Why Is To Kill A Mockingbird So Important To High School?
Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird is academically beneficial to high schoolers. The novel contains interesting topics and issues that engage students and is widely praised for its brilliant use of language skills which is useful to all aspiring writers and struggling high schoolers. Scott Martelle shares in his article “Educators Take a Hard Look at ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’” the many opinions teachers and writers hold about Harper Lee’s book, beginning and ending with a positive view on the story’s messages. Martelle explains the novel’s role in high schools and how “it has evolved into a key classroom tool for teachers” (1). Martelle quotes Nancy Louise Rutherford, a former English teacher at Los Angeles’ Belmont High School who says
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that it “is a very well-written book that has a lot of things to teach- not just about tolerance, but about how to grow up, and how to get along” (2). This means that To Kill a Mockingbird has become one of the main sources that educators use to help their classes understand important subjects besides racism to which teenagers would otherwise not be exposed.
This shows that teenagers will not recognize the full importance of these issues Lee’s novel discusses or how this ignorance will impact their’s and other's lives without reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Without this book, students will be missing key messages involving morals and the struggles about accepting and agreeing with others. In another work from the UK Telegraph, journalist Urmee Khan writes in her article “To Kill a Mockingbird voted greatest Novel of All Time” about the various prizes and awards Harper Lee’s bestselling novel has received but also continues to praise its timeless story and the many books Khan’s survey finds it superior to, including The Bible. Khan describes To Kill a Mockingbird as a “1960s classic” that has sold “30 million copies worldwide,” obviously showing its popularity (1). Khan later goes on to quote The Bookseller magazine's deputy editor, Joel Rickett, who states that “To Kill a Mockingbird is… a hugely powerful and political book that has formed many a …show more content…
conscience. As a teenager a book like that can be more profound than reading a book in your 40s or 50s” (1). This means that Lee’s novel is hugely popular and helps teenagers learn about topics besides racism and tolerance like the government and how the law worked in the past versus now. This shows that not only does the book teach students about prejudice and the struggle of following one’s morals but also about differing views and opinions that always exist in life. To Kill a Mockingbird is a huge asset to teachers in the classroom who are trying to expose their students to issues such as discrimination, narrow-mindedness, and politics because Harper Lee’s novel discusses these very topics within its many pages.
Many novels find ways to connect with readers to get them more emotionally involved and attached to the characters and settings they create, and To Kill a Mockingbird is no exception.
The novel’s narrator is a young girl named Scout who shares her childhood with the audience, many of the events that occur and emotions she feels being somethings readers can relate to, even if it is in different ways. According to Tom Geoghegan, writer of the article “Why is To Kill a Mockingbird so popular?”, Harper Lee’s novel is “a huge critical and commercial success” and has gained its popularity through the hundreds of ways it pulls the heart-strings of its readers (1). Geoghegan quotes many writers, professors, and lecturers who all agree that Lee’s book is an emotional piece of work that can easily relate with adults just as much as children, Denis Flannery, an American literature lecturer at the University of Leeds, elaborating that idea by stating that “it’s very much a novel about an argument for justice, a novel where children struggle to obtain justice… Every adult has a memory of being unjustly treated as a child” (2). This means that not only does Harper Lee’s novel, a story about the journey through childhood, appeal to a young audience because of its relatability, but adults also find it parallels in some ways with their own lives and memories of when they were younger. This shows that To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful piece of work in which readers can find parts of
themselves at any age. Another way Harper Lee’s novel connects with an audience is through its search for truth, and the story it tells through a child’s eyes about one man’s plea for backup in a biased case. A political cartoonist, Bill Day, drew a picture of a mockingbird with the name ‘Trayvon Martin’ on its wings and published it shortly after the incident about this young man’s death at the hands of a neighborhood watch captain who said he acted out of self-defense. Many felt that racism was involved, Trayvon Martin being a black teenager while George Zimmerman, the man guilty of shooting him, was a grown white man. This means that Bill Day was comparing the Trayvon Martin case with a very similar one that occurred within To Kill a Mockingbird- the death of Tom Robinson after he was found guilty by his town’s jury for raping a young girl named Mayella Ewell, a crime he did not actually commit. This shows that as so many people find George Zimmerman wrong in killing an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, Lee’s novel discovers a way to connect with the public by displaying a very similar case that happens in her story written over half a century ago. To Kill a Mockingbird has proven how well it connects with its readers emotionally, from its relatability to the restraints of childhood to the similarities it shares with current events, and keeping it in the classroom for teenagers to find ways they can correlate themselves with the novel’s many characters and events is something every one of them deserves.
Racism and staying true to one’s morals are some of the top issues still present in today’s society, from offensive jokes to throwing away everything different about a person for the sake of them fitting in, teenagers need guidance on how to become the best possible version of themselves, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has so many lessons that help them do this. With its independent, young, female narrator and the many moments in its pages that challenge society and its racist views at the time, Lee’s novel teaches its readers to follow what they believe is right, not what others expect them to do. Colette Bancroft, the book editor from the Tampa Bay Times, writes in her article “Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’” about how the novel “has become such an iconic book,” the reason behind this being the many issues it discusses that society still argues over now (1). Bancroft believes that part of its timelessness is due to “its challenges to gender roles and insights to mental illness,” adding that while its characters don’t “overcome America’s original sin of racism… big movements start small with one person witnessing an injustice he cannot dismiss and standing up… that witness [happening] for many Americans… in the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird” (1). This means that Lee’s book brings up problems that large parts of the public today want corrected, sexism and racism two of the larger ones, and shows how that can be accomplished, starting with one single act of change. This shows that as more read To Kill a Mockingbird and about the issues it presents about society and how it can be fixed, more will act to change theses issues, especially teenagers who are at that very moment in their lives where that action counts a lot. In Scott Martelle’s article, he shares the thoughts of teachers and how they believe the novel is still a very relevant book now. Jennifer Nocera, a teacher from Victor Valley High School who directed a To Kill a Mockingbird play, says the novel’s “message is very important and still very applicable today- not necessarily from the racial standpoint, but the whole idea of not judging a person until you put yourself in their position” (Martelle 1). This means that To Kill a Mockingbird not only shows the wrongs of racism but also the right way on how to interact with others. This shows that in more ways than one, Lee’s novel helps people of all ages learn how to treat each other respectfully, whether it concerns race or just the difference in personalities. Harper Lee’s book is one that displays acts of kindness, the wrongs of society and how step by step they can be righted, and good morals like being non-judgemental and accepting. These are all lessons that teenagers should learn, especially during the years when they discover themselves and what path they want to take that will help shape society’s future.
that it “is a very well-written book that has a lot of things to teach- not just about tolerance, but about how to grow up, and how to get along” (2). This means that To Kill a Mockingbird has become one of the main sources that educators use to help their classes understand important subjects besides racism to which teenagers would otherwise not be exposed.
This shows that teenagers will not recognize the full importance of these issues Lee’s novel discusses or how this ignorance will impact their’s and other's lives without reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Without this book, students will be missing key messages involving morals and the struggles about accepting and agreeing with others. In another work from the UK Telegraph, journalist Urmee Khan writes in her article “To Kill a Mockingbird voted greatest Novel of All Time” about the various prizes and awards Harper Lee’s bestselling novel has received but also continues to praise its timeless story and the many books Khan’s survey finds it superior to, including The Bible. Khan describes To Kill a Mockingbird as a “1960s classic” that has sold “30 million copies worldwide,” obviously showing its popularity (1). Khan later goes on to quote The Bookseller magazine's deputy editor, Joel Rickett, who states that “To Kill a Mockingbird is… a hugely powerful and political book that has formed many a …show more content…
conscience. As a teenager a book like that can be more profound than reading a book in your 40s or 50s” (1). This means that Lee’s novel is hugely popular and helps teenagers learn about topics besides racism and tolerance like the government and how the law worked in the past versus now. This shows that not only does the book teach students about prejudice and the struggle of following one’s morals but also about differing views and opinions that always exist in life. To Kill a Mockingbird is a huge asset to teachers in the classroom who are trying to expose their students to issues such as discrimination, narrow-mindedness, and politics because Harper Lee’s novel discusses these very topics within its many pages.
Many novels find ways to connect with readers to get them more emotionally involved and attached to the characters and settings they create, and To Kill a Mockingbird is no exception.
The novel’s narrator is a young girl named Scout who shares her childhood with the audience, many of the events that occur and emotions she feels being somethings readers can relate to, even if it is in different ways. According to Tom Geoghegan, writer of the article “Why is To Kill a Mockingbird so popular?”, Harper Lee’s novel is “a huge critical and commercial success” and has gained its popularity through the hundreds of ways it pulls the heart-strings of its readers (1). Geoghegan quotes many writers, professors, and lecturers who all agree that Lee’s book is an emotional piece of work that can easily relate with adults just as much as children, Denis Flannery, an American literature lecturer at the University of Leeds, elaborating that idea by stating that “it’s very much a novel about an argument for justice, a novel where children struggle to obtain justice… Every adult has a memory of being unjustly treated as a child” (2). This means that not only does Harper Lee’s novel, a story about the journey through childhood, appeal to a young audience because of its relatability, but adults also find it parallels in some ways with their own lives and memories of when they were younger. This shows that To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful piece of work in which readers can find parts of
themselves at any age. Another way Harper Lee’s novel connects with an audience is through its search for truth, and the story it tells through a child’s eyes about one man’s plea for backup in a biased case. A political cartoonist, Bill Day, drew a picture of a mockingbird with the name ‘Trayvon Martin’ on its wings and published it shortly after the incident about this young man’s death at the hands of a neighborhood watch captain who said he acted out of self-defense. Many felt that racism was involved, Trayvon Martin being a black teenager while George Zimmerman, the man guilty of shooting him, was a grown white man. This means that Bill Day was comparing the Trayvon Martin case with a very similar one that occurred within To Kill a Mockingbird- the death of Tom Robinson after he was found guilty by his town’s jury for raping a young girl named Mayella Ewell, a crime he did not actually commit. This shows that as so many people find George Zimmerman wrong in killing an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin, Lee’s novel discovers a way to connect with the public by displaying a very similar case that happens in her story written over half a century ago. To Kill a Mockingbird has proven how well it connects with its readers emotionally, from its relatability to the restraints of childhood to the similarities it shares with current events, and keeping it in the classroom for teenagers to find ways they can correlate themselves with the novel’s many characters and events is something every one of them deserves.
Racism and staying true to one’s morals are some of the top issues still present in today’s society, from offensive jokes to throwing away everything different about a person for the sake of them fitting in, teenagers need guidance on how to become the best possible version of themselves, and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has so many lessons that help them do this. With its independent, young, female narrator and the many moments in its pages that challenge society and its racist views at the time, Lee’s novel teaches its readers to follow what they believe is right, not what others expect them to do. Colette Bancroft, the book editor from the Tampa Bay Times, writes in her article “Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’” about how the novel “has become such an iconic book,” the reason behind this being the many issues it discusses that society still argues over now (1). Bancroft believes that part of its timelessness is due to “its challenges to gender roles and insights to mental illness,” adding that while its characters don’t “overcome America’s original sin of racism… big movements start small with one person witnessing an injustice he cannot dismiss and standing up… that witness [happening] for many Americans… in the pages of To Kill a Mockingbird” (1). This means that Lee’s book brings up problems that large parts of the public today want corrected, sexism and racism two of the larger ones, and shows how that can be accomplished, starting with one single act of change. This shows that as more read To Kill a Mockingbird and about the issues it presents about society and how it can be fixed, more will act to change theses issues, especially teenagers who are at that very moment in their lives where that action counts a lot. In Scott Martelle’s article, he shares the thoughts of teachers and how they believe the novel is still a very relevant book now. Jennifer Nocera, a teacher from Victor Valley High School who directed a To Kill a Mockingbird play, says the novel’s “message is very important and still very applicable today- not necessarily from the racial standpoint, but the whole idea of not judging a person until you put yourself in their position” (Martelle 1). This means that To Kill a Mockingbird not only shows the wrongs of racism but also the right way on how to interact with others. This shows that in more ways than one, Lee’s novel helps people of all ages learn how to treat each other respectfully, whether it concerns race or just the difference in personalities. Harper Lee’s book is one that displays acts of kindness, the wrongs of society and how step by step they can be righted, and good morals like being non-judgemental and accepting. These are all lessons that teenagers should learn, especially during the years when they discover themselves and what path they want to take that will help shape society’s future.