To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, ISBN 978-0062420701, J.B .Lippincott Company 1960

Plot Summary:

The story takes place in the early 1930s in the fictional small town of Maycomb, Alabama. The story’s protagonist is an eight year old girl, Jean Louise Finch, who goes by Scout. Scout’s family consists of her older brother Jeremy, who goes by Jem, and their father Atticus, a lawyer. Scout and Jem make friends with Dill, a young boy who visits his aunt in Maycomb each summer. The kids are simultaneously terrified and fascinated by the town’s recluse, a man who goes by Boo. Atticus is hired to defend Tom Robinson, a black man in the community who’s been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. The community is not pleased that Atticus would defend this man, and the entire Finch family feels the sting of becoming relative outcasts in their small town. When events turn out to be not as they seem, Scout and her friends learn important lessons about race, judgement, and courage.

Critical Evaluation:

I love this book. It’s one of the most perfectly written novels of all time. It’s a pretty easy read. The conversations between the characters are written so the reader can tell when children are speaking and when adults are. Scout’s language and understanding is typical of a small child and the reader sees her growth easily. Lee uses the protagonist to point out to the reader matters of racial injustice, intolerance, and love. One of the more important issues in the book is how class affects the actions of every character. Scout’s Aunt Alexandra believes that a person’s inherent qualities, whether good or bad, is based entirely upon their genealogy. Scout resists this idea and learns from Atticus how to respect any person in her life that deserves it, regardless of their class. When Atticus defends Tom, a black man, many in the community are outraged because Tom is black and is therefore of a lower class. Seeing Atticus help someone outside of his own class makes people angry. Another major theme of the novel is how traditional gender roles affect these characters. Scout has grown up without a mother, so her main female role models are Calpurnia, their maid, and their neighbor, Miss Maude. Both women are independent and do not hesitate to speak their minds. Lee treat these women as heroines in Scout’s life and satirizes some of the other women in the town who are quick to force Scout to act like a lady. This is a traditional coming of age novel. Scout learns and grows by watching her friends and neighbors exercise both compassion and judgement.

Reader’s Annotation:

Scout’s father must defend a man most think is guilty. Will she be able to find the truth and learn what it means to be truly compassionate?

Information about the Author:

From the author’s website:

American writer, famous for her race relations novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962. Lee was 34 when the work was published, and it has remained her only novel.

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

    Descendent from Robert E. Lee, the Southern Civil War general, Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her father was a former newspaper editor and proprietor, who had served as a state senator and practiced as a lawyer in Monroeville. Lee studied law at the University of Alabama from 1945 to 1949, and spent a year as an exchange student in Oxford University,

Wellington Square. Six months before finishing her studies, she went to New York to pursue a literary career. She worked as an Airline reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways during the 1950s. In 1959 Lee accompanied Truman Capote to Holcombe, Kansas, as a research assistant for Capote's classic 'non-fiction' novel In Cold Blood (1966).

         Although her first novel gained a huge success, Lee did not continue her career as a writer. She returned from New York to Monroeville, where she has lived avoiding interviews. To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into several languages. An illustrated English edition appeared in Moscow in 1977 for propaganda reasons. In the foreword Nadiya Matuzova, Dr.Philol., wrongly stated that "Harper Lee did not live to see her fiftieth birthday," and added perhaps rightly: "But her only, remarkable novel which continued the best traditions of the American authors who wrote about America's South - Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell and many others - will forever belong in the treasure of progressive American literature."

Genre:

Coming of age, mystery, adventure

Curriculum Ties:

History of the American South, Race relations

Challenge Issues:

This book has been challenged because of language and racial concerns.

Creating a Defense:

• Make sure you have thorough knowledge of the library’s selection policy as well as a copy on hand. Your insight as well as pointing out specific portions of the policy will be helpful in discussion with the patron.
• Always have the library Bill of Rights close to show the patron your library’s commitment to providing all kinds of information.
• Have some reveiws on hand, both good and bad, from respected sources like YALSA or Amazon so both you and the patron can gain an understanding of both sides of the issue.
• Make sure you’re familiar with the books that might be challenged. Be prepared to discuss the book’s intended audience, its educational significance, purpose, and also some alternative titles to read.
• Don’t get defensive. The librarian can’t take the challenge personally and either party getting upset will cause the discussion to devolve into a fight.
• LISTEN. Even if you don’t agree with the patron, their views are as valid as yours and should be respected.

Reading Level:

Grades 8+

Booktalking Ideas:

How do you deal with problems concerning your family? Have you ever felt the need to defend yourself or your family’s actions to a large group of people? Do you think there is true justice in this story?

Why is the material included?:

This is my favorite book of all time. This is the book that made me learn how to read critically and truly understand the power of literature. It’s a classic and rightly belongs on any list of must reads for young adults. 

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