To Kill a Mocking Bird

‘Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’



Author: Harper Lee
Publishers: Arrow Books
Pages: 309
Price: INR 250

Harper Lee’s book about growing up during the 1930s in the US is amazingly engaging. The book’s mammoth success is not so difficult to make out given the fact that Lee chooses to throw light at the major issues during the times of the Great Depression in the US through her characters rather cynically.

Besides, Lee’s smooth and effortless narrative travels seamlessly throughout the book absorbing the reader into a whirlpool of events. Although the narrative is that of Scout, Lee chooses to interrupt the narrative every now and then providing her insights.

Wikipedia states: “The mockingbird is used as a recurring motif to symbolize the innocence of various victims of injustice throughout the novel.”

Various victims of injustice being mainly the black people who are afflicted to color prejudice. The story, narrated by Scout Finch, follows the school going days of Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill. Their inquisitive attempts to enter into the house of the neighborhood recluse Boo Radley, their struggle to cope up with their strict cook and caretaker Cal, wisdom endowment of their noble father Atticus, and the dirty trial of the rape of Mayella by the black man Tom whom Atticus is defending are the incidents that by and large form the story.

The book is semi-autobiographical and Lee won Pulitzer Prize for the book including many other awards. Easy to say why. And, To Kill a Mocking Bird remains her major work till date. She was to remain a one-book wonder exhausting her entire imagination on ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’.

Bottom Line: A definite read