To Kill A Mocking Bird : A Review

The story is set in a little town of Maycomb, Alabama 1932 during the Depression Era in the United States. The narrative is in the perspective of a little girl, named Jean Lousie Finch aka. Scout. The central idea of the novel is to depict the racial discrimination prevalent in those days and while at it, the author tries to delve deep into the heart of the reader and probe those hidden territories which one seldom has the leisure to explore oneself.

It is a story of two innocent children who come into close encounters of the harsh world they live in as they grow up. A Negro is shown to be falsely accused of rape and finally convicted inspite of the evidence going in his favour, only because it happened to cross the mind of a so-to-seem respected “White” lady to seduce a physically challenged “Black” who, on the contrast, used to feel obliged even to come of a minor service to her free-of-charge. This disturbs the conscience of Scout and her elder brother, Jem who haven’t yet got accustomed to such injustice shown to the inferior race which comes as something so obvious to the adult world that they have long since, stopped brooding over such trifle matters. The author has in quite uncertain terms made it clear that the mind of an 8 year old is capable of perceiving something which fails to penetrate the dense gray-matter of the aged, over-burdened with experience that seems to take the place of sheer common sense. The following dialogue between Jem and his father, Atticus manages to catch the essence quite well.

Jem enquiring in a melancholy mood as to how could such injustice be allowed to be done against a Black,
Jem: “How could they do it, how could they?”
Atticus: “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep. Good night.”

There are also a few parallel stories running along, one of which is about their neighbour, Boo Radley who never comes outdoors and has ended up being a local scare to the children of the neigbourhood. Eventually when he does appear in public with his ashen-white complexion and his not-so-social nature, Scout quite easily adjusts with him inspite of the prejudices she’s been brought up with against him. Only if we adults could get over our own prejudices that easily enough…

There are many such instances which induce the reader to stop and think for a while. Its slow narration has been at times criticized but had it not been slow what different would it be from the fast-paced world we live in where a moment’s idle thought could cost us a fortune according to the measures of wealth set by us.

The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1960.


Courage - is when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. -Atticus