Book Talk - To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

For English Class, I recently finished reading the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It was  pretty good! I really enjoyed it! I have to say though, it was a trickier read than most other books.

Here's a quick summary of the book if you haven't read it:

Scout lives in a depression era (1930s) in Maycomb, Alabama. Her father, Atticus, is defending a black man who was accused of raping a young girl. Told through the eyes of Scout, we learn about herself, her brother, her neighbours, and her father, who is trying desperately hard to prove the innocence of a black man.

To start off, I have to say that this book was actually so much better than what I expected! To Kill A Mockingbird is a book that often comes up in many conversations and is overall a very well known book. It's a classic! Everyone has come across this book sometime in their life. It goes without saying that I was a bit nervous to start reading this book because I was worried that I wouldn't understand much of it or that I wouldn't like it at all.

When I started reading it, I was absolutely muddled. I could not understand why a six year old girl knew so many fancy words and why she was describing her ancestor, Simon Finch, in such detail. But, after getting through a few chapters, the book started to make more sense and I started enjoying it more. On one hand, I found that Part 1 of the book was not extremely eventful, but still interesting. On the other hand, I found that Part 2 was much more eventful and interesting!

Now, let's get to the characters! I love Scout! She is such an awesome character. I love her curiosity! She's always wondering about everything, but is too young to understand the answers to some of her questions.  She has an awesome streak of adventure within herself that made her such an interesting and unique character. Scout is also super smart!! She is a book lover (which is pretty awesome!!) and has loved books from a very young age. Furthermore, Scout is also a really courageous character! She took risks throughout this book such as tasting the gum from the Radley tree (even though she thought there was a chance it might be poisoned; this also showcases her curiosity). One of my favourite traits about Scout was that she has a hilarious romantic nature!! I thought that this was very humorous, especially since she was only six years old. At a certain part of the book, when Dill was away, (her future husband 😉) she expressed how she missed him for an entire two days and how dreadful it was to be longing him.  Overall, Scout was one of my favourite characters from this book.

Atticus, Scout's father, is a lawyer in Maycomb, who defends Tom Robinson, an innocent black man accused of rape. Prejudice never affected his choices, which was definitely an awesome quality of his. Atticus is a kind, caring, gentle, and stern character, but is also a very loving father. He is a brave man who believes in what is right instead of what everyone else believes in. He has a lot of courage and teaches his children wisely. Atticus shoots a rabid, sick dog in this book which shows his bravery. It also shows how humble he is. He never told his children or bragged to anyone that he was excellent at shooting; he shoot the sick dog with one single shot. A quality that I really like about Atticus was that he sees people for who they truly are instead of what they look like on the outside. Throughout the book, many people dislike that Scout won't wear dresses like all the other girls, but Atticus doesn't care. Atticus sees Scout for who she is. He doesn't worry about her dressing the way that society wants her to. (Can you tell that I strongly admire Atticus?)

Next there's Jem. Jem is a super creative and curious character. Why? Throughout most of the book, Jem was always wanting to find out more about Boo Radley. He made lots of dramas with Dill and Scout about Boo Radley, which shows off some of his creativity. Something I love about Jem is how he views his world! Jem believes that Tom Robinson should win the case because he knows what is right and doesn't let other people's opinions affect his own. Throughout the book, Jem was an awesome brother to Scout.

All the secondary characters are also amazing as well! Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, Ms. Dubose... and even Boo Radley! I loved how they added to the story, and how in the end Boo Radley was actually an important character to Scout and Jem.

This book combines prejudice, loss, hope, death and other serious topics and is a really good read.

I really loved this book! Although it was a hard read, it was a good book and deserves a high rating.

I give To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee 4.7 stars. The reason I take off 0.3 of a star is because of the slow start (there was no action), but other than that, it was marvellous!

I do recommend this book! Feel free to comment your thoughts below! :)

Have an amazing day!!!

P.S. I'm planning to post some of my favourite quotes from this book soon. Stay posted!