To Kill "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Some schools want to remove the book To Kill a Mockingbird from high school curriculum. This year in my 11^th 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.