To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee in 1960. This novel has won a Pulitzer Prize and become one of the American literature. British librarian said that the book is 'a must read book for every person before he/she die'. And the number of copies is ahead from Bible, I heard an issue that this book entered Guinness Book World of Record for the enormous selling. I tried to search it everywhere when suddenly, out of the blue, my friend, Dela, lent me this book.

The events took place in Maycomb County, Alabama. It's about the people there, their opinions about black people, racial attitude, and racial inequality. The main character there are Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch, Atticus Finch, and Jeremy Atticus 'Jem' Finch. Jean Louise is a six year old girl who lived with her older brother Jem, and her father Atticus. She is a boyish girl, always wear boy clothes everywhere, has no doubt to fight the people who bully her, and doesn't care about other people's opinions that 'a girl should wear girls clothes'. She hates school very much and often make problems for Atticus so she can stop going to school. She has a fiancee named Dill who comes to Maycomb every summer and will ask her to play something about Boo Radley, the never-go-out-from-his-house neighbor. Jem Finch is her older brother who loves football and Dill's best friend. He's the one who always protect Scout everywhere and unlike Scout, he always tries to remain calm when people bully his father and say bad words about his father. He's four years older than Scout.

While Atticus, their father, is a lawyer who choose to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused for a rape of Mayella, Bob Ewell's daughter. Ewell family is famous for their dirty and stubborn attitude, the children only appear for several days in school then leave and won't come back to school. It happens for generation. Meanwhile Robinson family has better reputation than them. They're innocent. Actually, Atticus is a great man, he's famous for his shooting skill, eventhough he never shoot anymore for 30 years. And he's also a great father too. He's wise, and when there's an argumentation, he always listens to both sides and see from both sides point of views. Many Maycomb people admire him for his shooting skill and his other skills although he stays humble, down to earth, and never brags about them. There's one person in their house, a black one. His name is Calpurnia. He's like butler, more like family to the Finch family. He always cooks food for them, and often makes Scout's favorite food. Unlike other family in Maycomb who will treat black people as slaves, Atticus, Scout, and Jem never treat Calpurnia as slave. They even treat him like he's one of the family member. What they get, Calpurnia shall get it too, and what they eat, Calpurnia shall eat it too. There's no racial inequality in that family. Despite the fact that most Maycomb people are racial, Atticus never teach his children to do that, and I admire him for that. This book has got taken into a film, and this is the film's trailer

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1222941977/

My most favorite quote is

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.