To Kill a Mockingbird

[Jodi1980]

Why is this book considered such a classic?

 

[snoopy]

Its my favorite book, and one of my all time favorite movies. Atticus Finch reminds me very much of my father, who was also an attorney and fought for civil rights.

I would say its a timeless classic because it deals with issues that are still very much alive and well today - racism, injustice, and prejudice.

 

[Jenzebelle]

It's a classic because it's a timeless story and it is beautifully written and has extremely likeable characters.

It's my 2nd favorite book of all time

 

[Princess_Aurora]

Probably because it's one of those books that the majority of the population has read. Everyone knows it and everyone can relate to it in some way...well, at least I can. I can't remember the girl's name in the book right off hand, but I remember thinking she was a lot like me.

 

[snoopy]

Princess her name is Scout.

 

[JulieWent]

I was just talking about this same question with my students this past week, only the book was Great Expectations, admittedly a more difficult and less popular (with 9th graders, at least) book than TKAM. I live in Alabama. I grew up in North Florida. TKAM was probably one of the most culturally important books I ever read in high school. It asked a lot of questions that needed to be asked (and that still need to be asked). And it didn't provide easy answers. I have always felt that TKAM presents one family's struggle with a very difficult thing. It doesn't preach; it just allows us to reflect upon that family's stand and to decide upon our own. I think that's why most novels that are considered classics are considered as such. They allow us to look at other people's reactions to the human problems that surround us all.
One of my 9th graders said, when we were talking about Great Expectations Friday, "You know, I didn't like this book. I had a hard time with it. But I understand. I get it that Pip wasn't a good guy or a bad guy, that he was a guy, like me, trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong. He got really screwed up (student's words, not mine), but in the end, he did the right thing, more or less. I hope I do."

Me too.

 

[JulieWent]

Aren't you guys sorry that you asked an English teacher this question???

 

[JohnTBap]

Bruce Willis named his daughter Scout so that's good enough for me.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Besides, Gregory Peck is a HUNK!!!

TC

 

[Krisu]

One of my favorites I just bought the DVD which has an interesting commentary about the making of the movie. They interviewed the actors that played Jem and Scout. I bought this after reading the book again

 

[RNMOM]

This has always been one of my favorite movies. DS#2 had to read it last year in school and I asked to borrow it. I had never read the book. It was surprisingly similar to the movie. I really enjoyed it and it was nice to be able to discuss it along with him. He has never acquired the reading "bug". He is like his father who pretty much reads non fiction. They both love biographies and such. DS#1 and I both read fiction, especially sience fiction.

I can't remember the housekeepers name but found it interesting, at my age now, to finally realize how much Atticus relied on and trusted her. He went to her rather than neighbors or family.

This is one movie that I think did the book justice.

 

[olena]

One of my favorites, too. I really loved Scout. Being Southern made it even more special for me.

 

[luvflorida]

I read this book for the first time about 35 years ago, and it quickly became my favorite book, and remains my favorite book! I also fell in love with the movie and couldn't wait until I had children of my own to introduce to the book and movie.

I wanted to be Scout Finch, she was my hero! The funny thing was that everyone used to tell me that I looked a lot like Mary Badham, the young girl who played Scout in the movie. Scout and her brother, Jem, were just normal kids growing up in a small Southern town in a confusing time. I always loved the way Scout spoke her mind. The issues the story deals with, (racism, prejudice, stereotyping, social class), are still as timely as they were when Harper Lee first wrote the book.

Of my three children, my youngest identifies the most with the book. When my youngest daughter was ten years old, (a few years ago), she auditioned for the part of Scout in a local theatre production of To Kill A Mockingbird. She had been involved in theatre since the age of eight, and when she found out that a theatre was doing To Kill A Mockingbird, she auditioned. She had seen the movie but had not read the book. I felt she was a little young to fully understand it. My daughter, who looks a lot like I did at her age, resembles Mary Badham even more than I did. In fact, she had the nickname of Scout because so many people had commented on how much she looked like Scout in the movie version. Anyway, she got the part and did a fantastic job, (I know I'm biased because I'm her mother, but she really did!). Soon after she got the part in the show, I read the book to her several chapters at a time. That way I could answer any questions she had. Now, To Kill A Mockingbird is one of her favorite books!

I didn't mean this to be so long, but I think To Kill A Mockingbird is a book that everyone should read at least once in their life.

 

[Krisu]

Housekeeper was Calpurnia

 

[HunnyPots]

My favorite book since I first read it in 11th grade English. I gave it to my daughter to read when she was 14 and she loved it as much as I do.

What I love most about the book are the adventures and plans made over the summer by Jem, Scout, and Dill. Trying to make Boo Radley come out! It reminds me so much of the things my friends and I would do every summer. You know, way back in the days before Nintendo when kids had to have imaginations!

It is one of the few books I will read over and over again. I think that's got to be part of the appeal: it has re-readability!

 

[Snowwark]

A wonderful book, and a gorgeous movie. My favourite!

 

[Cindy B]

I remember reading it in 8th or 9th grade. It is an amazing book. I read a lot, and I really enjoyed that one!

 

[suzannen]

I think it's timeless in its message. A book (and movie) that touched me very much. My mother cries every time she sees the movie because her dad was a small southern town lawyer, tall and lanky like Gregory Peck, and the neighbors used to pay with chickens, eggs, tomatoes...

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

"POINT OF VIEW"
Nelle Harper Lee - April 28, (1926-)
By Leialoha Barlett

"You never really understand a
person until you consider things
from his point of view."
~~ Harper Lee ~~


A descendant of Robert E. Lee, recluse writer Nelle Harper Lee (1926-) was born on this day in the small town of Monroeville Alabama, the youngest of four children and a neighbor to writer
Truman Capote.

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not
love breathing," she observed in "To Kill A Mockingbird," her first
and only novel. The controversial masterpiece was set in the South during the Depression and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961.

"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," she explained. "That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Lee spent over five years rewriting the classic novel which celebrated the heroism of protagonist Atticus Finch, a lawyer appointed to defend an innocent African American on a rape charge. Told through the eyes of the attorney's young daughter,
the story examined racism and left an indelible mark on American culture.

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's
conscience," Lee wrote.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" was made into a memorable and critically-
acclaimed film in 1962 and won three Oscars for Best Direction,
Set Decoration, and Best Actor to Gregory Peck for his compassionate performance as Finch. In 1969, the book was adapted for the stage throughout the U.S. and in England.

"With love, all things are possible," Lee once wrote. "Love restores."

Every person has a point of view. Honor it.

 

[perdidobay]

An interesting fact.... did you know she based Dill's character on young Truman Capote?
You know you have it bad when you start crying when Scout sees Boo Radley for the first time and says "Hey Boo". I love that Boo is played by a very young Robert Duvall