Harper Lee’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, has become a classic piece of literature and a staple of American culture and southern history. The narrator and protagonist, Scout Finch, along with her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill, begin the story as lighthearted, inquisitive and playful children who are fascinated by a mysterious neighbor named Arthur “Boo” Radley. As the story progresses, they have a series of encounters with Boo, but they do not know it (until all comes to a head in the tragic and life-altering conclusion).
Jem and Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, is the county’s best lawyer, and also a representative to the state legislature. He is tasked with defending a black man against the charge of rape, a task that will change his children forever.
Although the book wrestles with issues of racism, violence, bigotry, caste, and education, its primary concern is coming-of-age and the requisite loss of innocence. Scout’s innocence, in particular, but also Jem and Dill’s, is threatened by successive incidents that reveal to these generally kind, somewhat simple kids the presence and nature of human evils. This is made especially clear with the conviction of Tom Robinson, a black man who, from the start, was bound to be found guilty, despite Atticus Finch’s brilliant defense and the clear evidence support Robinson’s innocence. This conviction shatters Jem’s world and forces him into manhood, meanwhile causing Dill, a gentle and artistic soul, to face the harsh realities of a world he tries so hard to avoid.
The trial is only the first of two major incidents which will change the kids’ worlds. The second happens at the end of the book, when the man whom accused Robinson of rape (and whom Atticus clearly implicates instead), attempts to make good on his promise to ruin Atticus Finch. Although neither he nor anyone in his family was punished for their perjury and false accusations, and although Robinson was ultimately convicted and suffered the harshest fate, Bob Ewell still feels it necessary to seek his own justice for the “damage of character” done to him at the trial.
This particular subplot is telling of how class, within white society, is just as important and just as divided as the world of blacks and whites.
Ultimately, To Kill a Mockingbird is an exploration of human nature and each individual’s capacity for both good and evil. It is a commentary on the importance of moral education much more so than academic education, and a discussion on social class and the true meaning of justice and who is entitled to it. Harper Lee utilizes interesting Gothic techniques, reminiscent of the great southern Gothics such as Flannery O’Connor, to build tension and anticipation, and to foreshadow the story’s more important events.
Allowing the story to be told from Scout’s point of view, in retrospect, adds both honesty and evidence to the story, but also some room for doubt. She narrates the entire story in the first person, as through her childhood self’s eyes, but then adds analysis and supplementary thoughts to the narration, as of an experienced adult revisiting these events after many years. The inclusion of these comments makes the narrator more trustworthy, as it reveals to us that she is aware (and admitting) that she is somewhat distanced from the time and place of the story and, therefore, could possibly be over or under-exaggerating certain things.
The tone of her narration, like the tone of the story, begins in childhood innocence but becomes increasingly foreboding and self-conscious as the tale unwinds.
To be sure, To Kill a Mockingbird holds a beloved place in the hearts of many readers and also a coveted spot in the canon as a “classic” of American literature. The book is well-written and masterfully constructed (where and how Lee begins the story, for instance, is strikingly effective. The characters, good, bad, and indifferent, are believable, interesting, and important to the plot and scenery. This is a book to revisit again and again.
