To Kill a Mockingbird
First, today’s commentary was inspired by a topic devoted to listing one’s favorite books at The Boomer Chronicles, one of my favorite blogs for aging boomers.
It’s interesting that contemporary opinion varies as widely as it does regarding the literary worth of To Kill a Mockingbird, but, then, I think that’s been true for decades now.
As a novelist and former high school English teacher, I think Mockingbird ends up on the “best books” list of so many people because most kids encounter it in school at some point.
And, compared to other required readings on middle and high school English curriculum lists, Mockingbird is a thrilling and highly readable deviation from the usual boring, hardly relevant to today’s kids, and difficult to understand “classic.”
(That’s if any classics are still required reading in public schools in America; they were certainly on their way out the last time I taught English back in 1996.)
Skill of writing (Lee’s no Shakespeare) and thematic depth of message (nor is she an Umberto Eco) aside, Mockingbird is a powerful and important read for young people because the characters are so vividly drawn and easy to identify with.
Additionally, the compelling and dramatic plot draws the reader along page after page after page.
I had many students during my teaching daze tell me, “Mr. Day, geez, thanks for finally picking a good book that’s fun to read. I finished it last night.”
This sort of comment came from both the students who were always several days ahead of the required pages to read as well as the students whose reading abilities made a snail’s pace look speedy.
I agree that, as “literature,” To Kill a Mockingbird leaves much to be desired when compared to writers like Shakespeare (who sets the bar for everyone else as far as I’m concerned), Faulkner, Joyce, et al.
But I also believe To Kill a Mockingbird has a firm place on the “best books” list because most people will remember their happy reading experience with it long after they’re forgotten the painful memories associated with being forced to plow through “classics” they found irrelevant to their lives and inaccessible to their minds.
In closing, if you have a fond (or not so fond) memory about reading To Kill a Mockingbird, I hope you’ll comment and share it below.
on 10 Aug 2009 at 5:12 pm 1.megan said …
This was one of those books i never had to read and never got around to reading. I feel a prick of conscience every so often, encouraging me to read it.
I moved just before my junior year of high school. My old school taught US lit in 10th grade; in 11th and 12th grades, students took different English classes every quarter, akin to college classes lasting a semester. Topics ranged from studying plays to attending them on Broadway (we were within 2 hours of NYC) to drama workshop, death and dying, literature of the sea, Shakespeare, and many other classes. It was fun for the teachers as it gave them chance to pursue some personal favorites and interests, and fun for students, as they got a chance to delve into some topics a bit more deeply.
The school i moved to was not so progressive, and their 11th grade program was US lit, with a reading list nearly identical to what i had endured the year before. Steinbeck and Hemingway figured prominently.
I asked if i could read something different, but no, i had to stay firmly within the curriculum.
Perhaps it wasn’t on the list because it was too controversial? (I graduated from a school in the south, where they avoided talking about the Civil War/War between the States in my US history class.)
Funny, though in 12th grade there, the English teacher i had for British lit had a reading list for us, with some books required and some suggestions. After reading a book, we had to write a short review. Catch-22 was one of the required ones (an excellent read); Catcher in the Rye was suggested. I read it, and said in my review that if it weren’t for being banned, it would probably have slid into obscurity. Since i read it on a rainy afternoon, i didn’t consider it a total waste of time, but had the weather been sunny, i’d have been miffed.
Guess i ought to check the book out of the library and see what it says to me.
on 11 Aug 2009 at 10:40 am 2.admin said …
Megan, yeah, definitely check it out at the library and see what you think. There was a good article in a recent New Yorker magazine about To Kill a Mockingbird as fiction representative of the Old South and the old ways of thinking. That was a new interpretation of the novel for me, but it made a lot of sense.
I disagree with you about Catcher in the Rye. That novel knocked me on my butt the first time I read it in 8th grade and I think it did the same thing to most kids of my generation. I taught it for many, many years and it was always popular with my students, too, so I suspect it would have been a best seller regardless of whether or not it was banned. With that said, getting your novel banned is almost always a great thing for a writer!
Isn’t it a shame that so many teachers stifle kids by saying, “You have to read what we tell you to read.” That’s one reason schools are so rotten these days and why they’re cranking out functional illiterates. I’ll save my rant on education for another day.
Thanks for your post.
Chet