Signed, She Who Will Rise Again: Book Spoilers: To Kill a Mockingbird

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND AND INCREDIBLE RAMBLING TO SELF. DO NOT ENTER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD AND WANT TO. SERIOUSLY. ONLY READ THIS IF YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK BEFORE, OR YOU DON'T WANT TO READ IT BUT YOU'RE READING THIS POST ANYWAY. WHATEVER. YOU GET THE POINT. PROBABLY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

Well well well! I am now officially done with all of my "ENTER" posts -- at least for now. You know, until I feel the need to write an entry dedicated to some person that I am most likely going to be writing about. But anyway, now that I'm finished with those, I have apparently decided to make my fourth post a simple book review. Seriously, people. I'm just goin' with the flow here.

To Kill a Mockingbird cover.
Source: Google images

In the 1960s, one of the main things that was going on in America was the Civil Rights Movement, with Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr., and all of the other people that we read about in those literature books at school and stuff. Well, the author Harper Lee wrote a Gothic novel that centered around the 30s, when the main goal of the white man was to kill every black man they come across -- you know, that sort of righteous thing.

Riiight.

Scout and Jem's father, Atticus Finch, serves as the moral backbone of the story. He's a widowed, middle-aged man practicing law in Maycomb, Alabama, and trying to teach his young children the rights and wrongs of the world. Unlike most of the other people in Maycomb, Atticus' character does not serve to be a racist of any form. Not that we readers can see, anyway. But while Atticus is defending his defendants, his two children are off meeting Charles Baker Harris (who proclaims, "Folks call me Dill."), who has no father and claims that Scout is the only girl he will ever love, and playing "Boo Radley".

Mayella Ewell as seen in the movie.
Source: Google images

Meanwhile, Atticus is trying his best to save Tom Robinson, a black man who has been charged of raping Mayella Ewell. But did this happen? Well, no, of course it didn't. There was so much evidence in the courtroom that Atticus presented to the jury that it was overwhelming. For example, the sheriff, Heck, said that she was choked and punched and all that sort of stuff, but yet, Tom Robinson cannot use the arm that would have had to have been used in order to do any of those things.

Thomas Robinson as seen in the movie.
Source: Google image

The truth is is that Mayella jumped on poor Tom first -- not the other way around. She had called him in so that he would help her with a few chores that her father wanted her to do. But when he had come in, she jumped on him! Told him that she wanted a real man to do something to her. Not like what her her daddy did to her.

Not like what her daddy did to her . . . hmm . . . interesting. Okay, so that's proof right there in the making that her father was the one who raped her, not the innocent man you see towards the upper-right of this paragraph. But to really, fully understand things about Bob Ewell, you have to know a bit more about dysfunctional families when it comes to alcoholism.

Bob Ewell's destiny had already been picked out for him even before he was born. His family was known as the trash of Maycomb, and therefore, the only people who were "below him", so to speak, were women and people of other races. While of us most of us today know that sexism and racism isn't right, it was pretty popular back in those days. These are, after all, the 30s.

Bob Ewell as seen in the movie.
Source: Google images

Kids who grow up with an alcoholic and/or alcohol abuser in their immediate family tend to be alcoholics when they grow up. That's not a stereotype, either; it's a cold, hard, fact. So if the Ewells were well known for their alcoholism, well, Robert E. Lee Ewell didn't have a chance in the first place. Well, yes he did: he made his own decisions, there isn't any doubt about that. However, the emotional (and physical) trauma that comes along with being a child of an alcoholic can certainly take it's tole on a person, and Bob Ewell was just one of the many victims.

Child abuse and domestic violence are very common in alcoholic families, so when Bob Ewell rapes and beats Mayella (and probably his younger children, too), it's not all that uncommon. You may be wondering, if this is true, then why did Mayella or someone else ever interfere? The answer is actually quite simple: abused children and rape victims often put the blame on themselves and attempt to keep on chuckin'. As for the other people, well, it wasn't exactly culture-friendly to intervene in things and situations such as these, so they wouldn't have either. I understand that that seems terrible, but it is what things were like. And in some places, are like.

"But, Anastasia!" you might be saying, "I still don't understand; if all of this has been happening like you say, then why is there suddenly a trial where the defendant never did anything?"

Well, what you have to understand is that, during the 1930s, if you were black and on trial against a white, then you were going to lose. A black against a black? I'm not completely sure, but I'm pretty sure that there never was such a thing back then -- not in a real, professional court house, anyway. Why? Racism, my dear friends! Racism. That's what happens when people think that they're better than others based on something as petty as race.

Atticus on the trial.
Source: Google images

Bob Ewell was angry at Mayella because he loved her. Not just as a father and daughter, you see, but just as a man loves a woman (etc.). So when he actually caught her kissing Tom, willingly, he was so angry that he beat and raped her. Then he ran over to the sheriff and told him that Tom had been the one to rape his daughter. Thus, the trial began, and Atticus was chosen to defend Robinson.

Despite his innocence and Atticus's speech, Tom is convicted of Mayella's rape. They took him off somewhere and shot him, but the story goes that he tried to make a run for it. That wasn't true at all, of course, but it is what the officials were trying to say. Atticus was notified, and he had to ride out to the black community with Calpurnia and Jem to tell them that Tom had joined the afterlife.

Despite his victory, Bob is so angry at Atticus. The man feels that the lawyer completely ruined his reputation (not that he had a very good one), and the alcoholic tells him that he'll get him somehow.

And, he nearly does.

Scout played the role of a ham in her county's Halloween play (which did take place on the thirty-first of October). When she and her older brother were walking home under the full moon, they were attacked by a drunken man. Jem was mostly hurt (his arm was broken horribly, but he could still play football after it), and Scout just got a bump on her head -- not too much harm done.

I know that that may not sound so much, but Bob wasn't playing around; he had a knife with him. He was serious about murdering the main character and her brother. But what stopped him, then?

Boo Radley as seen in the movie.
By the way, under his name says, "He's a ninja"
Source: Google images

Yep! Arthur "Boo" Radley comes out to join the party. But first, who is he?

Boo is known by the fine people of Maycomb county as the insane man who cut his father's leg with scissors and then resumed slicing up the newspaper. His father would not let him go to any asylum, saying that no Radley would go to such a place. Once he and his wife died, the son took care of him. Arthur constantly stayed inside and became very anti-social (after all, no one ever ever came over). Yes, he was insane. Evil, however, like what everyone believed? Nope.

Earlier in the book, Boo started leaving things like toys in a tree in his yard for Scout and Jem and Dill to have. This excited them to no end (throughout the book, they always wanted to see Boo), as they were sure it was him (and they were right).

So when he comes out and fights Bob and saves the children, it's quite ironic in the story line. Who would have thought? I suppose, if you really think about it, he's the only possible one to save them. Atticus couldn't, because he wouldn't have heard. Besides that, I'm not even sure what he would have done in a situation like that. I suppose he would have fought to save his kids, but Atticus' character just isn't very violent at all. Heck Tate, the sheriff? Maybe, but he definitely wasn't anywhere around . . . hmm.

Anyway, Bob accidentally kills himself by falling on his own knife, and Arthur runs off with Jem in his arms (for at this time the boy is unconscious) to the Finch house. Heck's called, and so is the doctor, and Scout manages to find her way home . . . even though she can barely see a thing with her ham costume on.


Jem and Scout Finch, in the forest, about to be attacked by Robert. E. Lee. Ewell Source: Google images

All in all, everyone gets home safely. No one, except for perhaps the doctor and his brother, sees Boo Radley again. Scout and Jem grow up. Life goes on.

My view of the book? Well, it's okay. I don't think it's anything to get over-excited about -- but that's just me. However, that doesn't mean I wouldn't suggest it! No, it is pretty dang good.