To Kill a Mockingbird: An Appropriate Classic

Do you believe To Kill a Mockingbird is an unsuitable novel for teenagers to study? To be perfectly honest I don’t. After reading the book and having repeated class conversations on chapters day after day I don’t see the improper language, violence or situations as a teen.

Many people deem Harper Lee’s classic novel to be a wonderful insight into a time of prejudice, religion and courage, these people are right and that is why we have been studying it. If our teachers had seen it as inappropriate they wouldn’t have let us read it, if this were inappropriate why it is an all time classic and Pulitzer Prize winning novel, I have no idea.

We have studied it to learn about the notion of powerful and powerless, To Kill a Mockingbird is an ideal novel for that topic, with the character and situations we read about we have a clear understanding of life in the 30’s and how class changed people’s lives.

To Kill A mockingbird does not only explore the tumultuous times of racism, loss of childhood innocence and morality but is a pure and simple love story. What is so inappropriate about a love story? The fact that the bad guy gets what he deserves? Or that the only violence is the shooting of a disease carrying dog?

Teens live in a world of prejudice, ignorance and are faced with events that ultimately change them into being mature and caring. Studying this novel helps teens discover what the worlds past is like and what makes our life and the people around it how we are now.

By reading To Kill A Mockingbird we can learn what we could do right in the present, changing our attitude about life can come from a life experience but reading a novel which gives us specific ideas like ‘have moral standards and stick to them no matter what’ appears loud and clear from scouts experiences of sticking up for Atticus, to Atticus’ own courage in standing up for Tom Robinson against most of May comb County.

We learn the principles of respect for law and justice, for fairness and rules and the need for integrity, honesty and compassion. Harper Lee suggests people can’t stand against the pressures that come along without a commitment to such principles. Learning life lessons through an enforced novel for English we are positively influenced and inspired.

Atticus who in many ways, the novel is built around is recognisably human, not a hero as such but idealised enough to be a convincing model of right behaviour.