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to kill a Mockingbird
The "Heinemann Plays" series offers contemporary drama and classic plays in classroom editions. Many have large casts and an equal mix of boy and girl parts. This play discusses racial tension in the heart of the American South.
Paperback
First published June 1, 1960
70 people are currently reading
4174 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Sergel
54 books18 followersChristopher Sergel's interests and talents led him on many adventures throughout the world. As captain of the schooner Chance, he spent two years in the South Pacific; as a writer for Sports Afield magazine, he lived in the African bush for a year; as a lieutenant commander during WWII, he taught celestial navigation; as a playwright, his adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio was seen on Broadway. But throughout his life, his greatest adventure and deepest love was his work with Dramatic Publishing. During this time, he wrote adaptations of To Kill a Mockingbird, Cheaper By the Dozen, The Mouse That Roared, Up the Down Staircase, Fame, Black Elk Speaks and many more. His love of theatre and his caring for writers made him a generous and spirited mentor to many playwrights here and around the world. His inspiration and integrity attracted to the company fine writers including C.P. Taylor, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Arthur Miller, Roald Dahl and E.B. White - to name just a few. He once said he hoped to be remembered as E.B. White described Charlotte…
"…a true friend and a good writer."
"…a true friend and a good writer."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 169 reviews
September 2, 2008
This book is just so incredible. I remember finishing it at age 14, and asking my Mom to take me to the library. I dramatically told the librarian "I want to read EVERYTHING that Harper Lee ever wrote!" She responded . . . "You already did." That's been over 40 years, and I still remember how devastated I felt. My favorite line from the book was (and I paraphrase):
Harper Lee tells us how, on a dare, Scout is about to run up to Boo Radley's house and touch the porch. She is understandably scared, and Lee explains that she ". . . treaded water at the gate."
I remember reading that line over and over.
Harper Lee tells us how, on a dare, Scout is about to run up to Boo Radley's house and touch the porch. She is understandably scared, and Lee explains that she ". . . treaded water at the gate."
I remember reading that line over and over.
February 11, 2019
‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.’
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is an undisputed classic that few will avoid having read in their lifetime, and those few are to be pitied. As I have presentation of the novel coming up this weekend, a discussion group that I am lucky enough to be allowed to lead as part of the The Big Read here in Holland, Michigan, I felt it necessary to revisit this timeless classic (and I figured I’d review it to help collect my thoughts on the subject). The experience was like returning to a childhood home and finding it warm and welcoming and undisturbed from the passage of time, like walking the streets of my old neighborhood and hearing the calls of friends as they rode out with their bikes to greet me, of knowing the mailman by name and knowing where all the best places for hide-and-seek were, the best trees to climb, and feeling safe and secure in a place that is forever a part of yourself. Though some of the mechanics of the novel seemed less astonishing than my first visit more than a decade ago, the power and glory was still there, and I found a renewed love and respect for characters like Atticus, whom I’ve always kept close to heart when wrestling with my own position as a father. Harper Lee created a wonderful work that incorporated a wide range of potent themes, wrapping class systems, gender roles, Southern manners and taboos, and an important moral message of kindness, love and conviction all within a whimsical bildungsroman that no reader who has been graced by its pages will ever forget.
‘The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.’
Before dipping into the novel itself, I’d like to take a moment to speak about Atticus Finch, one of my favorite characters in all of Literature. Atticus is a pillar of morality, a man of honour, integrity, and most importantly, conviction. He is humble and honest, even admitting to his children that yes, indeed they are poor. In a novel about society, with its tumultuous mess of morals and class, Atticus is like an authorial deus ex machina, being Lee’s method of inserting moralizing and an example of what constitutes a ‘good man’ into the book through character and not authorial asides. I’ve always idolized Atticus and tried to think ‘what would Atticus do?’ when it comes to being a father and undertaking difficult moral conundrums (I even named my second cat Catticus Finch). Atticus takes the unpopular position of defending a black man in a rape case when assigned to him despite the town nearly ostracizing him. Atticus does his duty, and does it well, as a man of conviction that believes in doing what is right and honorable regardless of the consequences, living up to his statement that ‘Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what’. In fact, Lee originally intended to name the novel Atticus before deciding it would stifle the broad perspective of Macomb by drawing too much attention to one character. Atticus remains steadfast throughout the novel, sure of himself and fully developed, whereas those around him undergo more a sense of change and development. This is a novel about personal growth and a broader understanding of those around you, and Atticus is the anchor to integrity and morality keeping his children centred in the violent storm of emotions and violence that befalls Macomb.
‘When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.’
There is a childlike innocence spun through a novel of such weight and seriousness, executed brilliantly by Lee’s choice of Scout as the narrator. We are forever seeing a larger world through the eyes of a young girl still trying to find her place in it while making sense of all the hustle and bustle around her, and this creates an incredible ironic effect where there are large events going on that the reader understands but are delivered nearly through defamiliarization because the narrator cannot fully grasp them¹. The narration allows Lee to balance the coming-of-age hallmarks with the weightier themes, allowing the reader to maintain an innocence from the rape and racism while still able to make sense of the society functioning at large and retreating from the darker themes into the fun of the children’s comings and goings. What is most impressive is how everything blends together, and the lessons learned in each aspect of their life are applied to all the other elements they come in contact with. The fates of Tom and Boo Radley are emotionally and morally linked in the reader's mind, heart and soul.
All the standard bildungsroman motifs that make people love the genre are present in To Kill a Mockingbird, from schoolyard quarrels, to learning your place in society. We see Scout, Jem, and even Dill, gain a greater understanding of the world and their place in it, watch the children come to respect their father for more than just being a good father, see them make dares, terrorize the neighbours in good fun, and even stop a mob before it turns violent. With Scout, particularly, there is an element of gender identity at play that leads into a larger discussion about class and society. Children learn from those around them, and Scout spends much of the novel assessing those around her, perhaps subconsciously looking for a role model for herself. The ideas of what a good southern woman is and should be are imposed upon her throughout the town, such as Ms Dubose who criticizes her manner of dress, or Aunt Alexandra and her attempts to eradicate Scout’s tomboyish behavior, and she learns to dislike Miss Stephanie and her gossipy behavior. Miss Maudie, however, curbs gossip and insults, and puts on the face of a southern lady, but still gets down into the dirt in the garden and behaves in other, more boyish, ways that Scout identifies with. The gender identification becomes a cog in the gear of Southern tradition in manners and class. While the court case is unquestionably controversial due to the racial implications, it is also because it forces people to discuss rape and involves questioning the Word of a woman. It forces up a lot of taboo that the community is uncomfortable in being forced to deal with it, and many inevitably turn a squeamish blind eye when forced to confront the ugly truths at hand. Macomb is a society where everything and everyone has their place, a set identification, and they do not like it being disturbed. Most important to note is the correlation that the characters who are most inclined to uphold societal traditions through self-righteous brow-beatings often exhibit the most rampant racism throughout the novel.
‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except making music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’
There are many ‘mockingbird’ characters in this novel, such as Tom and Boo, but the real mockingbird is, to me at least, the innocence that is lost. The town is forced to see each other for who they really are, to question their beliefs, to grow up with all the racism and bigotry going on around them. Atticus teaches Scout that we cannot know someone until ‘you consider things from his point of view’, and through the novel we see many misjudgements of character based on misunderstanding or characters refusing to see beyond their closed opinions, or even something as simple as Scout and Jem believing the rumors of Boo Radley as a bloodthirsty maniac. ‘People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.’ This applies to many obdurate aspects of society, such as Miss Maudie stating ‘sometimes the Bible in hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of-oh, your father,’ emphasizing the ways that a closed mind is just as dangerous as a violent hand and that even religion can be misused. There is a message of love, of looking into the hearts of others and not just judging them, a message of compassion and open-mindedness working through To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is a message that we all must be reminded of from time to time.
There are a few issues that arose on a re-reading of the novel, having grown myself as a reader since I first encountered this lovely book. While the moral lessons are important and timeless, there is a sense of heavy-handedness to their delivery. Particularly at the end when Sheriff Tate points out the dangers of making a hero of Boo Radley.
taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head.
This statement is quickly followed by Scout mentioning to Atticus that ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’. It seems a bit unnecessary to reiterate the point, especially when Tate’s double use of sin was enough to draw a parallel to the message earlier in the novel that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. This, I admit, is overly nitpicky but brings up a conversation about teaching this novel in schools. This book is, ideally, read at a time of the readers own coming-of-age and the connections they are sure to draw with the characters reinforce the love for the novel. It is also a time in life when you are just beginning to understand the greater worlds of literature, and overtly pointing out themes is more necessary for readers when they haven’t yet learned how to look for them properly. It is books such as this that teach us about books, and usher us into a world of reading between the lines that we hadn’t known was there before. Another quiet complaint I have with the novel that, despite the themes of racism, Calpurnia seems to be a bit of an Uncle Tom character. However, who wouldn’t want to be in service for as great of a man as Atticus, so this too can be overlooked.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel surely deserving of it’s classic status. Though it is not without its flaws, there is a timeless message of love that permeates through the novel. It is also of great importance as a book that young readers can use as a ladder towards higher literature than they had been previously exposed to. Lee has such a fluid prose that makes for excellent storytelling, especially through the coming-of-age narrative of Scout, and has a knack for creating exquisite characters that have left their immortal mark in the halls of Literature as well as the hearts of her readers.
4.5/5
‘...when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice.
Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’
¹This style is reminiscent of William Faulkner, such as the court scene in Barn Burning from the detached perspective of a child. In fact, much of this novel feels indebted to Faulkner and the works of Southern Gothic authors before her, and the Tom incident and case feels familiar to those familiar with Faulkner’s Dry September or Intruder in the Dust. The way the most self-righteous and self-professed 'holy' also tend to be the basest of character morals is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor as well. Lee’s story is fully her own, but it is always interesting to see the travels and growth of literary tradition.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is an undisputed classic that few will avoid having read in their lifetime, and those few are to be pitied. As I have presentation of the novel coming up this weekend, a discussion group that I am lucky enough to be allowed to lead as part of the The Big Read here in Holland, Michigan, I felt it necessary to revisit this timeless classic (and I figured I’d review it to help collect my thoughts on the subject). The experience was like returning to a childhood home and finding it warm and welcoming and undisturbed from the passage of time, like walking the streets of my old neighborhood and hearing the calls of friends as they rode out with their bikes to greet me, of knowing the mailman by name and knowing where all the best places for hide-and-seek were, the best trees to climb, and feeling safe and secure in a place that is forever a part of yourself. Though some of the mechanics of the novel seemed less astonishing than my first visit more than a decade ago, the power and glory was still there, and I found a renewed love and respect for characters like Atticus, whom I’ve always kept close to heart when wrestling with my own position as a father. Harper Lee created a wonderful work that incorporated a wide range of potent themes, wrapping class systems, gender roles, Southern manners and taboos, and an important moral message of kindness, love and conviction all within a whimsical bildungsroman that no reader who has been graced by its pages will ever forget.
‘The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.’
Before dipping into the novel itself, I’d like to take a moment to speak about Atticus Finch, one of my favorite characters in all of Literature. Atticus is a pillar of morality, a man of honour, integrity, and most importantly, conviction. He is humble and honest, even admitting to his children that yes, indeed they are poor. In a novel about society, with its tumultuous mess of morals and class, Atticus is like an authorial deus ex machina, being Lee’s method of inserting moralizing and an example of what constitutes a ‘good man’ into the book through character and not authorial asides. I’ve always idolized Atticus and tried to think ‘what would Atticus do?’ when it comes to being a father and undertaking difficult moral conundrums (I even named my second cat Catticus Finch). Atticus takes the unpopular position of defending a black man in a rape case when assigned to him despite the town nearly ostracizing him. Atticus does his duty, and does it well, as a man of conviction that believes in doing what is right and honorable regardless of the consequences, living up to his statement that ‘Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what’. In fact, Lee originally intended to name the novel Atticus before deciding it would stifle the broad perspective of Macomb by drawing too much attention to one character. Atticus remains steadfast throughout the novel, sure of himself and fully developed, whereas those around him undergo more a sense of change and development. This is a novel about personal growth and a broader understanding of those around you, and Atticus is the anchor to integrity and morality keeping his children centred in the violent storm of emotions and violence that befalls Macomb.
‘When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion faster than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em.’
There is a childlike innocence spun through a novel of such weight and seriousness, executed brilliantly by Lee’s choice of Scout as the narrator. We are forever seeing a larger world through the eyes of a young girl still trying to find her place in it while making sense of all the hustle and bustle around her, and this creates an incredible ironic effect where there are large events going on that the reader understands but are delivered nearly through defamiliarization because the narrator cannot fully grasp them¹. The narration allows Lee to balance the coming-of-age hallmarks with the weightier themes, allowing the reader to maintain an innocence from the rape and racism while still able to make sense of the society functioning at large and retreating from the darker themes into the fun of the children’s comings and goings. What is most impressive is how everything blends together, and the lessons learned in each aspect of their life are applied to all the other elements they come in contact with. The fates of Tom and Boo Radley are emotionally and morally linked in the reader's mind, heart and soul.
All the standard bildungsroman motifs that make people love the genre are present in To Kill a Mockingbird, from schoolyard quarrels, to learning your place in society. We see Scout, Jem, and even Dill, gain a greater understanding of the world and their place in it, watch the children come to respect their father for more than just being a good father, see them make dares, terrorize the neighbours in good fun, and even stop a mob before it turns violent. With Scout, particularly, there is an element of gender identity at play that leads into a larger discussion about class and society. Children learn from those around them, and Scout spends much of the novel assessing those around her, perhaps subconsciously looking for a role model for herself. The ideas of what a good southern woman is and should be are imposed upon her throughout the town, such as Ms Dubose who criticizes her manner of dress, or Aunt Alexandra and her attempts to eradicate Scout’s tomboyish behavior, and she learns to dislike Miss Stephanie and her gossipy behavior. Miss Maudie, however, curbs gossip and insults, and puts on the face of a southern lady, but still gets down into the dirt in the garden and behaves in other, more boyish, ways that Scout identifies with. The gender identification becomes a cog in the gear of Southern tradition in manners and class. While the court case is unquestionably controversial due to the racial implications, it is also because it forces people to discuss rape and involves questioning the Word of a woman. It forces up a lot of taboo that the community is uncomfortable in being forced to deal with it, and many inevitably turn a squeamish blind eye when forced to confront the ugly truths at hand. Macomb is a society where everything and everyone has their place, a set identification, and they do not like it being disturbed. Most important to note is the correlation that the characters who are most inclined to uphold societal traditions through self-righteous brow-beatings often exhibit the most rampant racism throughout the novel.
‘Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except making music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’
There are many ‘mockingbird’ characters in this novel, such as Tom and Boo, but the real mockingbird is, to me at least, the innocence that is lost. The town is forced to see each other for who they really are, to question their beliefs, to grow up with all the racism and bigotry going on around them. Atticus teaches Scout that we cannot know someone until ‘you consider things from his point of view’, and through the novel we see many misjudgements of character based on misunderstanding or characters refusing to see beyond their closed opinions, or even something as simple as Scout and Jem believing the rumors of Boo Radley as a bloodthirsty maniac. ‘People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.’ This applies to many obdurate aspects of society, such as Miss Maudie stating ‘sometimes the Bible in hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of-oh, your father,’ emphasizing the ways that a closed mind is just as dangerous as a violent hand and that even religion can be misused. There is a message of love, of looking into the hearts of others and not just judging them, a message of compassion and open-mindedness working through To Kill a Mockingbird, and it is a message that we all must be reminded of from time to time.
There are a few issues that arose on a re-reading of the novel, having grown myself as a reader since I first encountered this lovely book. While the moral lessons are important and timeless, there is a sense of heavy-handedness to their delivery. Particularly at the end when Sheriff Tate points out the dangers of making a hero of Boo Radley.
taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight—to me, that’s a sin. It’s a sin and I’m not about to have it on my head.
This statement is quickly followed by Scout mentioning to Atticus that ‘Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?’. It seems a bit unnecessary to reiterate the point, especially when Tate’s double use of sin was enough to draw a parallel to the message earlier in the novel that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. This, I admit, is overly nitpicky but brings up a conversation about teaching this novel in schools. This book is, ideally, read at a time of the readers own coming-of-age and the connections they are sure to draw with the characters reinforce the love for the novel. It is also a time in life when you are just beginning to understand the greater worlds of literature, and overtly pointing out themes is more necessary for readers when they haven’t yet learned how to look for them properly. It is books such as this that teach us about books, and usher us into a world of reading between the lines that we hadn’t known was there before. Another quiet complaint I have with the novel that, despite the themes of racism, Calpurnia seems to be a bit of an Uncle Tom character. However, who wouldn’t want to be in service for as great of a man as Atticus, so this too can be overlooked.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel surely deserving of it’s classic status. Though it is not without its flaws, there is a timeless message of love that permeates through the novel. It is also of great importance as a book that young readers can use as a ladder towards higher literature than they had been previously exposed to. Lee has such a fluid prose that makes for excellent storytelling, especially through the coming-of-age narrative of Scout, and has a knack for creating exquisite characters that have left their immortal mark in the halls of Literature as well as the hearts of her readers.
4.5/5
‘...when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice.
Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.’
¹This style is reminiscent of William Faulkner, such as the court scene in Barn Burning from the detached perspective of a child. In fact, much of this novel feels indebted to Faulkner and the works of Southern Gothic authors before her, and the Tom incident and case feels familiar to those familiar with Faulkner’s Dry September or Intruder in the Dust. The way the most self-righteous and self-professed 'holy' also tend to be the basest of character morals is reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor as well. Lee’s story is fully her own, but it is always interesting to see the travels and growth of literary tradition.
August 3, 2025
Such a good read 4.5
February 25, 2010
I haven't read this book for a long time and just re-read it because I'm teaching it right now. This book is really incredible and I have a much greater appreciation of this book now that I'm a father and have been in the world a bit. I was surprised when AFI named Atticus the #1 hero of all time, but not because he didn't deserve (he does) but that "the world" would recognize what a true hero looks like (non-violent, putting others above yourself, etc). Hopefully I can help my students see this.
October 26, 2015
I've read this book twice in one month I'm slightly obsessed help me
August 8, 2019
This adaptation is fantastic. I work for a local theater production and I can’t wait for our audience to see it.
June 22, 2022
it teaches you what is just and what is justice, that innocent people can be punished.
October 13, 2022
This was a page-turner! I loved this play and it was so good. In 1935 Sophie and Jem's father, Atticus is representing Tom who is accused of beating someone. Throughout a tense court session, the kids think their dad might win but because the jury is unfair Tom ends up losing. The main antagonist beat his daughter but accused Tom. Later it is revealed that Tom was shot because according to the antagonist he tried to run so they shot him. The antagonist is upset that Atticus challenged him so he tries to kill Sophie and Jem but ends up stabbing himself by accident. I loved this book! The characters were well-written, especially Atticus. You could really understand Atticus's feelings and actions as the book went on. He gave incredible advice to his children and the people around him. I would recommend this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 18, 2009
Harper Lee's moving and powerful novel deserves to remain as one of the most important 20th Centurary Classics. The moral story of a young girl named Scout and her understanding of the world she lives in, attacks the predudices of adulthood and the ignorance of man. The novel is centred on the issue of racism and the interaction of man with man. Exploring this theme, Harper views the world through the unpredudiced eyes of Scout and we watch as her views are shaped by those around her.
The novel is shockingly powerful, with characterisation that will move you through emotions. The novel is written in a style that most ages will find easy to read, and enjoy. The lessons to be learnt by this book are of such great importance to the modern day world in which we live, therefore I believe that it should be positvely encouraged to early teenagers, as they themselves are having their views shaped by those around them. I would say that Nelle Harper Lee deserves all the respect she gets for this truly outstanding novel.
The novel is shockingly powerful, with characterisation that will move you through emotions. The novel is written in a style that most ages will find easy to read, and enjoy. The lessons to be learnt by this book are of such great importance to the modern day world in which we live, therefore I believe that it should be positvely encouraged to early teenagers, as they themselves are having their views shaped by those around them. I would say that Nelle Harper Lee deserves all the respect she gets for this truly outstanding novel.
August 12, 2015
There is only a short-numbered of titles I would pick up again after finishing from my bookcase, and this was one of them. Atticus, you are my favorite book character, you had me cheering you on during the trial *again* even when I knew the ending, and that is what a great writer does, they make you feel and think. I am not here thinking "oh, what a nice book. Done," they make you lay awake at night and wonder about what made the ending so special, and if you could change it, which is why I refuse to read the sequel to this book, because I don't feel To Kill a Mockingbird is a story, I feel it as a life lesson.
March 19, 2017
I've really just never felt that this book warrants the status it receives. It's okay, and the values espoused are certainly noble, but the story itself is just kind of boring. I know I am in the minority with this opinion, so perhaps there is some greatness that is lost on me.
Read
February 21, 2022I think this book is an example of bigotry in an peculiar way, thou the book is not what it actually calls for. "A young girl as her father- a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime"Harper Lee. I think they include the wrong type of detail for this book because through the whole book it rarely speaks of Tom Robinson until you get around the second part. Otherwise they rarely speak of him and that attracts attention away from the book because you are not getting the content the book is actually about. Otherwise... I think this book explores the injustice of being a young lady like scout in her shoes, and it represents what a person like her went through, such as her family- and her father taking such petrifying case. This book represents the wrongs in the south and the racism, and everything that goes on- with a modes family who are in the middle of it.
March 16, 2022
Personally, I think I tried to read this book in more depth to see if it had a hidden meaning because it was such a famous book.
First of all, what I felt on the surface was almost described as strange things happening in a peaceful family rather than I thought, but after understanding the reality, I think it was a very creepy book. And it seems that the author tried to publicize the seriousness of racism so that the satire was very fun, but not just funny.
Until now, these were things that I could talk about while reading a book.
Of course, I was born in the United States, but I think I am a citizen of the Republic of Korea, and I have been hanging out with people similar to me, including education and society, and now I am. However, I was more alert after reading this book because I thought these issues would come to me day by day, and I might face these problems in my future.
If I were to give this work a score, I would certainly give it five points. Even if I was not interested in this issue, I thought it was worth enough as a literature, and I learned a lot.
First of all, what I felt on the surface was almost described as strange things happening in a peaceful family rather than I thought, but after understanding the reality, I think it was a very creepy book. And it seems that the author tried to publicize the seriousness of racism so that the satire was very fun, but not just funny.
Until now, these were things that I could talk about while reading a book.
Of course, I was born in the United States, but I think I am a citizen of the Republic of Korea, and I have been hanging out with people similar to me, including education and society, and now I am. However, I was more alert after reading this book because I thought these issues would come to me day by day, and I might face these problems in my future.
If I were to give this work a score, I would certainly give it five points. Even if I was not interested in this issue, I thought it was worth enough as a literature, and I learned a lot.
May 1, 2022
To Kill A Mockingbird has a cast of characters that I adore. I believe Atticus teaches readers a number of key moral principles, which is excellent given that this story is intended for high school students. I didn't see the necessity for Arthur Radley as a character when I was younger, but now I see that Arthur represents Scout's maturation and understanding of life. With the overarching message of prejudice, Harper Lee and Christopher Sergel make an excellent job of demonstrating the court's unjust practices throughout the racist era. Would I prefer the novel adaptation to this stage adaptation? yes. As a novel, it goes into additional knowledge and depth about the story and characters.
December 11, 2022
I have both nitpicks and sincere complaints about the original Harper Lee book although I acknowledge its importance to literature and the messages it espouses and thus encourage its continued usage and place in American society and arts. I can't really extend that acceptance to the play but that has more to do with being forced to memorize it and act it out repeatedly while I was a hormonal middle schooler so by the end of the local community production I was in, I was sick of it (which might have leached over into my less than enthusiastic view of the book). Not horrible but I just personally had some unlikable memories with it.
October 10, 2025
mi-a plăcut extraordinar de mult cartea. mi-au placut modul în care curge acțiunea, modul în care au fost construite personajele și atenția acordata de autoare la detalii pentru a creiona comportamentele și evoluția lor, mesajul transmis, descrierile și dialogurile existente în carte. am adorat personajele lui Atticus și ale lui Scout, conversațiile dintre ei și stilul de "parenting" al lui Atticus.
deși partea cu procesul pentru viol nu apare încă de la început, acest lucru mi-a plăcut pentru ca autoarea a dat timp cititorilor sa se acomodeze cu personajele, cu felul lor de a fi și cu modul lor de gândire, dar și cu cutumele din sat și cu societatea pentru a arata logica desfășurării procesului și finalitatea lui.
relația dintre frați, Scout si Jem, foarte drăguț și real ceionată, mi-a plăcut.
am dat 5 stelute cu inima împăcată ✨️
deși partea cu procesul pentru viol nu apare încă de la început, acest lucru mi-a plăcut pentru ca autoarea a dat timp cititorilor sa se acomodeze cu personajele, cu felul lor de a fi și cu modul lor de gândire, dar și cu cutumele din sat și cu societatea pentru a arata logica desfășurării procesului și finalitatea lui.
relația dintre frați, Scout si Jem, foarte drăguț și real ceionată, mi-a plăcut.
am dat 5 stelute cu inima împăcată ✨️
December 10, 2024
This is a book I read about a year ago and forgot to rate it. This book goes super hard into what the South was like in the great depression. Something that has stuck with me is the trial of Tom Robinson, who's being falsely accused of raping a woman. The regard for evidence and racism the court members show is astonishing but is balanced wellness with Atticus Finch being the only level-headed one there. Overall, amazing book that, while it was a bit draining to read at some points, when it gets started, it REALLY gets started.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 24, 2020
This play adaptation for to the crux of the story, but I found myself missing certain characters and scenes, like when Calpurnia takes the children to her church or Scout and Dill’s conversation when Link Deas outside the courthouse. Overall, this was still a really interesting interpretation of the novel!
April 26, 2022
This was one of the first books that I read in High School and it was such a good story. I am so sad to see that this book has been removed from the reading lists in school. Racism is something that needs to be discussed because it is very real to this day and students need to be aware of their history.
July 27, 2022
I loved this story. I read it with my 9th grade English class. They read it in parts each playing a character. We all loved the story. It tells about a part of history that we need to remember and learn from. Racism is real and can't be stopped because we have no control over people's thoughts and beliefs, but we can learn from it.
November 28, 2017
Just a place holder. Listened for a 3rd time to the Sissy Spacek audio, which is phenomenal. (I've also read the print version three times.) Got to figure out how to denote multiple readings of a title ...
July 15, 2018
I LOVE this novel, and so it was really cool to read the play. Of course with it not being told from Scout's POV, and it having to be trimmed down for the stage, there are a lot of details missing. I'd still like to see this performed one day.
July 26, 2020
A one-work wonder. Harper Lee wrote with amazing insight into racial tension and social justice in the segregated south, set in Alabama. Beautiful descriptions of interaction between loving single father and young children who loved him and admired him.
June 3, 2024
i love to kill a mockingbird. it's the book that really inspired my love of reading. this play ... leaves a lot to be desired. next time i'll just reread the book.
TW. racism, racial slurs, rape, murder, hate crime.
TW. racism, racial slurs, rape, murder, hate crime.
June 4, 2019
Beauty
September 6, 2019
GREAT BOOOK !!!!!!!
January 3, 2020
yeah really good
March 24, 2020
It was ok. I read it for school.
Read
July 11, 2020School assignment!
October 13, 2020
I got in trouble for writing a paper about doubting Atticus Finch as a character and was sent home from school. Then they released Go Set a Watchman.
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