To Kill A Mocking Bird

This post is part of the Book Club Challenge by Marathon Bird.

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The mockingbird that is singing in my Magnolia tree each morning when I go out to get the newspaper has suddenly become more alive in my thoughts as I finished Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember as a boy with an air rifle that my dad would let me shoot at blackbirds and jaybirds and sparrows, but never at a mockingbird. I'm not sure my dad's reasoning was as profound as Atticus Finch's, but it was the rule at our house nonetheless.

Revisiting this book after many years without having given it much thought stimulated a lot of reflection on my growing up days in the South. I was some 15 or 20 years later than the setting in Maycomb, Alabama, but things had not changed a great deal in that period time. The balcony at the theater was still reserved for the blacks, although there were no blacks living in our immediate community. Water fountains and restrooms were segregated and the blacks were to enter the grocery store at the back door and wait to be served.

This reading of To Kill a Mockingbird reminded me of how much hypocrisy there is an mankind. We easily see the flaw in our neighbors, without ever recognizing the same flaws, or worse, in ourselves. I believe the part that appealed to me most in this book was the way Atticus realized that change takes place slowly and within individuals. He was concerned that his children not be the same as everyone around. His lessons are extremely important for all of us learn.

Thanks Holly, for selecting the book for our consideration.

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