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Journal Entry 1 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Sunday, September 26, 2004
 I bought this book yesterday so I can read it with Mr. goatgrrl's son Daniel, who is reading it in his Grade 10 English class. I'm about half-way through it, and didn't expect to like it as much as I do! (Left: author Harper Lee.)
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Journal Entry 2 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Sunday, September 26, 2004
Set in the fictional city of Maycomb (based on Lee's home town of Monroeville, Alabama) in the mid-1930s, To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of twelve year old Jem and eight year old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, as they watch their town respond to a rape alleged to have been committed by Tom Robinson, a disabled cotton picker from the neighbouring "Quarters" -- an African-American community located just outside the town limits. Mockingbird is narrated by Scout, the spirited, opinionated and intellectually advanced daughter of Atticus, progressive town lawyer and state politician. Through Scout we are introduced to the Finch's black servant, Calpurnia, their friend Dill, their aunt Alexandra and a cast of other characters representative of all points on the socio-political spectrum of the 1930s American South. We also learn about Arthur "Boo" Radley, the Finch's reclusive neighbour, of whom Jem, Scout and Dill claim to be frightened, though they torment him quite shamelessly.
Examples of prejudice, and the overcoming of prejudice, abound as the novel progresses. Jem and Scout are encouraged to befriend, rather than ridicule, their poor classmate Walter Cunningham, and during an episode in which a neighbour's house burns down, one of the mysterious Radleys redeems himself in Scout's eyes when he brings a blanket to keep her warm. Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to church at "First Purchase" church in the Quarters (so named because it was said to be the first thing freed slaves built with their new income following emancipation), and she and other members of the congregation defend their right to be there when it's challenged by an irascible black elder. Scout single-handedly defuses a lynch mob at the jail where Tom Robinson has been detained when she insists on chatting amiably with a member of the mob about a favour her father once did for him. In each case, the outcome is positive.
Until the climax of the novel. Harper Lee didn't pull any punches in Mockingbird, and the story doesn't end happily for everyone (the Finches, needless to say, remain more or less unscathed, their lives and values intact). Sadly, forty-five years after this book was written there's still no happy ending in sight for many African-Americans in the American South. Alabama Arise, a coalition of church and civic groups, points out that although they make up only 12% of Alabama's population, African-American men comprised nearly 70% of those executed in Alabama in the past 75 years (worse, the race of the victim seems to be a determining factor in whether the prosecution seeks the death penalty -- see Alabama Arise's Moratorium on Executions: a Poverty Issue).
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To Kill a Mockingbird
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
