To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Everyone's Favorite . . .

To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Justice is blind, juries are suspect, should judges decide?

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To Kill a Mockingbird

	To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee Grand Central Publishing, 1988 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 1759 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Everyone's Favorite . . .

I honestly have no idea how many times I have read this book. I read it first as an assignment in the eighth grade; most recently, at the age of 41, I read it aloud to three of my children. As with the more recent readings that I recall, I choked up a bit at the end as Scout is experiencing the tragedy and love that surrounds her in the form of her conservatively eccentric father, her mythically reclusive neighbor, and the whole Depression-era, post-Reconstruction sugary gothic Alabama town of her home.
There seems so little to add in reviewing this book. I will say that even as I read it I ponder the strength of its charm. What is it that is so powerful? Scout is herself quite endearing, although even a casual reading should tell the reader that the first-person voice that is speaking is not the voice of the eight-year old Scout; Harper Lee somehow conveys a tone that retains the childlike innocence of Scout (the child), but the story told is mature and the vocabulary is college-educated. So is this Scout (or Jean Louise Finch) as an adult? I don't think so, as there is very little biographical/autobiographical information provided beyond the timeline of the story (e.g, did Scout grow up and marry?; what happened to Scout's mother?; does everyone live happily ever after?).
I read once that Harper Lee considered this to be a simple love story, or something like that. I've wondered who she was thinking about: Atticus and his kids, or Boo Radley and the kids, or some other pairing. I guess it is all of the above. It's a simple story of relatively normal children with an independently thinking father who all live in the politely racist South of the 1930's. The circumstances that confront this family (racism of the lowest order and ugly poverty and dysfunction from the underbelly of society) are really not abnormal until the violent climax. Blood is shed; much blood. But it is all presented with a humanity and Southern nostalgia that draw us into a world - as ugly as it is - that makes us wish we were there, and that we could have changed a few things.
Highly recommended, if you haven't read it yet.

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Justice is blind, juries are suspect, should judges decide?

1. Does the law treat individuals differently based on race? Yes. In 1836, Maycomb, Alabama is shock of talk of rape. The accused talk of rape of a white woman by a black man. The facts of the case were circumstantial and the jury strongly biased towards protecting a long standing ideology. Justice was far from equally administrated. Generally, a white mans word superseded a contradictory claim by a black man. Judge Taylor brought a bible tone overture to the court room and a eye contemptuous of Bob Ewelle. The incestuous probable, Bob Ewelle, states that he heard Mayella Ewelle screaming and peer through the window and saw Tom Robinson "rutting on Mayella". Atticus could not control the damage done, the court immediately erupted into a frenzy. Judge Taylor pound his gavel until exhaustion. Christian citizens declared with fervor a determination to protect their women from such beasts. Atticus revealed through cross examination that the attacker was left handed. If a court demonstation, Atticus requested that Bob Ewelle sign his name; Bob Ewelle was left handed; the attacker was left handed; and Tom Robinson had no use of his crippled left hand; and Mayella injury was to the left eye. The sheriff, Hector, tells the court that he say Mayella with injuries. Atticus disturbingly shows the jury that a weak crime scene procedure was follow with the absence of a doctor requested to verify rape. Mayella does not deviate from her claim that Tom Robinson raped her, family loyalty embedded in generations of disfunctional behavior, in such a manner, an innocent man faces the peril of electric chair and an incestuous father ridden with alcoholic stupor preserved like a saint. Tom testifies that Mayella invited him in the house to assist with chores; Mayella had sent the seven children to the store for icecream having saved for months to provide the money; Mayella then grabbed Tom and kissed him, tell him, that she never had been with a man and it might as well be a black man and her father sexual relations did not count; Tom attempted to flee but Mayella grabbed him around the waist; Tom escapes and runs out the back door, as Bob Ewelle burst in the room. Tom ran because he was afraid, but the jury believed, he ran because he was guilty.

Woman spoke critically within hearing of scout. Cast dynamics played a part in the trial. Maycomb families existed as a cast society: at the bottom of the cast hierarchy was the Ewelles, who lived on and near the city dump; next up the social ladder was the Cunningham's, who lived in the forests; and the church loving citizens of Maycomb, who lived a connected and intimate life in the small community. The Cunninghams despised the Ewelles. Cunningham was somewhat convinced of Tom Robinson innocence and held out on the jury decision, but finally capitulated with a guilty verdict.

3. If your black should you trust a jury to administer justice? No. Jem wanted Atticus through state congressional process in Birmingham to change the law, allowing a Judge to rule on case. Tom Robinson was not a slave. Yet, Tom seemed subservient in his manners and speech, unable to defend himself against sophisticated legalism. Should circumstantial evidence or preponderance of doubt be an adequate test for capital offenses? No. Retribution, anger, and self indignation can become the fuel that brings punishment. The lack of direct causal evidence replaced with moral condemnation of the accused. Someone has to pay and why not a black man.

4. What social order did Tom's conviction and eventual death serve? Tom attempted to escape from prison, climbed over a fence, and at the crest of the fence was shot seventeen times. If Tom had two arms, he would have escape over the fence into short term freedom. Tom provided a means to reinforce the barrier between white and black culture, segregation, and fear governing the cast. Interaction between black and white norms established in a secure manner of socastic long term social stagnation. Legalism does not transform social norms. Toms conviction reinforced the social norm of segregation, class distinction, and racism extremes.

5. Will the black culture find the promise land? This is a compelling and dynamic questions with very complex implications. The church is the gather place, the songs, a cry for deliverance. Atticus was a hero, loved, and respected like a great leader for defending Tom Robinson. Gifts of food, a standing exit, and kind gestures implied appreciating for the defender of the faith. A man who follow his duty and followed his conscience. The children of the promise have journeyed for many years. The civil right act did not bring them into the promise land. The legal system did not bring them a land of milk and honey. The corporation did not offer a land of inheritance. If a black man is equal in the law today, he truly has entered the promise land. The constitutional privilege, the inalienable rights of divine law, and justice have been served.

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READ IT!

Few characters in all of literature are as captivating as Scout.
Read it just so you can know her.

Stunned.

You know what, I was about to put that book down and stop reading it. I heard so many people telling what a good book/movie it was so I was curious to find out why.

The first half of the book was really dragging and sometimes seemed irrelevant and boring, but it totally turned around starting at chapter 17 (I know, a loooong way to go, but don't give up). I was amazed at how well it ended, though.

I only give it 3 stars because of the slow-moving development of the plot. However, I still think it's worth reading.

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