Some schools want to remove the book To Kill a Mockingbird
from high school curriculum. This year in my 11th grade
English/literature class, we read the book To Kill a Mockingbird and I actually
enjoyed it and learned a lot from reading it. The book teaches many lessons on
various things.
It shows how the main character, Scout Finch,
changes and matures as she grows up. It teaches that true courage is beginning
even when you know there is no way you can win, and it discuses why people used
to treat (or still treat) other people as their inferior, especially if they
are of another race, and that people are usually nice if you get to know them
and aren’t prejudiced.
At the
beginning of the novel, Scout Finch is a little girl who plays with her older
brother, Jem, and is a tomboy. She wears overalls and runs around outside all
the time. She is excited to start going to school like Jem does but soon learns
that school isn’t as exciting as it sounds (don’t we all).
One thing that her father, Atticus,
tries to teach her and that she really improves at throughout the novel is
looking at things through other peoples shoes.
At first she only sees things from
her point of view and wants everybody to go along with what she wants, but she
eventually is able to see other points of view and as she does this, she
understands people a lot more and gets along with them better.
Atticus
also teaches his children that real courage is “when you know you’re licked
before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
The main example of this is when
Atticus is assigned to defend a black man who was accused of raping a white
woman.
During this time period, people were
still very prejudiced against black people and there were many unfair things
that the whites did to the blacks just because of their race, But Atticus
defended him anyway and even though Atticus proved that the man wasn’t guilty,
he was still convicted.
He was “licked” before he began but
he began anyway and did his best because that was what he believed to be right.
Living
down the street from Scout Finch is a family called the Radley’s. They have
some interesting stories about their past. There is a man named Arthur living
there who, it is rumored among the children, only comes out at night and sneaks
around the town.
Scout and Jem are very curious and
afraid of him, but they receive some small gifts from them and he even saves
their lives from a drunken man who has a grudge against their father. They find
out that he is actually a nice person and they learn the lesson that you
shouldn’t judge people based on rumors, race or prejudice.
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