OK, this is my second post today, and in keeping with the Banned Books week theme another book from the list. This one is a home-spun classic through and through. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
This book was in the Top 10 on the banned books list of 2009. The grounds they had for banning/challenging it were "Offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group" and I'll address these challenges one by one throughout the review.
To Kill a Mockingbird is not about birds, it's about life in small town Alabama during the Great Depression. Atticus Finch, the father of our narrator Jean-Louise (Scout) Finch is a great lawyer and he gets conscripted to defend an African-American man accused of Raping a white girl. Of course, due to the great deal of racial prejudice at them time in Alabama, it seemed like a losing case from the start. It also chronicles Scout and her brother Jeremy (Jem) Finch going through school while Atticus is trying to handle the case and neither of them can really understand the racial prejudices at the time, people are people. There are some racial slurs and offensive language because that was what was used in that time. Over the course of the book they befriend several people in their small neighborhood and meet a couple of new people.
I would absolutely tell people to read this book, no question. It's a powerful novel and a bit heavy on the messages but it really is so good. Harper Lee manages to write prose in such a way that it comes to life. This is a tried and true classic and yes, it's true, there are some age groups that it's not suited for, it's more of a book for teenagers, and young adults but it definitely depends on the age group. Go on, read this book, you won't be disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment