I was told about To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. It was one of those books that we read when we were told to read by the teacher, but it never felt like it to me. Years later, when I was experiencing one of the most silent moments of my life, I was in need of a book that would make me feel something, anything, real, deep.
One night I was browsing Pinterest and came across a quote that made me freeze:
It is a fine thing you can never really know anyone until you put yourself in his place and see things with his eyes and feel things with his feelings.(Until you get into his skin and walk around in it.).
I felt as though the words struck me in the chest and shook me up.
I therefore clicked open my Kindle and purchased the book and started reading. I had no idea-it would alter my view on the world.
To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by a little girl, Jean Louise Scout Finch, who lives in a small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. She is a daughter of a lawyer who is wise and gentle, Atticus Finch, and lives with her older brother Jem. Life appears to be easy with its summer games, strange neighbors such as Boo Radley, and lazy Southern afternoons.
However, things change when Atticus is called upon to defend a black man Tom Robinson who falsely raped a white woman. It is not just a trial, but a reflection of the worst in society: racism, injustice and the complicity of the good people.
Scout observes it all, the brutality, the bravery, the bewilderment and we read it all through the eyes of an innocent, curious Scout. That is why the story was so devastating. It is not exactly a courtroom drama. It is the tale of coming of age. The idea of knowing that the world does not always run fair- but we have to do what is right.
I am not joking, this book captivated me more than I could imagine.
As soon as I read the first chapter, I felt I just walked into Maycomb. I was able to hear the buzzing of the cicadas in the summer heat, smell the sweet tea, feel the dust on the roads under the bare feet of Scout. It is very direct writing. Each sentence was accompanied with a heartbeat.
Scout spoke to me about my childhood; as a young girl, I was inquisitive, untameable, and never satisfied with the answers grown-ups did not want to give me. She was truthful in her voice. Real. And it was with her that I was able to glimpse the bewildering nature of the world once you start trying to reconcile yourself with adult cruelty.
Then there is Atticus Finch,--oh, Atticus! This man is the prototype of a good person that you always wanted to see in the world. Calm. Brave. Quietly powerful. He did not have to scream to be heard. He simply existed. I was deeply touched with the idea of him defending Tom even when he knew he was going to lose, he still fought. It made me remember that courage does not mean winning. It is about being there when it counts.
It was hard reading the account of the trial of Tom Robinson.
I was clenching my chest after each chapter wishing a miracle that was not to be. The injury was great. But there was something more that I felt, I was also angry--but clear. And this is what Harper Lee had us observe: the extent to which racism was (and continues to be) ingrained in the society.
She did not sugar coat it. She did not tie it up into a happy ending. And I admire her for it.
When I turned the last page, I just sat there for a while.
I kept thinking about Boo Radley, how we spend so much time fearing what we don’t understand. And I thought about Tom Robinson, how even in death, he showed us how broken the world can be.
But I also thought about Atticus. And how hope can live in the smallest acts of kindness.
It was sitting down and listening to humanity--its ugliness and its beauty.
It caused me to experience emotions of which I was not aware: anger, love, sadness, clarity, hope. And is not that the effect that a really fine story should produce?
Whether you are 16 or 60 this book will appeal to you. And perhaps, perhaps, it will make you step a bit tender in this world. Assist you to stop and think before judging. Assist you to speak out when it is convenient to be quiet.
And To Kill a Mockingbird does not provide you with answers. It presents you questions--and the boldness to put them.
The last three image was gotten from web:
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3