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Summary: Great book...
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird is a great story. It invloves Atticus Finch and his two children Scout and Jem who mature through the story. The main part of the book is a trial where Atticus is defending a black man who is accused of raping a low-class white woman. The people of the town are against what Atticus is doing and through this and the rest the story, you learn about racism, predjudice, and maturatiopn. Harper Lee does a good job of describing the setting and the characters. And her style of writing involves telling the story through the children's perspective with humor, and good decriptions. Overall this a good book that involves many issues that you might face in life, and I recommend that you read this book.
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Summary: Such A Beautiful Classic!!
Review: Set in Maycomb Alabama, Harper Lee has created a wonderful story for all ages.Lawyer Atticus Finch along with his daughter Scout, son Jem and their friend Dill Harris,are at the nucleus of this tale. The children are adorable and innocent but as they spend their
summers together in this Southern state of Alabama, they are brought into direct contact with class distinction and racial discrimination at a very early age. Their father Atticus, a very fair and practical man is appointed to defend a black man Tom Robinson, who is
said to have allegedly raped a Caucasian woman Mayella Ewell. That crime is more seriously taken or just as seriously taken as a murder.It should be noted that this particular family although considered 'white trash' by the Macombe society are seen as extremely prejudiced and extremely poor, headed by a father who can be very violent at times. The innocence of these children are broken as the are caught up in the events which lead to the trial of this man. They witness the case which brings to light the hated and racial society they live in of which they want no part. This is a book that I wish I had read a long time ago. I recommend it highly!! Heather Marshall
May 13th,2002
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Summary: to kill a mocking bird
Review: Hi im Dan and im 15 years old. I have just finished reading this book for my tenth grade english class. I thought this book was a very good book. I liked how this book relates to everyday life and even though this book was written many years ago, people still deal with the some of the same everyday issues that this book deals with. This book dealt mainly with racism and although racism is still around us, alot of poeple have learned to look beyond the color of a persons skin. I thought this was a well written book and would recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: Lee's amazing writing style
Review: Nelle Harper Lee did a job well done when writing this book. To Kill a Mockingbird reminded me of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, describing the truths of humankind's hate and prejudice. Lee's novel was based on her own childhood past in southern Alambama in the 1930's. She put the aspects of prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes, and justice into an intelligent child's perspective. As most other child-point-of-view books, I found To Kill A Mockingbird more thought provoking than adventuresome. "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." A mockingbird sings its' heart out to make beautiful music, and never eat up gardens or nest in corncribs. That's why it's a sin to kill them. Lee used the symbolic mockingbird to depict the innocence of a few of the characters in the book. Such as Tom Robinson, a black man who never did a thing to harm anyone else, but was accused and charged of rape to a poor white woman because of his race. This book unmasks a county's feelings of prejudice and hate. The author incorporates a man defending to save a black man's life while teaching his children the unjust ways of the world. "As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes form, that white man is trash." Lee did a wonderful, unlike any other author, in making a book about the maturation of a child and the steps made into the real world.
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Summary: can't believe it... that how many ignorant people there are.
Review: If you CAN'T really judge the value of the book, don't dare read it. The ministry of education made a bad, bad choice of making not-so-intelligent average high school students to read this significant, profound, and well-praised bestseller in history (yes, it sells more than any other books in the world, perhaps only surpassed by the Bible.) It's way more than just another hackneyed civil rights book, it's more than an "infantile" (maybe the person who said this was infantile either slept all the way through his or her English classe"S" or didn't have any extra memory in his or her brain to process the fact that a child's point of view was deliberately used to illustrate the point.)plotline, it's indescribably brilliant and skillful in presentation. READ READ READ and buy and come back here and add more star to the review page of this book so that it counters the effect of star 1 or 2 of some dense readers .
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Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is truly a classic book in the history of American literature, and will always be a favorite book of mine. The book tells the story of Jean-Louise (known as Scout) Finch, a young girl who learns very valuable lessons beginning at the tender age of six. Most of her time is spent with her older brother Jem and Dill, a boy about Scouts age who visits every summer. As the book begins, the reader discovers that Atticus Finch, the father of Scout, is an attorney who is about to tengo with an extremely controversial case. Tom Robinson, an African American who had respect for anyone and everyone, was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a poor white girl who also happens to be the daughter of Bob Ewell, a low life racist who was out to get any negro he could. Although all evidence is circumstantial, and although Mr. Atticus Finch did such a good job representing Tom that we could all be sure he was innocent, Mr. Robinson was found guilty of rape. While in jail, Tom makes a fatal mistake and attempts to escape from prison. As he tries to climb the fence, Tom is shot seventeen times and his life was put to end. Even though the case was a major part of the story, many other adventures occur during the course of the book. To find out what these other adventures are, your just going to have to read it for yourself!
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Summary: Harper Lee's method of characterization
Review: Harper Lee has created a wonderful book containing many details. One way Lee made this book so enjoyable is the way she constructed her characters. She made me feel like I was a friend of Scout's and that I knew all of them very well. Speech played a big role in forming each character. By the way they talked, you could tell who they were around and how they were acting. When scout was around all of his friends from school he would cuss and talk mean to everyone. This showed how scout was trying to fit in and how he was acting aound all of his classmates. When Cal took the children to the black church she stopped talking in proper English like she always did at home. This showed the part of her that was her history and culture. It let the kids and the readers know that around people that she can relate to, she is more herself. People would talk about Atticus say he was a bad person for defending Tom, but then Scout would get into fights. The actions of Scout showed us how protective of her family she is. The way Atticus is being talked about lets us know how everyone sees him. The other way we get to know these characters so well is how they are described. Dill is described as a little guy. This gives us a visual picture that Dill is around the same size as scout and we can begin to see him as we read. Lee did a wonderful job and these characters were very appropriately described.
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Summary: Motive for the novel
Review: I believe that there are many reasons that Harper Lee wrote this book. In my opinion the main reason for the book is to inform people about a time period in America, which is often overlooked or not known about. Before I read this book I had never heard of the Scottsboro trial. I learned a lot about the trial and some of the things that took place. Another reason I why I think Lee wrote this book was to entertain. I found this book for the most part entertaining and enjoyable to read. I liked all of the foreshadowing, metaphors, and moral values.
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Summary: In one word SUPERB
Review: I actually would have given this book more than 5 stars-its wonderfull.i have read this book again and again and have not tired of it.Atticus Finch is one of the most amazing charectors ever wriitten-yes perhaps he's too perfect but it makes me like him more.The morals in this book were subtle and its part of the reading experience to understand and embibe the morals in this book. This is one book I reccomend to everybody....
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Summary: Greatest virtues are those most useful to others...
Review: We've all grown up in worlds we didn't understand; the dos and don'ts us grown-ups define for our children's lives are projected through the innocent eyes of a six-year old girl trying to figure out our world. The book starts with a rough portrayed picture of the American South during the Depression years through the eyes of a child, who though surprisingly intelligent and far beyond her years, is still too young and too innocent to comprehend the world as it is. As we proceed through the pages, the facade drops only to reveal that, what lies beneath is a world of hypocrisy, social lies, prejudice, and ignorance. A handful of ideas occupy the reader's mind while at reading the book: innocence, education, bravery, prejudice, fear and justice. Education is the weapon through which the widowed father arms his children to fight society. He treats them as equals, adults and of a certain level, thus producing a charming yet troublesome duo... It soon becomes clear why he thinks education is so important. Education is the key to unlocking the ignorance that causes such prejudice. Lessons regarding bravery and cowardice are also taught in an effective way and in a much wide spectrum than not just children but also adults would think of. Atticus's children find out quite early in their young lives that guns do not make men brave and that any fascination with guns is unfounded. Instead, fighting with one's misfortunes, especially when the battle is by fact lost, is the way of making true men, men of honour. His children learn that it takes more bravery and self-restraint to avoid a fistfight than succumb to the temptation of going through with it. Some adults never do... The most important issue of the book is prejudice in all of its forms. Through the eyes of Scout, her father is the liberal approach to human relations and her aunt is the respective conservative. Gender roles, class distinctions and skin colour are the facts imposed on the children growing up in the average southern town of yesteryears. The belief that a cast of people are better, is confronted by the father's stand, that one should sympathize with others and "walk in their skin" before judging or criticizing them. Innocence. As hunters kill mockingbirds for sport, people kill innocence, or other people who are innocent, without any remorse about what they are doing. Killing innocence is like amputating the spirit, projecting to the young hopeful minds of tomorrow that all is vanity, thus killing any hope in their minds and hearts, and wiping out any chances that our society might have to adopt, adapt and improve... Then comes fear. Small town folks fear that they should adhere to what others think they should do, act within the margins the social rules command, or be isolated. " Cursed is the mutant by God and men..." Even nowadays, fear of rejection dictates the social status quo and keeps individuals from standing up for that which they believe. Coming from a Greek society, I have been many times confronted by my immediate or wider environment about things I felt, thought or imagined of being right. I think that the lesson learned here is that until we are able to comprehend and absorb other people's ways, we are just slaves of our own prejudice, fear and hypocrisy... ...
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