To Kill A Book Review
Shoot all the reviews you want, if you can hit ’em. But remember it’s a sin to kill a book review.
To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and published in 1960, is a classic piece of literature. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and it was also recreated into a movie in 1962.
The story is narrated by Scout, a character Lee based on herself as a child, who tells about what it was like to live in Maycomb County. The author uses personal events to base her stories on current events from the time and follows customs from when it takes place.
Though To Kill a Mockingbird was published first, Lee’s first writings were actually Go Set a Watchman, but the publisher claimed to have lost it after Lee submitted it to them in 1950. This prequel manuscript was found by the publisher, HarperCollins, and they published the book in 2015. Go Set a Watchman uses the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, but they are now grown up and visiting each other twenty years after To Kill a Mockingbird ended.
This year my English class was assigned to read To Kill a Mockingbird and I was very skeptical of how good the experience was going to be.
The sound of the title gave it a sophisticated tone and because of this I assumed it would be boring. I’m not sure why, but sophisticated and higher-in-literature books always seem to bore me.
I had purchased the book the summer before this class and started reading through the first chapter. Though it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, I didn’t quite understand the language and setting of the story.
If you plan to read this, being in a group or having someone with knowledge of this can help you to grasp the ideas. Refreshing yourself on the era’s traditions and customs will also increase the reading experience.
Harper Lee has excellent descriptions and her writing throws you into the town, makes you feel as if you are there witnessing the events. Her voice is clear; she can capture the style of a child and makes you believe that’s who you are seeing the point of view from.
Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square.
This is an opening description, depicting the town Harper Lee grew up in (Monroeville, Alabama) and using it to portray Maycomb County.
Her sentences have a rhythm that flows ideas, moving them forward, and will sometimes stop, jerk upward, or slow down when the effect is needed. This shows how Lee writes the structure of sentences to fit the pattern she desires.
Due to the time period, the book has greater issues involved like discrimination of color and financial status, gender roles in society, and judgment of others. These themes are introduced as the regular norms, and the book shows how characters react to these topics.
The title, To Kill a Mockingbird, is used to metaphorically describe the major plot line of the book. In chapter ten, Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, says, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Many readers have reworded and pondered the meaning of this quote and have found that he means it’s a sin to kill an innocent man. Killing a mockingbird, as described by the character Miss Maudie, is a sin because instead of being pests like bluejays, the mockingbirds make enjoyable music. They are symbols of innocence.
Atticus is the town lawyer and must defend Tom Robinson, an African American man who is sent to court. It creates a large uproar in the town and Scout is confused as to why her father would still do something when the rest of the town shames it. Tom is the mockingbird in this book, as well as a few other characters who are involved elsewhere.
A book shouldn’t be judged by its cover, though it is quite frequently. The seemingly boring book assignment turned into an interest and my liking for the book has grown with each new chapter I read.
Some ideas and styles of writing can be difficult to understand, but with discussion and research of the content, it’s a great book for beginning literature students or for someone looking for a book with a good message.
Sources
- HarperCollins Publishers: harpercollins.com/9780062409850/go-set-a-watchman
- Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, copyright 1960
After this review was written
Less than four months after this review ran, Harper Lee died in her sleep on the morning of February 19, 2016, in Monroeville, Alabama, the hometown the review mentions as the model for Maycomb. She was 89.
Go Set a Watchman, the manuscript described above, had been announced on February 3, 2015, and published by HarperCollins that July. For years it was treated as her only other book. Then on October 21, 2025, HarperCollins published The Land of Sweet Forever, a collection that pairs eight newly discovered early short stories with eight previously published essays and magazine pieces. Readers who came to Maycomb through a class assignment, as this reviewer did, now have three of her books to read around it.
Students who meet the novel through a class assignment rather than for pleasure usually have to turn a reaction like this one into an argument about theme, symbol or character. A clear walkthrough of how to write a literary analysis essay shows how to get from liking Scout to a thesis a teacher can grade.
Questions people ask
When did Harper Lee die?
Harper Lee died in her sleep on February 19, 2016, in Monroeville, Alabama, at age 89. Monroeville was her hometown and the model for Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and was filmed in 1962. In 2025 HarperCollins published The Land of Sweet Forever, a posthumous collection of her early stories and essays.
Is Go Set a Watchman a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird?
Go Set a Watchman was written first but is set about twenty years later, with Scout grown up and visiting Maycomb. HarperCollins announced it on February 3, 2015, and published it in July 2015, fifty-five years after To Kill a Mockingbird. It uses the same characters, including Scout and her father Atticus Finch, and it was the only other novel Lee published in her lifetime.
