To kill a mockingbird

In my infinite (and quite unsuccessful) quest to become a little more literate I came across this book titled To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Being raised by the television as I was, I had heard about this book before on a Simpsons episode, I'll tell you about my complicated relationship with the yellow-folk in some future post, when Homer said something like:

Books are useless! I only ever read one book, "To Kill A Mockingbird" and it gave me absolutely no insight on how to kill mockingbirds! Sure it taught me not to judge a man by the colour of his skin... but what good does *that* do me?

I didn't make much of it at the time but and forgot about it until one day I was searching for some books on ebay and I saw it there for like 99 pence. I mean if they offer you a pulitzer for 99p you have to take it, right?

So long story short, I eventually got around reading it and I must say it's one of the best books I've ever read. The book is set in a small Alabama town of the 1930's, and it's the account of 3 years in the lives of a little tomboyish girl, Scout, and her big brother, Jem, the offspring of a local lawyer Atticus Finch.

People say it's a coming of age story, and it is, as you get to see how the kids are forced to become young adults when their father takes the case of defending a black man in a rape trial in an extremely prejudiced deep south USA society. As the book goes on you can see how Scout and Jem's views towards life change and how in turn this changes them and their relationship with each other and with the world they live in.

I don't want to say to much about the plot since a full review would take me a very long time and effort to write and I'm not a book reviewer. If anything I just want to focus a bit on Atticus Finch (father to Scout and Jem) and since I can't seem to structure my thoughts properly here's an extract from Wikipedia:

"Atticus Finch is one of the most important characters in the story. He represents morality and kindness. He defends Tom Robinson because he feels that not doing so would make him a hypocrite. Atticus serves as a guiding light for his children, always calm and patient. He allows them to come to the understanding that, although evil exists, one should not dwell on that but should instead realize that the existence of this evil is a sign that there is work to do, and progress to make. His strong presence in his children's lives prevents them from becoming symbols of destroyed innocence..."

I can't help but think that if everybody conducted themselves a little more as Atticus does through the book the world would be a better place and not the dumphole it is now.

Look, anything I say here won't make justice to this beautiful (I cant' find any other word to describe it, and believe me when I say beautiful is a word I use maybe once every 1500 sentences...in fact this may be the 1st time I use it in writing!) book so if you ever come across it don't miss the opportunity to read it, I challenge anyone not to be touched by this story and its characters. I guess what really got to me was Scout's innocence and how she retains it even after seeing all she sees (mainly because of the way Atticus educated her and the way Jem protected her) but at the same time all these experiences gave her a sense of reality, a sense of knowing that bad things happen to good people in this world and you can't change that; evil will always exist (as Jem learnt) but you still have to live your life the best you can and treat others with the respect you'd like to be treated with no matter who they might be.
No wonder Harper Lee never wrote another book, how could you possibly follow up this one?

If you're not big on reading, there's a movie out there starring Gregory Peck and a young Robert Duvall. I haven't seen it but it won 3 oscars and ranks at #40 at the imdb.com's top 250 movies of all time. Imagine the kind of performance Peck gave that it got Atticus Finch voted the top screen hero of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute.

So, if you do read the book let me know what you think.

Victor (note to self: I need a cooler screen name)