To Kill A Mockingbird
Classic Novel
Reading this book is probably about the fourth or fifth time I have read it. Yet this Summer was different for me. I was always told that the result of re-reading a novel at a different time in your life was that you got someone different from it each and every time. Seeing as this book is a classic novel I am not going to review it, but rather give my side of it.
Finding this book buried inside my bookshelf was a relief. I was tired of reading the same old teenage driven 'books' that kept repeating the same story plot. To Kill a Mockingbird was different. I had read it in the 8th grade as an assignment. I believe that we were too young to grasp any concept that Harper Lee was trying to get across. I really hate that adults/teachers try to make young students 'broaden their minds' by making them read the book and then talking about it. Why not read the book and explain the bigger details? Well at least my teacher avoided the subjects that I grasped reading this book the fourth time around.
The characters drew me in. Scout was as mischievous as her older brother Jem and their friend Dill. She reminded me of myself in a way that I was a tomboy too in my younger years. (Although I am only eighteen years of age being little seems forever ago) But nobody tried to make me into a lady. Seeing as though times have changed now it is okay for a growing child to wear pants and climb trees with the boys. With this in mind Atticus was given a hard time because he let his children do what they wanted to do. I enjoyed Atticus' character, he was definitely the kind of father I wanted. He was honest with his children.
Re-reading this book made me think about what my future had in store for me. Was I to find someone to raise a family with? If I had children were they going to go through the same things that Scout, Jem and Dill went through? These questions will only be answered in time.
The other characters in the novel to had inspired thoughts of what life was actually like. The trial of Tom Robinson was too intense to read. Although I have read this book before I found myself ansty to see what each page had in store for me. When the jury's decision was read off by the judge, my heart sank. I was sorry for the man who was crippled and innocent. I was sorry for his family not only because they would live without him, because they were prejuidiced against. History has it's stories of hate and misguided ignorance but reading about this trial in the year of 2009 was a sad story. Today we still see stories of race based hate. Just the other day I was reading a story about segregated proms in the south this year! It's crazy to me.
But back to the story. I found Dill and Scout's romance utterly cute. Dill would tell grand ficticious stories and Scout knew he was lying but still liked him regardless. They were engaged and Scout would miss him terribly when he would go home to Meridian for the school year.
To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic, has touched my heart and will always change like a chamelion with each and every read.
