A Simple Issue of Right and Wrong

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Ok, so perhaps the issue in this book is not that simple. It tells the tale of Atticus Finch - lawyer, well-respected gentleman, widow and father of two. Through the eyes of his young daughter, Scout, you witness Atticus' unwinnable fight against the racism that raged through America in the 1930s, as he tries to defend a young black man accused of rape.

Racism continues to be a sensitive issue and has a history as old as the world. However, Lee's book approaches it in a completely unique way - from a child's point of view. Ok, so there have been other books that approach racism from a child's perspective, Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman for example, but they don't tell it in quite the same way. The narrator is 6 years old at the beginning of the book and by the end of it, only 9. I'm sure many of us can still remember the weightless, carefree life we led, where the most stressful thing was how many sweets you could get for 10p and for how long you could make them last. That same lifestyle is applied to Scout.

Scout, her brother, Jem and best friend, Dill all share the same fantasy - 'Boo' Radley. The man next door that hasn't been seen or spoken about for years by the Finches or anyone else in the town. They think up endless games and ways to tempt him from his house, despite warnings not to, and Scout, despite her private fears of her invisible neighbour, plays along to keep up with the two older boys. She is reckless, scrappy and determined and her life revolves around her father, reading and 'Boo' Radley. Therefore, when the trial of Tom Robinson enters her life, she does not consider it any different from any other trial fought by Atticus.

It is this stance that makes the book so touching - Scout does not consider the 'coloured' people any different. There was a time when none of us considered each other any different - whether it was the girl in the wheelchair, the boy with the ginger hair or the man with one arm, no one was different to you. As children, everyone is equal.

With this childlike perspective, To Kill a Mockingbird allows you to make your own mind up, not only about the issue of racism, but also about all the prejudices often faced by people everyday. Whether you're the bitter, old woman who insults people to hide her own problems, or the lonely Mayella Ewell, people often judge others before they know the full story - most people that is, excepting children.

It needn't be said but this book is a brilliantly written, brilliantly constructed account of a single issue of prejudice that embodies every picture. What Lee is teaching us is to view the people with the innocent mind of a child every once in a while, rather than make judgements formed by years of heartache, sterotypes and experience. Whilst sometimes our experience can come in handy, by judging people before we know them we may be missing some of the best experiences of our lives. There will be some experiences we should avoid and others that we should embrace, but in both cases we should put ourselves more freely in other people's shoes. Maybe then we will even get a better view of ourselves.

Please comment if you have anything to add to this review of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.