Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Classic literature is something that I have always liked in the abstract. As a child, reading books that were deemed “classics” made me feel very smart and thus, very important. Growing up I developed an appreciation for how certain books had an impact on large groups of people – making their mark on the world. I have always had a fondness for these types of books, but I never truly loved one until I read this masterpiece by Harper Lee.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time when I was thirteen years old. Since then I have made it a tradition to re-read the book every summer, and there have been quite a few years where I’ve picked it up an additional time or two. I’m now twenty-one years old, and I can honestly say that it gets better each time through. I know the characters as though they were my own family, and in a way, they are.
I still feel Scout’s frustration with her brother and classmates, am still drawn to her pride and determination. I still laugh at the schoolyard-antics of the Finch siblings, still smile when Dill arrives. I sit at the edge of my seat for the trial each time around and I can never read the words “Hey, Boo” without tearing up a little.
Harper Lee did something truly amazing with this book. She took a story of racism and injustice and showed it to her audience through the eyes of a child still innocent to the cruelty of our world. She made us experience these timeless moral conflicts in a way that made us care.
This is not the sort of book I like. I’m a person who is drawn to post-apocalyptic tales and elaborate fantasy worlds. To Kill a Mockingbird is so far the opposite of what I typically enjoy in my literature – and yet it remains my favorite book to this day. She made me really care about this story. She made so many people care.
Picking up this book is like travelling to Maycomb County and being surrounded by people I have known my entire life. Things that would normally hold no interest to me suddenly become the most important things in the world. This book is one of the closest things to my heart and it greatly shaped the person I am today.
I love this book so much more than I ever could have expected, and it’s something that I highly recommend to everyone. The story may be set in the 1930’s but the themes and messages are truly timeless. There are so few stories that I recommend to anyone unconditionally, but this is one of them. It will make you care so deeply about such important things, and while you’re reading it you’ll get to be a child again – no matter how many times you pick it up.
I read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time when I was thirteen years old. Since then I have made it a tradition to re-read the book every summer, and there have been quite a few years where I’ve picked it up an additional time or two. I’m now twenty-one years old, and I can honestly say that it gets better each time through. I know the characters as though they were my own family, and in a way, they are.
I still feel Scout’s frustration with her brother and classmates, am still drawn to her pride and determination. I still laugh at the schoolyard-antics of the Finch siblings, still smile when Dill arrives. I sit at the edge of my seat for the trial each time around and I can never read the words “Hey, Boo” without tearing up a little.
Harper Lee did something truly amazing with this book. She took a story of racism and injustice and showed it to her audience through the eyes of a child still innocent to the cruelty of our world. She made us experience these timeless moral conflicts in a way that made us care.
This is not the sort of book I like. I’m a person who is drawn to post-apocalyptic tales and elaborate fantasy worlds. To Kill a Mockingbird is so far the opposite of what I typically enjoy in my literature – and yet it remains my favorite book to this day. She made me really care about this story. She made so many people care.
Picking up this book is like travelling to Maycomb County and being surrounded by people I have known my entire life. Things that would normally hold no interest to me suddenly become the most important things in the world. This book is one of the closest things to my heart and it greatly shaped the person I am today.
I love this book so much more than I ever could have expected, and it’s something that I highly recommend to everyone. The story may be set in the 1930’s but the themes and messages are truly timeless. There are so few stories that I recommend to anyone unconditionally, but this is one of them. It will make you care so deeply about such important things, and while you’re reading it you’ll get to be a child again – no matter how many times you pick it up.
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About the Piece |
This was one of the first Goodreads reviews I ever did, and I wrote it because I really just wanted to express my love for this book.
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