To Kill A Mockingbird

I was told to read To Kill a Mockingbird and write a review of it over the summer by my English teacher. Unfortunately the kind of review I want to write will not be accepted or appreciated by my teachers.

To Kill a Mockingbird follows Scout, a 5 year old girl living in Southern America in the 1930’s, during the time of racial prejudice and discrimination. Her father is defending the “mockingbird” of the novel a black man accused of raping a white girl.

So here is my alternative review of what is apparently one of the greatest American novels ever written.

Here’s the first major point: this is not the greatest American novel ever written, it just can’t be. I refuse to accept this is all America has to offer. Although I can appreciate the significance of this book and see how it opened the eyes of the world to the racial prejudice in southern USA, I still don’t like it. Yes, I believe everyone should read it and I know I won’t forget it, but the same can be said for books like The Da Vinci Code and I enjoyed that much more. (Now the Da Vinci Code that is a book which truly shows American literature at its greatest.)

Here is my second point: Books that have good stories get away with being badly written, Harry Potter being the main example. To Kill a Mockingbird is like this but unfortunately that great story is only about half the book. The other half is the ramblings of a girl who has yet to have her eyes opened to the truly horrifying situation she has found herself in. Which I guess is kind of the point, that it shows this racism through the eyes of someone who doesn’t understand it. Still it means that half the book is boring and badly written, even if significant.

Third point: Some books are the kinds that make teenagers wince because they know an exam is at the end of reading it, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of them. (So you can forgive me if I seem over critical but exams are never a good thing.) But that’s the problem, a teenager will only read this book if they have been told to because it is book which seems to have been written only to be studied.

Last thing to say is you should read this book everyone has to at least once. But it’s up on the list with Pride and Prejudice and other classics, as a book to be endured rather than enjoyed.

5/10