Tolog Review: To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird 
by Harper Lee
reviewed by Olivia Pieterse

Set amidst a backdrop of the slow-paced, fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama, Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, spotlights racial issues that are anything but sleepy and benign. The story follows the adolescent life of Scout Finch and examines how racial division and class affects her and her family. Through the innocent lenses of Scout and her brother, Jem Finch, Mockingbird examines racial injustices, and Lee implores the reader to look inward and evaluate his own racial biases and latent prejudices.

The story focuses on Jem and Scout Finch and the summer days they spend wondering about their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. Scout, a tomboy with unfiltered expressions and a penchant for handling situations with her fists, admires her brother and wants nothing more than to spend time with him. For Jem, a mature yet innocent young boy, Scout is sometimes a nuisance who will never leave his side. Jem and Scout are raised by their widowed father, Atticus, an attorney who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. Lee uses Atticus as the moral compass by which other characters are judged. Atticus teaches his children to be kind and understanding of others regardless of race or social class. He tells his children that they will never fully understand someone “until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 36). Cloaked with dignity, compassion, and civility, Atticus carries the collective burdens of the discriminated black man and serves as an aspirational example of what a person should be: empathetic, unbiased, and honorable.

Lee uses the innocence of Scout as a counterpoint to emphasize racial and class discrimination. She also employs certain literary devices such as symbolism and irony to tell the narrative. For example, the mockingbird, a sweetly singing bird, is used as a symbol of innocence. The accused, Tom Robinson, is one of the mockingbirds in the novel. Just like a real mockingbird, Tom is innocent of the charges and poses no threat to others. Ironically, Boo Radley is seen as a grotesque, absurd figure in his community. At the end of the novel, the reader learns that Boo is in fact not the monster he is perceived to be, but rather, a kind protector to the Finch children.

Fraught with racial and social division and discord, the fractured town of Maycomb provides the perfect landscape for Lee to start a dialogue about racial injustice and and the need for human decency. Lee’s exploration and examination of the characters living in the town further this discussion about what it means to accept and love others despite racial differences. This novel, beloved by so many, is not only a classic, but a timeless tale of what it means to be good and decent in an unkind world. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a story about family, sacrifice and human morality. Mockingbird has helped me examine my views of society, and I am grateful for that. To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my all time favorite novels. It will engage all those who let it’s message rest within them. I hope you enjoy this important and stirring novel as much as I did.