Review: To Kill a Mocking Bird

Kalif Chew
Mr. Spain
APUSH
21 March 2014 To Kill a Mockingbird Book Report To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in Alabama in the early 1930s, during the beginning of FDR’s New Deal. FDR’s New Deal was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was caused by industrial overproduction, stock market crashes, and thousands of bank failures. This put the United States at its lowest economic point of all time. Too many products were being produced, yet no one had the money available to buy them, leading millions of home foreclosures and starving families across the nation. Roosevelt explained to these families that his New Deal program would seek to deliver relief, recovery, and reform—the "3 Rs." Relief, within the New Deal proved to be highly successful. Millions of Americans, unable to find work in an economy that was still badly broken four years into the Great Depression, might have starved to death if not for the government checks they earned by working for new agencies like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration. Reform, within the New Deal legacy may have been unmatched in American history. For better or worse, Roosevelt's program drastically altered the relationship between the capitalist market, the people, and their government, creating for the first time in this country's history an activist state committed to providing individual citizens with a measure of security against the unpredictable turns of the market. When it came to recovery, however, the New Deal's performance lagged. It was certainly successful in both short-term relief, and in implementing long-term structural reform, however, the New Deal ultimately failed to end the Great Depression. The problems of the Great Depression affected all Americans. No group was harder hit than African Americans. Jim Crow Laws during the Great Depression strictened and furthered tensions between blacks and whites. In some Northern cities, whites called for blacks to be fired from any jobs as long as there were whites out of work. Klan-influenced groups such as the Black Shirts paraded “No Jobs for Negroes” and even ambushed and killed African American employees. Three major themes of To Kill a Mockingbird are coexistence of good vs. evil, racism, and bravery. The novel approaches good and evil by exaggerating Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence, in which they assume that people are good because they have never seen evil, to a more adult perspective. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, even Jem is victimized to an extent by his discovery of the evil of racism during and after the trial. It’s through their discovery of how deep racism runs in their town that the story is based. Throughout the novel, Scout explores the differences between black people and white people. She and Jem attend church with Calpurnia and Scout truly enjoys the experience. Afterwards, she asks Calpurnia if she might be able to visit her house sometime because she has never seen it. Jem, Scout, and Dill also sit with the black citizens of the town in the balcony of the court house to observe the trial. In addition, Scout and Dill have a lengthy conversation with Mr. Raymond, a white man who married a black woman and has mixed children. Mr. Raymond reveals that he pretends to be an alcoholic by carrying around a paper bag with a bottle of Coca-Cola inside in order to let the town excuse his choice to marry a black woman. Tom Robinson was falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, because he was black. Mayella Ewell was an “innocent” Caucasian woman, under the negative influence of her bigot father. He told her to lie about Tom and because she was white and Tom was black he was automatically convicted as guilty before the court date even arrived. Atticus is brave to defend a black man in the face of criticism and threats of violence. He also is brave in the face of danger, both when he kills the rabid dog with a single shot and when facing the mob of men outside the jailhouse. Atticus urges Scout to be brave and prevent herself from fighting those who criticize her or her family. To Atticus, withholding violence is one of the highest forms of bravery. Thought they are not the only, these three themes cannot stand alone. Each is linked, almost in a cause and effect way, to the next. Scout and Jem are exposed the evils of Maycomb. Atticus tries to be brave and do the right thing by combating these evils and standing up against racism despite others’ opinions. The author’s themes could impact our society today in a negative or positive way. Racisms still exists and probably always will, and for that people may gravitate to this book for negative reasons because they’re closed-minded stuck in the 1800s and believe Tom got what he deserved. Others may gravitate to this book because they admire the Finch’s attempt to unite Maycomb. Even though Cal was their maid, she was more so apart of the Finch family. Atticus tried to prove that just like whites, blacks were people too, with families, and at the end of the day, just wanted to provide for their families like normal people did. There are some similarities between the time period the novel was set in and now. Like I said, racism still exists, so in that sense the two periods are very much alike, but racism today isn’t nearly as violent as it once was. Harper Lee based To Kill a Mockingbird on things that she knew and experienced. I believe that is why To Kill a Mockingbird became a classic so quickly, because the book was published at the time when the events in the novel related tremendously to events in real life. To Kill a Mockingbird probably opened a lot of people’s eyes as to how unfair racism really was. People who weren’t active racists, but also ignored the Civil Rights Movements probably “pulled an Atticus” and stood alongside African Americans and weren’t afraid to do the right thing. White readers probably didn’t like the book to much, because it seemed almost as if it was bashing them or making all white people seem evil. I feel like most black readers enjoyed it because those who were in Tom’s circumstances or knew someone who was were finally having their voice heard. The book was very eye opening. It was pretty pathetic to see how naïve Maycomb wanted their children to be. Basically they wanted them to grow up thinking Maycomb was this quiet, perfect, white-only, farm town. The kids didn’t know it was far from it. It really surprised me at how shocked the kids were when they discovered how corrupt their town really was. It amazes me how much racism surrounded them and the barely processed what it all meant. I personally didn’t like the book very much. I respect that it’s a classic, but it didn’t keep my attention as much as it should’ve. It wasn’t a page-turner for me and I was kind of disappointed, but other than that the realism in the characters and settings were amazing. I could visualize the scenes in my head, and for that I’ll give Lee her props.