"To Kill a Mockingbird"

     When was the last time you read a book that changed your life? When was the last time you read a book that changed your life the second time you read it?  To Kill a Mockingbird is just such a book.  Written by Harper Lee in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of a young girl, Scout Finch, living in Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression.  Among all of her adventures with her brother, Jem, and their summertime friend, Dill, one of the most notable is the three's quest to discover the truth about Boo Radley - a man who lives with his family in an old house, a man no one knows very much about.

     But the legend of Boo Radley serves only as the backdrop to the real dilemma in this small town in Alabama.  Tom Robinson is a black man accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell.  Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem's father, is the man appointed to defend Tom in court.  Atticus -a man truly ahead of his time - is fighting against a jury of racist people in the deep south.
     To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic bildungsroman tale (a coming-of-age story) because it is all about Scout opening her eyes to the real world for the first time and seeing how ugly some people can really be.  Up until then, Scout saw the world through her innocent child eyes; her father was perfect, people were good, and there is always justice in the world.  But through the court case with Tom Robinson, Scout loses that innocence and recognizes mistakes.  She sees that Atticus is actually just human and that he does make mistakes.  She sees that not all people are good.  And she sees that sometimes justice will not prevail in a world so full of prejudice and hatred.
     Like I said earlier, To Kill a Mockingbird is the kind of book that can offer the reader something new and insightful every time he or she reads it.  I have read it twice, and each time, I find a new lesson to be learned.  A wonderful book that no person should not have read at least once in their life.

I give it 5 out of 5 Wildes.

And I couldn't help but add one of the funnier spoofs of To Kill a Mockingbird available on the internet. How to Kill a Mockingbird.