Book 20 - To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

This summer is the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, yet another book that I never got around to reading. Up until now, Scout, Atticus, and Boo were simply the answers to crossword puzzle clues. I now know what I have been missing.

Book 20 - To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The story takes place in Alabama during the Great Depression, and is told from the perspective of a bright young tomboy named Scout. Scout and her older brother Jem, befriend a rather diminutive and imaginative boy named Dill. The children have an obsessive fascination with Boo Radley, a reclusive man that few people in the town have ever seen, and they are constantly scheming to get a glimpse of him. Although these efforts are unsuccessful, Boo will eventually touch their lives in ways they cannot anticipate.

Scout's father Atticus, to whom the children refer by first name rather than paternal title, is a well respected lawyer, state legislator, and a devoted father. Atticus is a widower, and is raising Scout and her brother Jem with the help of a black housekeeper named Calpurnia. Despite his many other duties, he finds time to spend with his children and helps them to understand the concepts of tolerance, justice, and fairness, in a society that often seems to ignore those concepts.

Atticus is appointed by the court to defend a black man who is wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. Despite the dangers posed to himself and his family by taking on such a task, Atticus feels a moral obligation to vigorously defend the man. Scout and her brother are forced to endure insults by their classmates and neighbors, and they soon start to realize the concepts of fairness and justice that their father has instilled in them are not always so clear cut in the real world.

The simplicity of childhood, the loss of innocence, justice and human dignity are just a few of the themes explored by Harper Lee in this deceptively simple book. Although Scout's narrative voice is mature, it speaks with a childlike guilelessness that distills and clarifies the events. Her loss of innocence is almost palpable as she learns the realities of bigotry and racism. While this is a book that is typically taught in school, it is worth a read if you haven't already read it, and worth a re-read if you have.