Hi friends and happy Wednesday! I hope you’re all doing well. I’m back again today with yet another classic read! Today I’m posting my reading update thoughts on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

StoryGraph synopsis

I don’t know much about this story since this is the first time I’m reading it, but I’m excited to. The set up has been good and quite fast paced. My first thought of Scout is that she’s very smart for a young child; it’s not a bad thing but does make for interesting character development and I like her, I can see myself growing fond of her. At 50 pages we can already see how important the Radley Place is; I don’t know it’s significant yet but I look forward to finding out. 

This is going by super fast; each chapter takes place in a season, something happens during that period that teaches both Jem and Scout a lesson. Atticus is such an interesting character because as I move through this, the more I realize the town doesn’t like Atticus for his views… and he’s so patient and loving to even those that call him a bad name, it’s remarkable. I’m waiting and wondering if we’re going to get a cohesive story now that I’ve got part 2 instead of each chapter contained into itself. 

The tone of the book has definitely shifted. What was a tale of young children growing up and learning about the world, has now taken on a darker plot. There has been brief mentions of the case Atticus is working on, but now it’s actually here and his children are attending it… when it’s not for children. This woman has been beaten and raped and she’s claiming it was a black guy in town… but the more I read the more I don’t quite believe that, and I think Atticus has known from the start, which is why he took the case. Things have definitely gotten interesting, I had no idea this book got so dark, even though the topics don’t feel so heavy because we’re seeing it all through the eyes of Scout, a mere child. Even 70+ years later and these are still topics that are relevant to today. 

As I said last week, this has taken on a different tone and continues to do so. The trial comes to a crashing end, which was unsurprising in its verdict unfortunately, I was hoping for some goodness. Both Jem and Scout are trying to wrap their heads around what it all means. Watching Jem grapple with humanity was heartbreaking as he truly can’t understand how people can be as cruel as they are. We also realize that Aunt Alexandria isn’t as bad as she lets on when she has a moment with Scout when the ladies come over; I actually really liked that. There are still 6 chapters to go, so I’m curious what happens next and how this ends. 

This was definitely a reading experience; I had no idea the book turned so dark or had so much meaning behind it – I guess that’s why they call this a classic. First of all, I didn’t realize this book took place during World War II, we learn that just before the final act. Lee did a great job of relating what was happening Germany to what was happening in their own town. The line Jem has about his teacher perfectly summed it up because she could think what Hilter was doing was bad, as if the way she thought about the people different from her at home wasn’t bad or any different; it was definitely perceptive. I also didn’t see that final act coming; it really drove Lee’s point on prejudice home. For the last hundred or so pages I had forgotten about Boo Radley, but the way he showed up in the end and how it taught Scout a real lesson about people and the world, truly phenomenal. This was a joy to read; it had such important topics, yet it was told in a way that was easy to read and make sense of. 

 Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? Let me know in the comments!