SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. How is Tom Robinson a mockingbird? What does the rabid dog Atticus shoots symbolize? How did Jem break his arm? What is the significance of the gifts Boo Radley leaves in the knothole? Why does the jury find Tom guilty? What role does Calpurnia play in the family and in the novel? Why is Dill an important character? What does Mrs. Dubose teach Scout and Jem? Why does Dolphus Raymond hide Coca-Cola in a brown paper bag? Why does Mayella Ewell lie on the witness stand?
What qualities make Atticus a good father? Every night before bed I would read and still do. I saw a Twilight Zone Episode once where the main character loved to read and only wanted to be left alone to do so. After falling asleep in the vault of the bank where he worked, he awoke to a post-disaster world where only he was left.
He busily gathered together all the books he wanted to read, all organized and stacked up. Just as he chose one to start with, his glasses fell and he stepped on them trying to find them. It was terrible and I remember feeling horrified that this man would never get to read again!
Such a thought had never occurred to me. This semester I had to get glasses myself after suffering migraines from reading. I was so nervous at the eye doctor because the thought of not being able to read was too much for me. Of course, I only needed readers, but when I ran across this quote, I thought about how much like breathing reading is for me.
Fight the good fight no matter what! I love the anti-defeatist message in this quote. Even though Atticus knows the deck is stacked against him, he tries anyway. He understands that sometimes you have to fight the un-winnable fight just for the chance that you might win.
At the end of the day, when you lay down, you have to know that you did the right things, acted the right way and stayed true to yourself. Again, Atticus understands that the town is talking; he has to explain to his kids why he continues against the tide of popular thought. He sums it up so well here. It just sounds so beautifully sad.
Works Cited Lee, Harper. New York: HarperCollins, View all 23 comments. A short, important, and powerful classic that deserved all its fame. Racism, prejudice, rape, false accusation of rape, all of these are abhorrent and really should have never existed in the first place within our world and society.
However, it does. I find it insanely sad that even though this book was published more than 50 years ago, has also been used as an educati A short, important, and powerful classic that deserved all its fame. I find it insanely sad that even though this book was published more than 50 years ago, has also been used as an educational book for countless young students and even with countless histories to learn from, it seems that some human will never ever learn from hem and the main problems depicted in this book is still very evident in our time.
Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. Now though? One last thing, Atticus Finch is truly a role model to aspire to, as a father, a lawyer, and most of all, a human being; truly a well-written protagonist. May you rest in peace. View all 44 comments. Jun 18, Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: humanity. Shelves: postcolonial. Normally, I would try to convince you why you should read it.
I would speak about how important this book is and what message it could impart to its readers around the world. I would even say how it affected me personally.
Instead, I will simply say that I loved this book. I loved its characters. I loved its plot. And I loved the eloquent way in which Harper Lee wrote it. It made me laugh and it made me cry.
Her words are real and her story is truth. This book is one of the wisest, most finely crafted, pieces of prose fiction I have ever read. View all 14 comments. Life gives you a few things that you can count on. Death for all , taxes for most , and the unwavering moral character of Atticus Finch for me. For my thoughts on the shameless money gr Life gives you a few things that you can count on. For my thoughts on the shameless money grab by the money-greedy publishers recently published first draft of the novel inexplicably or read: cash grab marketed as a sequel Well, I think I just said it all.
I cannot be objective about this book - I don't think you can ever be about the things you love. I've read it many times as a child and a few times as an adult, and it never lost that special something that captivated me as a kid of Jem Finch's age.
It found a place in school curriculum because of its message, undoubtedly - but it's not what makes it so powerful. And then there is the magic of the slow measured narration painting the most vivid picture of the sleepy Southern town where there's enough darkness lurking inside the people's souls to be picked up even by very young, albeit quite perceptive children. If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?
Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside. Yes, there may be countless articles all fueled by Lee's first draft about his 'transformation' into a bigot - but I refuse to jump on that bandwagon. Because I sleep better knowing that there are people out there who are good and principled and kind and compassionate, who will do everything they can with the utmost patience to teach their children to be decent human beings.
It's the amazing guidance that the Finch children get in becoming good human beings that many of us would give up a lot for. I know I would. Because to me it will never be a story of a white man saving the world and some, especially with the publication of that ridiculous first draft, would dismiss it as such.
To me, it's the story of a child growing up and learning to see the world with the best possible guidance. It's a story of learning to understand and respect kindness and forgiveness and that sometimes you do right things not just because you're told to but because they are right things to do. I see enough stupidity and nonsense and injustice in this world. And after all of it, what I often do need is Atticus Finch and reassurance that things can be right , and that with the few exceptions, even if I struggle to see it, "[ View all 24 comments.
First of all, let's forget it's a 'classic' that we all 'must' read for the sake of reading a classic. Second of all, let's have no inhuman high expectations from this book. Third of all, it's enough to know that this has been written from the perspective of a six year old girl.
And that's how we should pick up this one and go for it like we are picking up a newly released book and seriously that's the way it should be for everyone I would like to say I won't go into details regarding First of all, let's forget it's a 'classic' that we all 'must' read for the sake of reading a classic. I won't go into details regarding what the book is about.
The flow is neat, clear and fast paced as a few characters are pretty mysterious and then there's some mystery element to the plot. The characters are amazingly well-developed. Each and every character introduced has a clear role and has been given importance.
Subtle hints and sudden plot twists keep the pace rolling! The character dynamics are the main highlights of this book. Themes tackled are hugely impactful. It talks about race discrimination, child upbringing, justice, family and in general how one human should see another human as. I cannot point out all the things I loved about this book at the moment but yes, this book is much, much more than the things I have mentioned above. The warmth in the story narration is something I did not expect at all.
I am genuinely surprised still. Atticus will remain as one of my most loved, unforgettable characters. His character is so wholesome and someone to look up to.
The different emotions in between the lines are deep and I just couldn't ignore them. The humour is just incomparable. And yes, I gasped a lot in between regarding the unexpected turns in the story sequence. The bond between the siblings, the kids and their father, the friendship and the neighborhood, kinship relationship have been so well depicted.
And yes, the court room scenes are just dealt with amazingly. I would say almost perfectly but yes, even though the lines have been perfect and great, I somehow felt that a real courtroom would never have perfect dialogues like that.
And not everyone would just nod their heads even though everything spoken was right. Some scenes broke my heart. Some scenes made me really helpless. Some scenes made me want to save some of the characters so bad that I had to hold the book for minutes before continuing on. The ending was perfect. There's closure. There's victory. My reader soul has found another of its missing pieces! View all 6 comments. Alabama in U.
The siblings are unusually close, the father is absent often being a politician in the legislature, in Montgomery, the stat Alabama in U. The siblings are unusually close, the father is absent often being a politician in the legislature, in Montgomery, the state capital.
Calpurina their black servant, takes good care of them and they all love, is the real parent of the kids, and of course, considered a member of the family. Finch is a rather remote uncomfortable father, the children call him by his first name of Atticus. Scout age eight, a tomboy, Jem who's four years older than his precocious sister and friend Dill, Charles Baker Harris a year older than Scout but not as big, and is frequently bullied, are always together.
Dill from Meridian, Mississippi, spends the warm summers at his Aunt Rachel's house in town and is gratefully left alone. Next door to the Finch's live the Radley family, a strange people that keep to themselves, particularly Boo, Arthur a legendary creepy, mysterious man , who is never seen, weird stories abound about him by the curious, neighborhood kids, they test their bravery, by how close they can come to Boo's house.
The gentle, Mr. Finch shocks Scout and Jem when he shoots a mad dog at the sheriff's request, Mr. Tate, knows Atticus's skill, but curiously he doesn't even have a gun at home, never seen with one either. This sleepy town awakens when Bob Ewell a lazy, notorious drunk, accuses a black man Tom Robinson of raping his flirtatious daughter, Mayella.
The honorable Judge Taylor appoints Atticus, as Robinson's lawyer, an impossible task in that era. The trial brings people from all over Maycomb County , to the courthouse , Atticus Finch shines, but can he free an innocent man? This story implies every human, should be treated with dignity, no matter what the color of their skin, and after so many years have gone by , is still the best novel in urging equality for all, what a concept View all 29 comments.
Voto: View all 11 comments. Aug 05, Rishi rated it did not like it Recommends it for: no one. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A friend of mine once commented that To Kill a Mockingbird was the most racist book he'd ever read. I agree with him. Now, I know this book is drawn from the author's true experiences, but she choose to write a novel and thus I will judge it as a novel. With it's irrevocable integration into the American and Canadian public school curricula, I think this novel has probably done more to perpetuate racial stereotypes than any other single force.
If I had to sum up To Kill a Mockingbird in one sen A friend of mine once commented that To Kill a Mockingbird was the most racist book he'd ever read. If I had to sum up To Kill a Mockingbird in one sentence, this would be it: the poor helpless black man is lost until a saintly white man comes to his side to crusade for his cause.
Unfortunately, the damn darkie is so stupid that he goes and gets himself killed just when the white man figured he had another shot at clearing him. Oh well, the white man tried his best, and for a negro too! What a hero. What the hell is that? Dec 05, Denise rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Everyone.
Shelves: classics , made-into-movie , books-i-love-so-much-i-bought , bookgroup. I looked up Harper Lee online this is her only published book. She is also still alive and living in Monroeville, Alabama. And once you read about her and her family, you will I looked up Harper Lee online this is her only published book.
And once you read about her and her family, you will know that she is not the only amazing person in that family guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I was able to tell in the beginning that the book started in the 30's once Dill mentioned that he saw Dracula in the theaters. Dracula was in theaters in don't ask how I know that , and they mentioned that they were in the Depression which started in for the farmers and went on through out the 30's.
Since they were openly drinking, Prohibition must have ended And, towards the end of the book, they were mentioning Hitler and what he was doing in Germany which took place in the late 30's. My history teachers would be so impressed that I retained all of that information. Too bad my head is so full of that information, I have to look up my own phone number.
I loved Scout. In fact, I get dibs on that name for a little girl- or did Bruce Willis and Demi Moore beat me to it? I loved that she wanted to be a person first and then a girl.
And she supports the fact that little kids know the meaning of life and forget it as they get older. She had a great relationship with her brother and father and they encouraged her to be true to herself and not follow the stereotypes of ladies of that time. I loved her way of thinking especially how she drew the conclusion that if she starting swearing her dad would assume she picked up the bad habits from school and pull her out.
And when she wanted to write a letter to Dill in invisible ink just to drive him crazy, I almost ruined the book because I was drinking a Diet Pepsi at the time. I have a feeling that Harper Lee was just like Scout and have you noticed that all early female authors are tomboys? It just goes to show you that the truly creative women were those that went against the stereotypes of the time. I'm not sure I like the fact that Atticus allowed them to call him by his first name and not Dad, but aside from that he was the perfect role model.
He talked to them, not at them, and he always listened. He firmly believed that it was important for his children to respect him and by NOT following the creed "Do as I say, not as I do", Scout and Jem would be able to look up to him.
He wanted his children to look beyond the color of one's skin, therefore he did. He treated everyone as equal despite their race, family background, age or education and if more people did that, there wouldn't be as many problems today.
His teaching methods worked. You can tell how much the children loved and looked up to him. Nothing hurt them more then having their father be ashamed of them. They didn't keep things from him because they thought he wouldn't understand. They kept things from him because they didn't want him to get hurt. And they always listened, because to disobey would hurt Atticus. Atticus's brother was another one of my favorite characters even though he wasn't mentioned a lot.
When he realized his error after punishing Scout for beating up her cousin and tried to make it right, it showed that he also strived to earn their respect just like Atticus.
Nothing irates me more then when someone tells me I have to respect them because they are older than me. Does that mean I have to respect Bob Ewall because he is older? It's easy to see with all of the problems in the world why Boo Radley feels safer hiding from away from it.
I think everyone has a little bit of Boo in us, when we shut out the problems of the outside. Of course, we all have a little of Scout in us to especially when I come out fighting if anyone tries to hurt my family.
The court case. Wow, the sad thing is, is I can see that happening even today i. When I moved here the first time, just before the LA riots, there was a huge ordeal about a Korean, store-owner who shot and killed a black, teenager girl, she claimed was stealing and attacking her. The security camera shows the tiff and it shows the teen putting down the item and walking towards the exit.
The store owner shot her in the back and was found not-guilty, by reason of self-defense. When the book was published in , discrimination was still a big problem. I did like how Harper Lee brought up Hitler's actions against the Jews.
It was obvious that what was going on in America with African Americans was no different in her eyes than what Hitler was doing. I agree, we were just more discreet about it. Perhaps because deep inside, Americans knew it was wrong to treat African Americans as third class citizens so we tried to hide it more. Hitler was right out in the open with his actions.
The Student Survivor Guide. What begins as, apparently, just an affectionate and humorous episodic tale of life in an Alabama town in the s, and the personalities and quirks of the people who live there, gradually evolves into an amazing and powerful read, as a young girl called Scout becomes aware of her lawyer father's representation of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, and the town's general attitude about that, which spills over into their treatment of Scout and her brother.
From an attorne What begins as, apparently, just an affectionate and humorous episodic tale of life in an Alabama town in the s, and the personalities and quirks of the people who live there, gradually evolves into an amazing and powerful read, as a young girl called Scout becomes aware of her lawyer father's representation of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, and the town's general attitude about that, which spills over into their treatment of Scout and her brother.
From an attorney's point of view, the trial of Tom was fascinating: the differences in how courts handled trials in a small town 80 years ago, the speed and informality of the trial, the African American people relegated to the balconies. I have no idea how accurate Harper Lee's description of the trial actually was to real life, but it seems extremely plausible to me.
Mayella Ewell and her father were so appallingly real to me. I loved old Judge Taylor, and Atticus is a hero. Boo Radley flits like a ghost throughout the book, a vivid symbol of vulnerable innocence that's echoed in Tom's trial.
I've read a lot of reviews of Go Set a Watchman , discussing the differences in Atticus' views on race and his personal prejudices between that book and this one, so I was keeping a particular eye out for anything in Mockingbird that would indicate he's prejudiced but nevertheless committed to doing his job. It's just not there, and frankly I'm glad about that.
There's enough prejudice in that town that I didn't feel like I needed to see need Atticus struggling with that issue on a personal level.
Harper Lee explores our values and prejudices that we sometimes don't examine closely enough in ourselves, and the vital importance of courage and integrity. This book is a truly timeless classic. It made me smile but broke my heart a little bit at the same time - like many of the best books do.
Bonus material : In the comments thread below we got into a discussion about Harper Lee using the real-life Scottsboro Boys trial s in the early 's as inspiration for Tom Robinson's trial. It's a somewhat loose connection; there are some substantial differences between the facts of the cases, but some definite similarities as well. In both trials, innocent black men were accused of rape based solely on the unsubstantiated word of a white woman.
In the Scottsboro trials, there were nine African-American men accused of rape while riding the rails in the company of two white woman, apparently in the prostitution business, who were trying to avoid prosecution themselves. The evidence did not support the women's claims, but juries convicted the defendants anyway. A Judge Horton tried to enforce a fair trial, but was replaced on retrial. One of the inmates later tried to escape prison and was shot by a guard, though he was not killed.
All in all, the Scottboro events are vivid, awful proof that Tom Robinson's trial was realistic. Jul 09, Maureen rated it it was amazing. Rereading this book as an adult made me realize how truly beautiful and wonderful it is. It will forever be one of my favorites. View all 3 comments. Gosh, this is one of my new all time favorite books! It's just a shame that I will never be able to fully express how and why it affected me as much as it did. But I can try my best to at least write a few words to let you know what things I enjoyed spoiler: I enjoyed every single word.
This story deals with the very important and sensitive topic of racism and is told from the point of five of a little girl. I had my doubts if this combination would work out. But somehow, Harper Lee was able to Gosh, this is one of my new all time favorite books! But somehow, Harper Lee was able to create an incredibly compelling character, who understands and misunderstands just the right amounts to be realistic, and to get all the major points the novel is trying to make across.
It would have been easy to write from the perspective of Atticus, the 'hero' of the story. But I think this wouldn't have been the right thing to do; it would have seemed far too self-indulgent and conceited. The characters themselves are all incredibly lovely. They just warmed up my heart. I'd love to give those three little kids, Scout and Jem and Dill, a giant hug. I'd like to shake the hand of Atticus and pay him my respects. I would go to Church with Calpurnia and find out more about her life.
I would smile at Boo, to let him know that I accept him just the way he is, and while a simple smile might seem like a typical interaction to others, I'm sure it would mean a lot to Boo.
So yeah, all of those characters have found a place in my heart, and I know that they will definitely stay in my mind for a long time to come as well.
It surprised me how easy to read I found the writing style. It's hard to believe this was written in the 60's! I think the fact the topic is unfortunately a timeless one plays a part in that. I'm currently still in a bit of a reading slump, but this book grabbed my attention from the first page and kept me smiling and laughing and crying. No wonder it's such a well-loved classic! I definitely agree that it's one of those books everyone should read at least once.
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