《To Kill a Mockingbird》was a book my husband bought for my daughter to read when she was only eight years old. My daughter was a very advanced reader, she was reading at fifth grade level in the Accelerated Reader program when she was six-year-old and in first grade. My husband said that the book was narrated by an eight-year-old girl, the same age as our daughter was, therefore, he believed our daughter would enjoy reading it herself.

That year for spring break, we went to stay at the Dillon Beach house with a few of our good friends Kathy m, Leslie c and their families, when I chatted with Leslie, she was so shocked and said, "Nooooo...Have you read it yourself? The language and storyline are way too rough for an eight-year-old!"

Back then I was more interested in "classic" books, I had two lists of hundred best novels that I was working on.《To Kill a Mockingbird》is on the reader's choice list of the 20th century modern library 100 best novels. I decided to give it a try myself. To tell you the truth, I did not like it so much the first time reading it. The girl was a tomboy, she even had a boy's name～Scout, she called her father who was a lawyer by his first name directly～Atticus. The story was a little spooky and it disturbed me.

This spring I wrote a review on the book & Oscar nominee《the Help》, it was being compared to 《To Kill a Mockingbird》by critics. I got out the latter book and read it again, I savored every page of it. I watched the movie as well, it helped me visualize the characters and scenes in the story. I saw new light through it, I found Scout and her brother Jem very advanturous. Just think about it, I played a lot with my brother and the boys in the neighborhood when I was little, we played war, we played in the dirt, we fished and swam in the lake... There was nothing wrong with being a tomboy! 

Scout and her brother met up with the neighbor's nephew Dill in the summer, and they got into all sorts of mischief. They tried to have their mysterious neighbor Boo coming out, they were never successful. However, once in a while they would find some pieces of treasure hidden in an old tree knothole～old Indian pennies, chewing gum, an old pocket watch, two soap dolls carved to look like Scout and Jem...These were treats given by Boo, a silent gesture of kindness.

Scott and Jem's father Atticus was a true gentleman. I found the book very humorous. For example, an old lady, Mrs Dubose, was always sitting in her front porch. When Scout walked by and said "Hey", the old lady jumped out of her skin and said:" Don't you say 'hey' to me, you ugly girl! Make sure you say 'good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose'..." Scout ran away before the old lady could complain any further, she bumped right into her father on his way home. The gentleman father took off his top-hat and bowed to the old lady "Good afternoon, Mrs Dubose, you look like a picture this afternoon. Goodness gracious, have you ever seen such a garden more beautiful this side of Mississippi!" Some people just need sweet words fed into their ears ～ even if it was exaggerating. In the movie, you would find Scout and Jem hiding and joking behind their father, so their father, played by the famous actor Georgery Peck, giving his children a "love spank" with his hat.

The little town Scout and Jem lived in was called Maycomb; it was an old-fashioned, tired town. Everybody knew everybody else, yet they didn't necessarily talk or interfere with each other. There were a lot of invisible lines between parties: the rich and the poor, the city-folks and the farmers, the grown-ups and the kids, the lawful and the outcast, the white and the black... People tended to take things matter of factly, no one was brave enough to stand up and question the custom.

Not the case in the household of Atticus and his children. That is why I call Atticus a true gentleman: he raised his children truthfully and with integrity. He gave them the freedom to be different, to explore the world, to keep their innocence...Above all, he taught his children to behold the virtues of life ～ sometimes it is the children who could see & tell the truth ～ just like the the boy in《the Emperor's New Clothes》.

At a age when law was not enough to protect everyone equally, Atticus stood up to defend Thomas Robinson, a black young man wrongly accused of raping a white young woman. He tried all his might peeling off the layers of lies to reveal the truth. Yet the jury still found Thomas Robinson guilty because no one had the courage to cross over the "invisible line" . What a pity!

Atticus tried to shake people awake by putting courage and conscience back into their hearts. The author Harper Lee wrote the novel in 1957, the eve of the civil right movement, a true courageous act and timeless piece. Atticus had always taught his children, "It is a sin to kill a mockingbird, mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing their hearts out for us. " Thomas Robinson lost his life by trying to run away when he was being transported to another jail... a life seemed like soon no one would remember...

But we do remember, he did not shed his blood in vain ～ 60 years after the book was first published, the story echoed and touched the hearts of millions.

I believe one of the reasons that I like this story more now is that I am keeping an open-mind. I've learned to accept and cherish the life of myself and others, to forgive and forget, of all the hurts we went throughyears and years ago...- especially the political turmoils of 1989. Will justice ever come to a generation of chineses students who gave up their youth, even their lives?  


《To Kill a Mockingbird》clips 







~thanks for reading, may we find peace~