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2024: Each time I read what PBS dubs the perfect American novel, my heart fills just a little more. There are few books where the beginning paragraphs hit a home run for me, and this is one of them. It has been a long month filled with family time and endless cooking so for the last ten days I opted for comfort reads and there is no family who provides comfort like the Finches, with the exception of Aunt Alexandra. “Lawyers were children once,�� quotes Charles Lamb in the opening epithet. Prior to this reading, I viewed Atticus Finch as an unapproachable, older father. Beloved by his children to the point of idolization, but with an impenetrable outer skin. As an adult looking back at the events which shaped the novel, Scout paints the picture of her father as one who makes everything right and makes her feel safe. Even though this novel had been marketed for adults, it is in its essence a coming of age novel, which shows Scout’s growth through elementary school while her family faces events that mean to alter the history of a town. Atticus would need to be a strong figure to guide his children through the plot, and he would need to wistfully remember his childhood in order to relate to them. This is the man who told us all to walk in another’s shoes and see things from their point of view. Until today, I never viewed Atticus as multi-faceted, just a great man. Today that view slightly changed, yet he remains one of my top personas of all time.

Pestering Boo Radley is like killing a mockingbird, Scout implores Atticus. He never did anyone harm. There is a reason why this novel won the Pulitzer as being ahead of its time. The beginning and ending paragraphs mirror each other and provide closure. Scout and Dill engage in childhood escapades while learning life lessons imparted on them by their neighbors. Jem believes that the story began the summer Dill came and he tried to make Boo Radley come out. Being four years Scout’s senior at the time, he already saw the events of the novel from an adult perspective. Scout and Dill did not. They started as innocent seven year olds who thought that they would get married one day and ended as empathetic individuals who wanted to change the world. Perhaps Atticus�� lessons had penetrated these children after all; Scout, at least, looked like a lawyer in the making. If the world changed in her lifetime, perhaps she would get that opportunity.

With a book as perfect as this one, it comes as little wonder to me that Harper Lee never published another in her lifetime. She became a recluse; perhaps she modeled Boo Radley after her own tendencies. Boo did not come out because he did not want to. I am of the camp who is 99.9% sure to never read Go Set a Watchman. To Kill a Mockingbird is practically perfect in every way and made to change the way a nation thought about groups of people. Harper Lee had as much courage in publishing it pre- Civil Rights Act as the characters in her novel did in living with there preconceived notions of how the world functions. Bravery, courage, and empathy remain the overarching motifs in this great American novel. I view it as the ultimate comfort read and in the words of my reading friend Tessa, five stars and a heart.

2019: With endless books and infinitely more to be written in the future, it is rare occasion that I take the time to reread a novel. As women’s history month is upon us (2019), I have kept revising my monthly lineup to feature books by remarkable women across the spectrum. Yet, none of these nonfiction books pay homage to the writers of the books themselves. Even with memoirs, the prose focuses on the author’s achievements in her chosen field. Last week a goodreads friend and I paid tribute to women authors in a daily literary journal. In one of my friend’s posts, she pointed out that as recently as 1960, the author of the most endearing of American novels had to use a masculinized version of her name in fear of not being published. Nelle Harper Lee of Monroeville, Alabama published To Kill a Mockingbird under her middle name, so only those well read readers are aware of the author’s full name. It is in this regard, that I included Pulitzer and Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Nelle Harper Lee in my Women’s History month lineup. It is as auspicious of a time as any to reread one of America’s greatest novels.

When I was in ninth grade English class, I read Harper Lee’s novel for the first time. At age fourteen I was hardly a polished writer and struggled with many of the assignments. Yet, I do remember that the top essay in the class focused on the overarching theme of courage and how Harper Lee showed how each of the characters, major and minor, embodied this trait in the trying times associated with the novel. It was courageous of a southern woman to write a novel with this subject matter prior to the passage of the civil rights act. It is of little wonder to me looking back now that she chose to publish under a gender neutral name. Perhaps, she feared a lynch mob or being outcast in her home town. It was a trying time as the federal government asserted itself against states still grieving from the war between the states and holding out as the last bulwarks of white superiority. Harper Lee exhibited as much courage as the characters in her novel, and rightfully was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her work. As such, being courageous starts from the top and works its way down to each and every character of this timeless work.

In 1930s rural Maycomb, Alabama people were pretty much set in their way of life. Town folk had received an education and worked as lawyers, doctors, bankers, and businessmen. The country folk may or may not have received an education because they had to work the fields and many were illiterate. Even the majority of those educated white folk still saw themselves as superior to blacks, and few, if any, had the audacity to take a black’s word over a white’s even if it were the correct moral thing to do. Yet, the crux of Lee’s novel is a court case threatening to disrupt this way of life, having the town divide along both racial and moral lines, and having each character step into others�� shoes and view the world from another’s perspective. Maycomb at the time embodied many rural American cities, isolated from progress as town set in its ways with few people who were willing to see the world from another perspective. One man was, however, a lawyer named Atticus Finch who is among the most revered fictional characters ever created. Even though this court case should not have been his, his superiors selected Atticus to counsel a black defendant because they realized that he was the one man in Maycomb who had both the ability to empathize and the courage to do so. His neighbor Mrs Maudie Atkinson noted that Atticus was the same man in the court house as he was at home and had nothing to fear. A widower, he instilled these values to his children Jeremy Atticus (Jem) and Jean Louise (Scout) from a young age, passing a strong moral compass onto his children.

In addition to critiquing southern race relations, Lee’s novel has endeared itself to children with the legend of Boo Radley. From the time they were young, Jem, Scout, and their summer friend Dill had courage to go to the Radley house trying to get Boo to come out even though all the other kids said the house was spooked. Atticus told them to put a halt to these childish games and explained Boo Radley’s background to them. The town claimed that Boo Radley was a ghost, but perhaps the reason he did not leave the house is because he did not want to. As the children grew older, Atticus warned them that there would be darker times ahead and they would have to be courageous in the face of what people said to them behind their backs. From the time Scout began school in first grade, she inhibited Atticus�� ability to stand up for what was right. Her teacher Miss Robinson was new to Maycomb and did not understand people’s ways. Scout explained about the Cunninghams, the Ewells, as well as other families at a personal cost to herself. As Scout grew older and was able to step into other people’s�� shoes more, she grew to understand differences between folks; however, she and Jem realized that differences did not make the world distinctly black and white or right and wrong. During an era when children were looked upon as unintelligent, Scout and Jem were wise beyond their years and following in their father’s footsteps.

Harper Lee created strong archetypal characters and had each embody their own courage. Each’s courage allowed Atticus to teach his children a life lesson that would endure for the rest of their lives. The family’s neighbor Mrs. Henry Lafayette DuBose demonstrates courage as she battles a final illness. Third grade teacher Mrs. Gates exhibits courage as she teaches Scout’s class about the rise of Nazism in Germany and th encourages her students to think for themselves about the differences between prejudices at home and abroad. The African American characters all demonstrate strong courage as well. The Finch’s housekeeper Calpurnia is a bridge between the white and black communities of Maycomb and does not hesitate to teach Scout and Jem life lessons as they arise. The Reverend Sykes welcomes Jem and Scout into his congregation as though they were his own and invites them to sit in the colored balcony at time when segregation was still the law. He risked a lynching and knew that the Finch family could possibly be labeled as negro lovers, yet Reverend Sykes played a small role in proving that one’s skin color should not determine whether someone is right or wrong. Of course, as part of the overarching story line, Boo Radley can be viewed as the most courageous character of them all. It is through the courage of an author to create characters who will stand up for what is morally right at a large cost to themselves that she created an award winning novel that was ahead of its time for its era. It is little wonder that the courage of these fictional characters has made the novel as beloved as it is today.

I believe that the courage exhibited by all these characters has made the town of Maycomb, Alabama stand the test of time and remain the timeless classic that it is. Most people can relate to those who have the courage to stand up for what they think is right or to fight against those tougher than them. This character trait has endeared the Finch family to millions of readers and will continue to do so for generations to come. Whenever a person asks what book would you give as a gift or what is the perfect book, To Kill a Mockingbird is my first choice. I find that it is perfect for any time but most appropriate in spring as in addition to courage there is an underlying theme of hope. Harper Lee won the Pulitzer for this timeless classic, and it also won first place in the Great American Read as America’s best novel. Thus I can think of no better way to honor women’s history month than with a timeless book that has and will continue to capture the hearts and minds of all of its readers.

5+ stars/ all-time favorites shelf