I was underwhelmed. I found the kids grating, especially by calling their father by his first name. I hate crap like that. Also all that bragging about learning to read at age three. I call bullshit.
The racial stuff? It’s been done, and done better.
PLease tell us the ones you consider better done.
I saw the movie before reading the book, which in my opinion if you are going to do both is the best way. I loved this book when I was in school and recently reread it. It is still amazing.
I too had quite a crush on Gregory Peck and Atticus quite seperatly.
He is raising a woman for 1950s Alabama, a woman for the depression, a woman through the war and civil rights and equal rights for women.
The only person that had no business raising children was that aunt
Smart children with parents who value education certainly can and do start learning to read that young. As for calling their father by his first name, eh, it’s a quirk, but it’s not unheard-of.
And to Atticus being over-idealized, remember, we’re told the story from the point of view of his young daughter, who clearly sees him as a role model. As seen through her eyes, it’s probably a pretty accurate portrayal. Does the man have flaws his daughter doesn’t know about? Almost certainly. But since she doesn’t know about them, neither do we.
I only read it for the first time earlier this year. At age 45, I think I’ve been introduced to everything in it via other books and media. Injustice, prejudice, doing the right thing even though many may be against you, and I’m sure there were other themes I don’t remember and/or didn’t get.
I thought it was a fine book, but it didn’t grab me, didn’t shock me, and I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything from it. I think I enjoyed the kids playing more than the trial-related material. It’s probably a great book to read in your mid-teens to early 20’s, but perhaps the material isn’t as. . .influential, as transformative, to an older person.
“Start learning to read”, yes. The way this novel put it was the kids thought that their school was a waste of time because they had already learned to read at three. (or something like that. It’s been a while since I read it.) I just remember rolling my eyes at that exchange. Maybe the author was trying to do a cute scene of kids bragging, but it just didn’t sound at all the way kids talk to my ears.
I admit I don’t read a lot of novels, and still less of racial tension novels. I liked Roots by Alex Haley quite a bit, although that seems to have fallen out of favor in recent times. But it was a far more involving read than Mockingbird. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was a better read for me than To Kill a Mockingbird, even though it was far more lighter in tone.
By the way, Skald, you may be amused to hear that when this thread is the most recent thread in CS, it shows up on the main page as “Tell us how TO KILL A…”. Leading one to wonder what thing’s mortal weaknesses are being asked about.
I think that might be why it didn’t have an impact on me at all. It was an OK book, but the message was a bit simplistic for me when I read it age 17. I also didn’t like it when Atticus beats Scout pretty severely. I know beatings were commoner in those days, but it didn’t come across as being a quick swipe across the buttocks, more like something designed to cause great pain, even though Atticus was calm as he did it.
I’m sorry, but it just didn’t resonate with me whatsoever, either. Jem and Scout learning that their humble, quiet and dignified father was not only a great rifle shot in a time of danger, but a great man in a time of unrest and division? The solemn but urgent assertion that the courts are and must be the great levelers in our society where all men are considered equal? Scout as a young girl seeing her daddy with new eyes on hearing from the townsmen that she should stand in respect when her father was passing by? Bor-ing!
If you haven’t read a lot of novels, and still fewer racial tension novels, then how do you know that racial tension has “been done, and done better”?
Also, I think you are misremembering the school/reading thing. Scout is confused and frustrated by the fact that her teacher essentially wants her to forget what she has learned about reading in order for the teacher to teach her to read the way she is supposed to. IIRC, there was no cute bragging going on, just bemusement that the acquisition of knowledge was somehow less important than the means of acquiring the knowledge.
Then again, it is my favorite book, so I may be biased.
One of the best scenes for me when was Atticus was guarding the jail and the men came by to cause a ruckus. Jem and Scout (and Dill? I think so) had followed Atticus and Scout notices that one of the men is Walter Cunningham’s dad and she calls him out.
What? Capote’s been dead for decades. j/k
No affect. I spent a lot of my formative years in a small, ignorant, and racist town, but my parents were good honest people who showed me what bullshit it was. My reaction to the book’s message was basically ‘well, yeah.’
The Great American Novel is clearly Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
How to kill a mockingbird and get away with it. “That bird had rabies.”
I first read it when I was around 8 or 9 (not for school obviously) and it blew my mind, since I had had rather little exposure to the reality of racism at that point. I still love it, but it’s very much a children’s book IMO.
Well–in this culture on the whole, it seems most people want to get their drama from reality shows, their fantasy from commercials, and their reality from fictional dramas. But I guess that’s another topic.
I’ll admit, I get annoyed that people are still writing, and others are still reading, books (movies, songs, graffiti, what-have-you) that allow them to congratulate themselves for agreeing with the point that racism is bad. We got that, decades ago, and it’s only popular because it’s a perfectly safe, indisputable moral to preach. TKaMb was written at the edge of the time when anti-racist ideas could still be regarded as profound.
That said, I still think the book has oceans to say about persistence, about being right and knowing it when everyone is against you, about how children observe and gradually come to absorb complex ideas… So with all that, the safe polemic provides an effective background.
Probably. For me it was just a coming of age story.
I also used to wish that Atticus was my dad. And there have been times with my son that I went a little Atticus on him and let him be who he was.
He also made lawyers look…respectable.
I don’t think love of Mockingbird is mutually exclusive with love of Lonesome Dove. They would both make my top 5.
It’s brilliant, and flawed, and important, all at once. It was written at a time when the message of it was a bit more paradigm-shifting than it is now. I grew up in a town like the one in the book, and saw a lot of casual racism and racial tension, and found the book an important reflection of the thought process of people of my parents’ generation (others of my age might think it’s more a reflection of their grandparents’ generation, but things move slower in the South).
My experience is similar. I’d seen the movie several times. Liked it okay as a young teen. After I began to be interested in film making and film history I watched it differently and enjoyed it more. I do find several scenes very moving.
Then a few years ago I borrowed an audio book version because the length of the recording is exactly the length of a round trip drive to my Mom’s house. I was enthralled with what parts of the story that didn’t make it into the movie. While the audio version was very well done (read by Cissy Spacek) I wanted the more thorough connection of reading the book myself.
If I’d read it for a tenth grade book report I’d have missed out on how well crafted individual senteces are. I’d have lost a lot of my enjoyment of it.
Although I grew up in the north eastern US I feel oddly pulled to things southern. I think it’s due to my grandmother, reared in Missouri, in a Confederate area and family. She was in the north east by the time I was born, and had a huge hand in raising me. She definitely brought some southern sensibilities to the table.
I don’t think reading To Kill a Mockingbird changed me substantially. I was already against bigotry, and child abuse, and in favor of helping people before I read it. I cried when Atticus had to shoot the dog, but I cry when anyone has to shoot an animal. Remember Two Socks?
I do hope that my son will read it one day and enjoy it.