To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), a novel by Harper Lee
This book had been in my reading list for quite a while and
finally I finished reading it. Before reading the book, I had never bothered to
read the book review from anywhere. I would like to just know nothing and read
it.
After a little bit confused when finishing chapter 1, then, I
kept moving on to chapter 2, then, chapter 3 then, I got hooked. Of course the
first question coming to my mind was why “To Kill A Mockingbird”. Finally, the answer lies in the beginning of
chapter 10.
Atticus said to Jem one day, “….Shoot all the bluejays you
want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Miss Maudie said, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t
nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
So, it is a sin to kill an innocent.
This book has not shaped me in a different way but it did help
to strengthen my morals and values which have been loosened more or less along the
way.
To me, Atticus is an unreal character. There will never be a
man this good. But I have to admit that the
way Atticus leads his life, teaches his children, respects and treats everyone
equally regardless of black or white, faithfully performs his duty as a lawyer,
and how he stays calm in a crisis, almost all of his characteristics do have an
impact on me. In a good way certainly.
If I ever get provoked by someone next time, I will stay
calm like Atticus. But yeah, there is one thing I would like to bring up here.
Atticus fails to evaluate that Bob Ewell, a father who can hurt his own 19-year-old
daughter, can potentially harm his children as well.
Now I see Atticus is also just a human being like me.
Definitely I will read Harper Lee’ next book “Go Set a Watchman”
(2015). Same characters, 20 years later.
