To Kill a mockingbird – by Harper Lee.
To kill a mockingbird - This classic of modern American Literature - a thin book with an antique look, yellow pages and small font - from my dad’s private library - kept beckoning me. I had heard it was a Pulitzer prize winner – a book taught in American high schools and law schools. I had heard it was considered an important piece of literature…Finally I took it out and set on a very different journey through the lazy, small town of Alabama in America along with the little girl narrator of the book named Scout. The book is about Scout’s and her ‘just turning teenager’ brother’s - (Jem) Jeremy’s life lessons and experiences at a peculiar time when their father, Atticus Finch, an attorney (lawyer), takes upon himself the task of defending a black American who is accused of a grave crime. Scout and Jem are motherless kids being raised by Atticus with the help of a responsible and caring lady care-taker and cook who is also a black American. The story takes place in the era when defending a black American was in itself, probably, a lost cause. The book is about Scout’s narrative of the games and adventures Scout and her brother experience alongwith their best friend, Dill and the twists and turns that her life takes as they witness their father’s championing of this lost cause and his indomitable spirit to stand by it. The kids first seem less cared for, naughty, but as Scout unfolds the story, the book takes us to greater depths of the social picture in the USA at that time. The children support and help their father in their own way and in the process stand out as extremely matured characters sensitive to the cause of their hero - their father whom they call by his first name ‘Atticus’. Atticus’s relationship with his children, his interactions with them, the Children’s scare for an unknown neighbour whom they call ‘Boo Radley’ are other subtle things that characterize the book. The language used in the book is beautiful…it has that special old style. It took me a little while to get used to Scout’s language, but its gets more and more engaging as you keep reading.
Certainly not just a Children’s book, but a book that can be read and enjoyed by adolescents, students and adults alike. Harper Lee, the author has won several awards for this book. I am sure that in the times in which it was written, it would have qualified as a bold piece of work. Looking forward to see the movie based on this book – To kill a mocking bird!
कोणत्याही टिप्पण्या नाहीत:
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा