Literary Merit of To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a book written by Alabama resident Harper Lee that gives a glimpse of what life was like in Alabama in the 1930's. In the town of Maycomb, there are people of various social levels, all of which are at an at least humble level, from families like the Finches to the poorest of the poor, the Ewells. But the overriding themes of this book are themes like family, justice, and innocence.

The book centers on the Finch family. The father’s name is Atticus, who is a lawyer. His son’s name is Jem and his daughter’s name is Jean Louise, also known as Scout. Atticus makes a good moral example to his family and the world around him, like telling Scout not to fight people, even when she was tempted to do so. Though Scout and Jem had some trouble understanding, Atticus told them a few times in the book to “walk in someone else’s skin” to understand their perspective. That lesson helped Atticus defend Tom Robinson later on.

Justice, especially racial justice, plays a big part in To Kill A Mockingbird, because it is set in a time where whites and blacks distrusted each other and the segregation laws were in effect. In the second half of the book, Atticus learns he must defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a girl named Mayella Ewell. In the trial, Atticus hears both Mayella and Tom’s testimonies and it seems to him that Tom’s testimony was the most accurate, and Atticus gives a speech in his closing statement that courts are meant to emphasize human equality and “makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president”. However, he loses and Tom was sentenced to death. Jem and Scout were so outraged by this, Scout believed it was like shooting a mockingbird.

          Innocence, in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is symbolized by the mockingbird. Nonetheless, Atticus explains, “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Miss Maudie then explains that, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.” Jem and Scout seemed innocent in their childish exploits throughout the book, but the real connections between the innocent and mockingbirds are made after Tom Robinson’s death sentence, which Scout said it was like shooting a mockingbird. Also in the end of the story, Boo Radley, once in recluse, saves Jem and Scout’s life from Bob Ewell, who attacked them in revenge. Jem was unconscious from the attack, but Scout realizes that Boo wasn’t some monster after all, but a shy yet kind man who earlier in the story gave her and Jem two soap dolls, two pennies and other trinkets, and at the very end, she and Jem realize they haven’t given Boo anything in return.

         

To Kill a Mockingbird’s themes of family, justice and innocence are some of the themes that allowed this book to earn such praise over the years it was published. I’ve learned a bit more about looking into someone else’s perspective from reading it. So, I suggest schools across America and even the world to put this book in their curriculum to at learn more about such themes and see how this book has become so influential.