Here are some customer reviews of
To Kill a Mockingbird
: I could do both shedding tears and burst to laugh. It's a little bit
different culture to grasp for Indonesian like me but mostly the tale are really
representing the very nature of life itsel
Harper Lee has written one of the most effective, entertaining and powerful novels in the last 60 years with "To Kill A Mockingbird". The novel about the south that takes place during the depression. Lee takes an unusual yet stirring view, and that is thru the eyes of a young girl named Scout. A brief synopsis of the main theme is that Scout's father is Atticus Finch a lawyer in a small town in Alabama that has to defend a negro accused of raping a white woman. Whether the man did rape the woman is not the point due to the fact that white Southern society of the 1930's... have already judged him guilty. Atticus's arguments in the courtroom and his point of view is mesmorizing and the couragous stand he makes in defense of his client makes this a page turner. Yet again it is thru the eyes of a child who is starting to discover that the world isn't as nice as she once thought. The circumstances that happens to Scout in the novel are funny, sad, and one part is absolutely chilling. The other plots in the novel are effective as well as the supporting character's. I know that others have written... reviews on this novel and its theme of racial injustice. ...[M]y point of the review is to let readers know that this is an effective novel for young adults to read and discover a part of society that had extreme prejudice and another part of society that endured thru tremendous loss and hardship. This is quite a novel and is highly recommended to all young readers.
Sally Darling brings Harper Lee's tour de force of a young
girl's encounter with the beauty and the ugliness of human
nature to vibrant life. Scout Finch, the daughter of a
southern lawyer, reflects upon her childhood years. In a
series of engrossing events the tale of life in a small
southern town unfolds. Never slow, the narrative moves
swiftly from one action to another in highly fluid form.
From the eyes of a little girl, the reader witnesses the
unfolding of a series of events through which she is brought
face to face with prejudice and bigotry. The forms that
this prejudice takes are both subtle and obvious. Black and
white, old and young, rich and poor, cultured and earthy,
educated and ignorant, Scout encounters hatred and fear in
almost all the people around her. Her world is shown in a
series of expanding circles with herself in the center,
her brother and friend next, her father and housekeeper
next, then neighbors, teachers, schoolmates etc. in ever
widening circles. Starting with the outermost people and
working inward, the innermost hatreds of the human heart
are revealed to her. As she awakens to more and more
varieties of prejudice she seeks to separate herself from
them. During the climax of the book, Scout is shown, for
the first time, her own heart and the prejudice within.
In a moving final narrative, she admits her own failing
and awakens to true compassion and empathy.
The narration by Sally Darling is perfectly in keeping
with the spirit of the novel. In silky southern tones Ms.
Darling brings the story to almost a visually compelling life.
The novel introduces us to a variety of the townsfolk in a
richness that makes us seem as though we ourselves live in
that town, and Ms. Darling's insightful characterizations
bring the people out in an almost tangible reality. The
coupling of one of the most outstanding novels of our time
with the animated and believable narration provides the listener
with an unparalleled experience that only gets better with
each listening. An unqualified triumph.
As it had been about 27 years since I had read this classic, I had forgotten much of the detail of the book. I loved every single page of it this time around and I am sure that I understood it a great deal more than when I was a teenager. This is a remarkably well-written book with humour, pathos and charm, besides its more obvious look at various types of prejudice. The fact that the story is told through the eyes of a young girl gives it a wonderfully innocent appeal but constantly challenges the reader to look at its larger social issues. Despite the fact that it is set in the 1930s, this classic has not aged at all. If you have not read this book at all, get to it; if it has been many years since you have read it, have another look at it - you won't be disappointed.
The book To Kill A Mockingbird guides us through the unbosomings of Scout and Jem's childhood.
The book shows how man can be so hypocritic and cruel, how prejudice had hurt so many, how one brave man can go out of his way to help a fellow man.
Josı Moreno
Age 13
|
