Book Nook: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Sometimes when you are forced to read a particular book, you never end up taking away the lessons the book was supposed to teach you. I read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was 16 years old and I really don't remember much of the story as much as I remember reading it while waiting at the RMV to get my learner's permit. But they say no two people read the same book twice, and I am certainly not the same person I was 10 years ago. 

I remember liking Scout because she wore overalls and played with the boys, character traits that I could relate to. Yet, Scout is more than just a 9 year old who doesn't want to be a lady or go to school. She learns a lot of hard lessons in her short life and she dishes out wisdom in a way that only a child could. Life isn't fair and Atticus (Adults) isn't always going to be there to make everything ok. Sometimes the bad stuff happens when you least expect it and the best thing you can do is stand up straight and deal with it, even when you really don't want to.

Whether the book was written by Harper Lee or mostly ghostwritten by Truman Capote doesn't really matter. What matters is the language and the emotion conveyed in the telling of the story. There is an innocence and bluntness about how Scout narrates the affairs of Maycomb that really make you stop and think about fairness, persecution, family, and community. I wish I could live in a world where I could say the Finch family's involvement with racism, prejudice and inequality were a part of the past, but they aren't. The message that this book tries to convey is still just as important today as it was when it was written. 

I say "tries" because it feels like Atticus tries to instill his sense of morality in Jem and Scout but does it in such a way that he allows us to come to our own conclusions. He cautions us, he lets us wear ourselves out with anger or frustration, and then gently guides us towards an idea. This idea is simply an opinion, Atticus never tries to say "You must believe this because I say so" because he understands that the opinion of one does not necessarily match up with the opinion of his neighbor, he's just a single man trying to do the best he can in a world that doesn't always work the way he wants it to. Unfortunately for him, his faith in people is both shattered and upheld by the end of the story.

I was very surprised at how different my reading of To Kill A Mockingbird was from my highschool experience. It almost felt like I was reading a completely new book. And maybe that has to do with my own level of cynacism or my 16 year old self's lack of interest in reading anything my school thought I should. Whatever the case, the one thing that everyone should take away from this book is one line: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Snap judgments don't help anyone, least of all the person making the snap judgment. So I'm going to try to channel Atticus the next time I'm upset about something and take a moment before I react.