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Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:58 pm
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often.
~Visual Bookshelf
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Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 7:40 pm
I read this book many years ago, but it continues to stand out in my memory as one of the best. If anyone hasn't read it they should. They should also go see the movie (after they've read the book). The movie is surprisingly accurate in cohesiveness with the book and just as memorable. There's not many movies I've seen that are based off books that I can honestly say do the book justice, but this movie and this book are both fantastic.
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Jamais Changeant Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:01 pm
I read this book while in freshmen year, I personally liked Boo.
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Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2008 1:20 pm
I remember reading this in school and enjoying it so much I finished it within the first few days. The class was being quizzed on chapter three and I wanted to discuss the trial. whee
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 5:32 pm
My English class is reading this! I finished it twice. It's a truely well written book!
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:51 pm
We just started it today, I'll be delving into it soon enough.
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Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 4:52 pm
We just started it today, I'll be delving into it soon enough.
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:38 pm
To be honest, the beginning bored me out of my mind, but I will admit that it was essential for later events to fall so smoothly into place. From the middle on, it was about the most accidently thought-provoking books I'd ever read. What I like about it is that it doesn't present itself as a book that arises the questions that, at the time it was written, were so rarely asked. In that innocent way of implanting itself into your self-conscience, it was a great work of literature.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 3:23 pm
I did not like this book at all Especially When Boo Radley was metioned what the hell did he have to do with Racism He was just a little ***** weirdo
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 3:36 pm
I read it and it's almost the same situation that happend in the 60s, when the big Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. trial going on. I have actually seen parts of the movie and it's all the same ideas of innocence and big taboo of interacial marriages.
(No offense in that statement, but there was a big brouhaha of that event happend here in my home town a long time ago.)
But, all the symbolism that was being described tends to make you wonder and respect the point of view that the author tells it from.
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Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2009 10:48 pm
i absolutely loooooove this book!!!
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