Social Commentary On To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird; An Analysis on Analysis Without discrediting the book or anything said within it, one could reflect on the social commentary and how this novel has been glorified in the way it has been. Over the years, To Kill a Mockingbird has been hailed as a classic, a timeless piece of literature, an exposing piece on racism in our justice system. The novel explores themes of justice, courage, fear, growing up, loneliness, and other elements that could create a “classic”. The story follows a young girl, age 6 to 9 from summer to summer as she grows up. We meet characters who amplify certain characteristics to teach Scout (the main character and narrator) lessons. Atticus is overly good and honest, Jem is overly boyish and

The characters bring a different aspect into Scout’s life, and provide examples of how to react in situations she faces. The main conflict is the approaching trial of Tom Robinson, an African American man who is charged with the rape and beating of a young woman (Mayella Ewell). During the trial, Scout learns about racial prejudice, as a clearly innocent Tom is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. No one can tell you if the book is good or not. The “goodness” of a book is subjective, as each person may find a story exciting, enthralling, or “good” for different reasons. When a book receives the level of praise that Mockingbird receives, you start to wonder why? The exaltation of this text is the main focus of this essay; is To Kill a Mockingbird as good as people say it is? Does this novel deserve the great honors it’s been given? My short answer; no. This book simply isn’t accessible to most students who are meant to read it today, as it doesn’t make the world-wide connections that could give it that credibility, the story itself is not unique, difficult to comprehend and engage in, extremely dense, and perhaps most controversially, it doesn’t give a POC (person of color) perspective on its main

Revisiting the earlier list of themes, TKAM “explores themes of justice, courage, fear, growing up, loneliness, and other elements that could create a “classic”. “ There are a whole host of books that cover those exact same topics, so why is this one considered so special? Perhaps the fact that the topic was so controversial at the time brought about a lot of popularity for the book, but now that open discussion of the same controversial topics is encouraged, the novelty has worn off. Why this book? The themes this novel covers are common themes in many books, presenting no new ideas. Newer novels, that may be more relatable or accurate to our time period might present a better scope of these themes. It is such an intensely dense piece of literature, it often appears daunting to readers. This novel’s unyieldingly heavy nature also makes it hard to enjoy the plot and theme when the reader is buried under page after page of slow description of unnecessary objects and places. There is no room for interpretation in this book, the imagination is done for you, and so it is hard to get engaged. If a reader is told every last bit of a story down to the minute detail, then what more is there to discuss about the novel itself? Unless the reader by some circumstance experiences/knows someone/owns an object fitting these exact descriptions set forth, then it will be hard to engage and imagine themself in that