To Kill a Mockingbird | 
 enlarge | Author: Harper Lee
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1754 reviews
Sales Rank: 144
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0446310786
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780446310789
ASIN: 0446310786
Publication Date: October 11, 1988
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Condition: Standard used condition.
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"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out." Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber
Product Description
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1749 more reviews...
 READ IT! September 1, 2008
Few characters in all of literature are as captivating as Scout.
Read it just so you can know her.
 Stunned. August 19, 2008
You know what, I was about to put that book down and stop reading it. I heard so many people telling what a good book/movie it was so I was curious to find out why.
The first half of the book was really dragging and sometimes seemed irrelevant and boring, but it totally turned around starting at chapter 17 (I know, a loooong way to go, but don't give up). I was amazed at how well it ended, though.
I only give it 3 stars because of the slow-moving development of the plot. However, I still think it's worth reading.
Everyone's Favorite . . . August 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I honestly have no idea how many times I have read this book. I read it first as an assignment in the eighth grade; most recently, at the age of 41, I read it aloud to three of my children. As with the more recent readings that I recall, I choked up a bit at the end as Scout is experiencing the tragedy and love that surrounds her in the form of her conservatively eccentric father, her mythically reclusive neighbor, and the whole Depression-era, post-Reconstruction sugary gothic Alabama town of her home.
There seems so little to add in reviewing this book. I will say that even as I read it I ponder the strength of its charm. What is it that is so powerful? Scout is herself quite endearing, although even a casual reading should tell the reader that the first-person voice that is speaking is not the voice of the eight-year old Scout; Harper Lee somehow conveys a tone that retains the childlike innocence of Scout (the child), but the story told is mature and the vocabulary is college-educated. So is this Scout (or Jean Louise Finch) as an adult? I don't think so, as there is very little biographical/autobiographical information provided beyond the timeline of the story (e.g, did Scout grow up and marry?; what happened to Scout's mother?; does everyone live happily ever after?).
I read once that Harper Lee considered this to be a simple love story, or something like that. I've wondered who she was thinking about: Atticus and his kids, or Boo Radley and the kids, or some other pairing. I guess it is all of the above. It's a simple story of relatively normal children with an independently thinking father who all live in the politely racist South of the 1930's. The circumstances that confront this family (racism of the lowest order and ugly poverty and dysfunction from the underbelly of society) are really not abnormal until the violent climax. Blood is shed; much blood. But it is all presented with a humanity and Southern nostalgia that draw us into a world - as ugly as it is - that makes us wish we were there, and that we could have changed a few things.
Highly recommended, if you haven't read it yet.
 This Book Enhanced My Imagination August 14, 2008
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
If you think that the title and the star rating don't go well together, keep on reading...
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel set in Alabama during the late 1930s. The novel has a first-person narrator who is a girl named Scout. The novel has two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.
In Part 1, Scout describes her ancestors, family at the time of the novel's setting, neighbors, early years in school, interactions with neighbors, and experiences with her brother Jem and her father Atticus.
In Part 2, a black man is accused of a serious crime and declared guilty by a white jury even though there did not appear to be any sound evidence that he was guilty. Atticus was the defendant's defense lawyer. I will not say what happens after this in case you want the climax to be a surprise.
Now, let's compare the two sections. Atticus denounces racism in both sections, and there are examples of racism in both sections. However, most of the characters mentioned in Part 1 do not have any involvement in the trial that I mentioned earlier, which I think is a key element of not only Part 2, but the entire novel. In Part 1, there was one particular character that got a few too many pages focused on her.. especially when taken into consideration that she died before Part 2 (the "important part").
Here is another problem: The novel is told from a child's perspective. Indeed, I did noticed well-presented character development in Scout's personality, but it's all about Scout. Everybody else is static. It is true that children have limited perception of adults, so the static presentation of the adult characters is definately realistic. However, this is not a "children's book;" there clearly are mature subject matters. The target audience would have to be teenagers or adults. With that in mind, the static presentation of adults does not correspond with the target audience.
Nontheless, my views of this novel are in a minority category. This book is a classic, and I can understand why. The author has an impressive understanding of the time and place in which this book is set. However, that does not mean that the book is a good NOVEL! A detailed setting is enough for expository text, but a NOVEL must take advantage of the elements of FICTION. When I said elements of FICTION, I meant a detailed, consistent plot, well-rounded characters, a broad range of perspectives, variation (but connections) in subject matter (all of which relates to the ENTIRE PLOT), a lot of characters that influence the outcome of the plot in their own, unique way, and so forth. To Kill a Mockingbird does not take advantage of the elements that NOVELS have to offer, and NOVELS can offer more than just a detailed setting. For this reason, I am going to give this novel a one star rating.
Now, as for the title of this review, the book did enhance my imagination. It inspired me to imagine... criticims.
Justice is blind, juries are suspect, should judges decide? August 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
1. Does the law treat individuals differently based on race? Yes. In 1836, Maycomb, Alabama is shock of talk of rape. The accused talk of rape of a white woman by a black man. The facts of the case were circumstantial and the jury strongly biased towards protecting a long standing ideology. Justice was far from equally administrated. Generally, a white mans word superseded a contradictory claim by a black man. Judge Taylor brought a bible tone overture to the court room and a eye contemptuous of Bob Ewelle. The incestuous probable, Bob Ewelle, states that he heard Mayella Ewelle screaming and peer through the window and saw Tom Robinson "rutting on Mayella". Atticus could not control the damage done, the court immediately erupted into a frenzy. Judge Taylor pound his gavel until exhaustion. Christian citizens declared with fervor a determination to protect their women from such beasts. Atticus revealed through cross examination that the attacker was left handed. If a court demonstation, Atticus requested that Bob Ewelle sign his name; Bob Ewelle was left handed; the attacker was left handed; and Tom Robinson had no use of his crippled left hand; and Mayella injury was to the left eye. The sheriff, Hector, tells the court that he say Mayella with injuries. Atticus disturbingly shows the jury that a weak crime scene procedure was follow with the absence of a doctor requested to verify rape. Mayella does not deviate from her claim that Tom Robinson raped her, family loyalty embedded in generations of disfunctional behavior, in such a manner, an innocent man faces the peril of electric chair and an incestuous father ridden with alcoholic stupor preserved like a saint. Tom testifies that Mayella invited him in the house to assist with chores; Mayella had sent the seven children to the store for icecream having saved for months to provide the money; Mayella then grabbed Tom and kissed him, tell him, that she never had been with a man and it might as well be a black man and her father sexual relations did not count; Tom attempted to flee but Mayella grabbed him around the waist; Tom escapes and runs out the back door, as Bob Ewelle burst in the room. Tom ran because he was afraid, but the jury believed, he ran because he was guilty.
Woman spoke critically within hearing of scout. Cast dynamics played a part in the trial. Maycomb families existed as a cast society: at the bottom of the cast hierarchy was the Ewelles, who lived on and near the city dump; next up the social ladder was the Cunningham's, who lived in the forests; and the church loving citizens of Maycomb, who lived a connected and intimate life in the small community. The Cunninghams despised the Ewelles. Cunningham was somewhat convinced of Tom Robinson innocence and held out on the jury decision, but finally capitulated with a guilty verdict.
3. If your black should you trust a jury to administer justice? No. Jem wanted Atticus through state congressional process in Birmingham to change the law, allowing a Judge to rule on case. Tom Robinson was not a slave. Yet, Tom seemed subservient in his manners and speech, unable to defend himself against sophisticated legalism. Should circumstantial evidence or preponderance of doubt be an adequate test for capital offenses? No. Retribution, anger, and self indignation can become the fuel that brings punishment. The lack of direct causal evidence replaced with moral condemnation of the accused. Someone has to pay and why not a black man.
4. What social order did Tom's conviction and eventual death serve? Tom attempted to escape from prison, climbed over a fence, and at the crest of the fence was shot seventeen times. If Tom had two arms, he would have escape over the fence into short term freedom. Tom provided a means to reinforce the barrier between white and black culture, segregation, and fear governing the cast. Interaction between black and white norms established in a secure manner of socastic long term social stagnation. Legalism does not transform social norms. Toms conviction reinforced the social norm of segregation, class distinction, and racism extremes.
5. Will the black culture find the promise land? This is a compelling and dynamic questions with very complex implications. The church is the gather place, the songs, a cry for deliverance. Atticus was a hero, loved, and respected like a great leader for defending Tom Robinson. Gifts of food, a standing exit, and kind gestures implied appreciating for the defender of the faith. A man who follow his duty and followed his conscience. The children of the promise have journeyed for many years. The civil right act did not bring them into the promise land. The legal system did not bring them a land of milk and honey. The corporation did not offer a land of inheritance. If a black man is equal in the law today, he truly has entered the promise land. The constitutional privilege, the inalienable rights of divine law, and justice have been served.
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