Reflection About the Novel

            Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, there were various themes, messages, symbols, and details that Harper Lee included in each and every sentence. The way that each chapter ended in suspense, and how nothing was fully resolved until the ending, or near it, showed how carefully Harper Lee spent planning the map of the story. For me, this was one of the main reasons I preferred this book to any other I have read for English class.

            One reason that this novel is superior to others, is the timeless factor. Whether you read this book just as it came out, or you read it in two hundred years, Scout, as well as many of the other characters, will always be relatable. No matter what time period you live in, everyone knows that feeling of growing up, and coming to realizations you hadn’t before, just as Scout shows in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee wrote about Scout’s transition so slightly and gradually, with lots of descriptions and great detail, yet still showing what’s happening, and not telling. As you’re reading the book, it makes you feel like you are inside of it, living it. This is one of the many reasons that make To Kill a Mockingbird such a fantastic novel.

In most books we have read, the symbols are obvious and forced, whereas in To Kill a Mockingbird, they are clever, making the reader have to think after each paragraph was read. The symbols were more hidden, such as the glasses falling off as Atticus shot the dog, but were brought up at least twice, showing that it was no accident these details were put into the novel. This way that the author includes symbols makes the book that much better than others.

            Out of all of the themes and symbols evident throughout this book, I found the most interesting one to be the contrast between light and dark. The symbol of the light representing good, hope, and wisdom, and the symbol of dark representing evil and fright was clear throughout the novel. From the first chapter, where Scout explained how “people said he [Boo Radley] went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows (10),” to the last where Scout explained that “when Boo Radley shuffled to his feet, light from the livingroom windows glistened on his forehead (371).” At the start of the novel, Scout was frightened of Boo Radley, and thought he was an evil man who wanted to “peep in windows,” and kill everyone when “the moon was down.” Throughout the story, Scout sees Boo in different lights, and by the end, she describes him a completely different way, realizing that instead of killing her, he saved her life. From describing Boo using the darkness at the beginning, and using the light by the end, Harper Lee shows how Scout had matured throughout the novel. I think that Scout also realized that Boo Radley, in some ways, was very similar to Atticus. The way he was different from the Maycomb community, and how he let “light” travel from him, were two observations that could also be made about Atticus.

            Overall, I found To Kill a Mockingbird to be the greatest book we have ever read in English class. Not only were there symbols, themes, details, and suspense, but there was also that sense of emotion, and being able to feel everything Scout was going through, as if it was you.

Was this ending surprising to you? Why or why not?