My esteemed colleague Mike Kramer once called To Kill a Mockingbird "a perfect book." It sounds cliche, but it's true: I find something new, feel something new, each time I reread and reteach To Kill a Mockingbird. Perhaps this is the ultimate measure of a great novel. First of all, it's real. It's based on true times and places, real American issues and principles. It's got some of the most hateful content and doesn't shy away from any of it: racism, violence, hatred, ignorance, injustice. And yet, without seeming preachy or sappy, delivers the most inspiring lessons of courage, understanding, fairness, patience and love. I sometimes feel that the world's problems can all be solved by the wisdom of the great Atticus Finch.
This year I find myself especially proud of young Jem. I can appreciate his growing pains: longing to be viewed as a young man instead of always with his little sister. I can appreciate his changing perspective of his father, and I love watching his admiration for him grow.
When his father was being threatened by the angry mob in front of the jailhouse, Jem shows passive resistance. I love his strength to say "No, sir" repeatedly each time Atticus asks him to return home. I admire his new found bravery and his respectful defiance; the ability to disobey when a greater principle emerges. Chapters later, after the guilty verdict for Tom Robinson is announced, Harper Lee writes a most powerful line, "It was Jem's turn to cry." I want my kids to read this line with as much magnitude as she intended it to have: it's about a child's witness to blatant injustice. God, what an important, timeless, gorgeous book.
And then there's Boo Radley- or more respectfully, Arthur. The lessons taught through this character are endless: don't judge others; give people the benefit of the doubt; there is goodness in all people; everyone deserves respect, etc. The beauty of human beings is celebrated in the final pages of this novel when we discover it is Arthur who saves Jem and Scout from their attacker, Mr. Bob Ewell, Atticus's foil. As we close the book, the symbolism of the mockingbird should stay with every reader for the rest of their lives, which in my humble opinion, improves the world.
