony
Hi Anthony I also read this for the banned book project and it was a good book. This is a very good and in-depth review. Nice Job!
ReplyDeleteFabulous review, Anthony! Your blog really expresses your enthusiasm for To Kill A Mockingbird, so I must check out this book some time in the future. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHi Anthony, I recently watched the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird, and it's interesting to see how some events differ in the movie than from the book. For example, the fire scene never happened in the book!
ReplyDeleteHey Anthony! I heard about this book a lot and its controversies, but I like how you explained that it's a great book with a compelling plot, along with historical accuracy.
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ReplyDeleteIs how I would describe this review of this book. Although I have never read this book before, I had heard about it from various people, and how it was a very worthwhile read. However, none of those people mentioned the many explicit topics in this book. Despite this, the book is able to depict a beautifully written narrative.
DeleteHey Anthony, I have been wanting to read this book for a while now and it seems like its themes might relate a bit to the book I have been reading lately "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Great post!
ReplyDeleteHello Anthony, To Kill a Mockingbird always had been a book on my reading list but somehow I always miss it (& I actually checked it out this summer from the library but then realized that I checked out a guide to reading the original text:/...). I liked your thoughts on how the way Atticus is depicted as a white savior for the innocent can be controversial. This is a great review :DDD
ReplyDeleteHey Anthony, I also read To Kill a Mockingbird for the banned book project. It was really interesting how you talked about and explained how Atticus was seen as a "white savior." While I personally didn't enjoy the book, it was cool to see the way you interpreted the book.
ReplyDeleteHey Anthony, I never read To Kill a Mockingbird but I have heard things about its controversy and Its nice to learn more about the story so it all adds up. Nice Blog!
ReplyDeleteI read this book for the banned book project as well, but I didn't personally find it as interesting. It moved kind of slowly for me, and there were some parts I didn't understand. However, it was a well written novel , and I liked the twist at the end.
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