To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
By: Sukriti Gupta
Tags: Words, Book Quotes, Novel Excerpt, To Kill A Mockingbird, Book Review

'To Kill a Mockingbird’, you’ll find this name everytime you search for the best books ever written. It holds a popularity and respect among its readers, which a very few other books do. Whenever I had search for some good reads online, I was recommended this one name every time.

But, for reasons unknown to me, I never started reading this book until a few days back, and now having completed it, I can count me in the group of readers who are a fan of this book.

Whenever I think about 'To Kill a Mockingbird’, I think about Scout, about Jem, Calpurnia, 'Boo' Radley, and more. But, the one person who I would never forget is 'Atticus’.

Atticus is the type of man who makes you believe in the goodness of people. You can’t stop respecting this man for his upright conscience, wise judgement, and ,most importantly, his kindness.

He fought for the truth when it was easier to join hands with the lie. He knew that in trying to help save a life, he could be shot anytime, but he was never afraid to die.

He cherished death more than sleepless nights caused by the pain of not fulfilling one’s duty. At one time of his life, he was the best shot in the town but still he always refused to carry a gun, even in self defense, because he believed that by carrying a weapon you’re openly telling your enemies that you’re ready to kill and die. But, he rather wanted to save and live!

He was the type of person who people would always call “mad" but never “wrong”. Because he was mad enough to stand for the right, he was crazy enough to pity his enemies rather than hate them. He believed in the goodness of people, and for many, he was the only example of goodness left in people.

You can’t agree more when someone in the book tells Scout about the wonderful character of her father- Atticus, by saying,

“but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of your father; if Atticus Finch drank until he was drunk, he wouldn’t be hard as some men are at their best.”

Although a majority of people might call him crazy, but deep inside, they all respected him. They couldn’t support him publicly because they were not courageous enough to follow along, but no man ever could call Atticus “Wrong".

Like they say,

“The only thing that doesn’t abide by the majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

No matter how hard one try, only a few people can be like this man; who was never driven by the hunger to impress others.

Who had the courage to support a cause even if doing it meant being isolated from his community, being ridiculed by his people, and being termed as an “old crazy idiot".

And in the end, guess what, he might have lost the case, but during those final moments of judgement every one was silently praying for the same “old crazy idiot" to win.

He might have lost the case, but he won his satisfaction, his righteousness, people’s love and respect- and honestly, these things were even bigger than the victory.

Maybe, you can’t always end evil alone in the first try, especially when you’re caught in a world where the evil is so prevalent that people have become accustomed to living that way.

But, you can always try to bring a change by helping people open their eyes, by setting an example that it’s not fine to stay silent every time. It’s important to stand up for the right, and even more important to have the courage to walk alone, if need be, during the process of fulfilling your duty and doing what should be done.

The other person who wins your heart in this excellent story is “Boo" Radley. He’s the spooky kind who prefers being locked in his house for all his life, away from mankind.

People call him names, call him devil, say he has killed his parents; there are a lot of speculations about him in the society.

Atticus' children, Scout and Jem, being Radley’s neighbours are always frightened to cross the road at night or even go close to his house. But, (being children) they are also curious to see Radley once as they had never seen him all their lives. And finally, in the end it is Boo Radley, and nobody else, who came out to save the children’s lives one day.

So, the irony of the situation sometimes make you laugh, when you come to understand that, in most cases, the same person who people generally call insane is ,actually, the most sane among them all.

And, in our stupidity to judge others, pass comments about their ways of life, mock others for being different than us, in all this mess, we lose our sanity and act like the most “insane" people.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

Always remember, kindness is underrated but it is the only thing that the world and all it’s people ( including me & you) need the most.