End of TKAM
Within the past week our class has finished the book, To Kill a Mockingbird. It felt like a breath of fresh air after reading Huckleberry Finn. If you didn't read the book yet and plan on doing it at some point, some spoilers might be coming your way...
Ending the book on a positive note was necessary for the reader to feel satisfied finishing it. Harper Lee made a point to bring the book to a close revolved around the innocent and precious Scout falling asleep to Atticus's voice. She has gone through an excessive amount of moral and physical growth throughout the novel. Beginning the book with a small, inquisitive child and ending the book with that same character is very impactful on the reader. It caused me to appreciate Scout more as a person.
Jem was the character that I was assigned to track throughout the novel and I've
admired him from the start. He's grown on me even more actually. I really appreciated the protective older brother persona he took on for Scout. Jem was also one of the most "woke" characters in the book, realizing the wrongs behind racism. One quote that stuck with me was about the results of the case when he said to Atticus, "How could they do it, how could they?" He really sympathized with Tom Robinson and thought of him as more than a Negro.
Considering our discussion, there were a lot of strong opinions about the end of the book but we all pretty much agreed that it was probably the best book we've read all year. The role of Atticus as a father came up a lot which was good because he's a very underrated character in the way that he raises his kids and I feel as if he deserves more recognition. On the more meta side of it, the discussion seemed very choppy but eventually fell into step and more people participated.
Post Discussion #2
Scout as a narrator and Dill's heavy involvement within the story is important because children see past race easier than adults do. When you're younger, you're more impressionable and naive which sounds like a bad combination but it also means that that children base their opinions on people off of their actions without prejudice. Harper Lee
choses children to exemplify the motif of racism and does it effortlessly. Adults in Mahem County and in the 1930s south in general are blind to good character. The first thing they see if the color of your skin or your economic status and that is the premise for all other judgements following that. This novel emphasizes our ignorance to other people's experiences. In the case of Tom Robinson, his sentence was set before Atticus even had a chance to speak based on the color of his skin. We still need to overcome the whole judgment aspect in our daily lives. Everyone judges whether it be good or bad and everyone needs to judge a person solely based on their character.
