To Kill A Mockingbird

I read this book entirely on the trip to Italy. I don't know why, but lately I've been really inspired to re-read some classics bc I guess I feel like I did a shoddy job the first time around. I mean, I read this book in 9th grade, but when I thought about it I couldn't really remember anything about it which bothered me. It was rated the best book of the 20th century too, so I felt obligated.

It was amazing...there was something so interesting and adorable and relate-able about Scout, the storyteller. She recounts the story of the few summers that lead up to her father, Atticus, defending a black man in a small Alabama town in Maycombe County who was accused of raping a white girl. Her father, Atticus, is appointed to defend Tom Robinson (the accused).

So let's start w/ Atticus. I have such conflicting emotions about him. Between the book and movie, Atticus Finch has become a pinnacle of "perfect father" and I want to agree with that point, but to a lesser degree. I think he's a "very good father". Here's where I have trouble with that though...he did let Scout & Jem kind of run around and do some borderline dangerous stuff w/ Boo Radley (their reculsive next door neighbor) and without divulging the ending, a pretty gross miscalculation puts his kids in extreme danger. Maybe I'm too 2000's with my distrust of neighbors & strangers. I think that the era in which I grew up and the era in which I will someday raise children is so different...it was hard to fight my knee jerk reaction and not paint some of the characters w/ a "sexual predator" or "pervy neighbor" brush at times!

What I think is intriguing about his parenting is that he kind of treats his kids as if they were older, and includes them in the trial, answering all of their questions directly. Which may explain why he lets them run amok - maybe he just thinks they'll learn more if they make their own mistakes.

What redeems Atticus is the way he educates Scout & Jem, and the way they respect and look up to him. There's also something so *human* about him. He's not the hero that doesn't make any missteps or mistakes. He messes up and things do not go the way he thinks they will more often than not.

I noticed a lot of conflicts in this story (yeah, we're kicking it old school, Lit Class style here.) Namely, black/white, poor/middle class (no one was really *rich* in this story), educated/not educated. There was major tension on all of these, and pretty minimal understanding on the kids' part. Atticus comes across as so saintly because he rises above it all, seemingly, and comes across almost as a more modern voice of reason.

Atticus also refused to say that anyone was a bad person - and there are more than a handful of despicable characters in this story. He won't do that, which is so admirable. But it's *almost* his tragic flaw as his trusting nature leads to an almost tragedy at the end...

And I'll leave you with a charming and endearing quote from Scout:
"As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra."

Up next - Pride and Prejudice.