CPR Post Reading Blog: Book #1 - To Kill a Mockingbird

When I asked people about To Kill a Mockingbird, most, if not all of them told me that it was about a court case. Naturally, I imagined other court case stories that I have seen as movies (I don't read much) such as A Few Good Men or My Cousin Vinny. This made the book to be quite a big surprise for me and after reading it, I wouldn't describe To Kill a Mockingbird as a story about a court case at all. I would consider describing the story as "being about a court case" the equivalent of putting a clown mask over a man's face and saying his face is that of a clown. It just simply isn't so.

After reading the first 50 pages of To Kill a Mockingbird, I was confused. I still hadn't seen a court case in the book. All I had seen was this little girl named scout and what would be a day in the life during her younger years. This did not, however, discourage me from reading the book. I hadn't found it that enjoyable to read at that time, but I kept reading anyways in the hopes that I hadn't just wasted 50 pages of my life.

I kept reading on and over time came to enjoy the book. It pointed out some things to me which helped me discover what the book was about as a whole. In my opinion, To Kill a Mockingbird isn't about a court case. It's a coming-of-age story about a little girl and the important life lessons she learned while growing up. I believe those lessons to be:

1. Don't take advantage of someone who cannot defend themselves or has done no harm to you. This lesson is mentioned multiple times and is brought up near the beginning of the book in the words: "Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird."
2. Try to see the situation from somone else's perspective. This is something that Scout Finch doesn't grasp until much later in the book.
3. Don't give up even if you know you will lose. This is shown throughout the court case that happens in the second half of the book. This is a concept that even I have trouble grasping, but believe that I understand a bit better from this book.

Overall, I found the book to be very interesting by the end. The lessons that I took away from the book also gave it more value to me than something purely for entertainment purposes. I would rate the book with a 3.5 out of 5 star rating, mostly because I simply wasn't interested in the book until later on when all the small things started to come together like a french braid. While the slow beginning helped to make the ending and the lessons more memorable for me, it still didn't make up for the fact that I didn't enjoy reading it until I got farther in.