Looking back over the "Noteworthy Content" section, I feel a little silly. Our usual criteria for defining "noteworthy issues" works very well for a children's book where the main concern is how the children act, whether disobedience is encouraged, if inappropriate subjects are broached, etc. This book contains just about every element that many parents try to avoid: Swearing, rape, disobedience and lying without always being accompanied by resolve or reprimand, and yet I say it is one of the best books that I have read. How can this be?
The first thing to understand is that To Kill A Mockingbird was never intended as a children's book. It was written for adults, and the only reason I read it at age sixteen is that my parents felt I was ready to read an adult book.
We often expect a children's book to portray the best side of everybody, with the exception of a few satisfactorily resolved learning experiences. If the book does not meet this criteria, we assume the author is trying to portray the parts we find objectionable as good.
In this book, the author is simply interested in accurately portraying real human beings and how they think and act. While she adds many insights into human nature, she also tells her story with the factual honesty of a historian, so perhaps it is best to treat it as such. When Harper Lee writes about Scout trying out swearing, she is not advocating teaching six-year-old girls to swear, anymore than an author writing a historical fiction about Henry the Eighth is advising his readers to marry and divorce six wives. She simply and accurately portrays a girl of Scout's age, temperament, and situation, growing up in a small southern town.
But, enough apologies. On to the good part.
Recorded Books Inc. offers this summary of To Kill A Mockingbird: "Told from the first person perspective of an irrepressible Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch, it is the story of how a small southern community is turned upside down when a black man is accused of raping a white woman." And so it is. But that's not all it is. It is also a masterful portrayal of many different kinds of human beings, with all their prejudice, faults, stubbornness, understanding, wisdom and virtues. It is a chance to "stand in the other man's shoes for a while," to see things from their point of view and to see through all the unreasonable prejudices, and perhaps find ourselves reflected there. From Boo Radley, Scout's reportedly mad, reclusive neighbor, to the practical, bitingly witty Maudie Atkinson, to the desperate Mayella Violet Ewel, who must use her father's prejudices and hatred to cover up her own sin, all the shades of humanity are portrayed.
To Kill A Mockingbird is an eloquently worded argument against racial prejudice, a portrayal of an upright man, a riveting and entertaining story, an excellent piece of writing, and, most of all, an introduction to mankind.