Byebye TKAM

  After three months of reading and working on this unit, yesterday we finished To Kill a Mockingbird. I personally loved the book, it was full of life lessons to take away, and Atticus is a good role model for Scout and Jem on how to be a good person with character and integrity.
  Yesterday, we finished the last chapter of the book, Chapter 31. Boo asks Scout, "Will you take me home?" He had sounded like a scared child. These are the only words he ever says in the book, and the first and last time he ever talks to Scout. This is ironic because the entire book, everyone was scared of Boo, but in reality, he's the one who's scared because of his mental disability and that he's socially awkward. Scout makes it look as if he's escorting her down the sidewalk and not vice versa, Boo goes inside his house, and Scout never sees him ever again. She thinks about everything he's done for her and Jem, and she becomes sad that they've never done anything for him in return. She then stands in front of his window so she can see Maycomb from Boo's point of view; she's taking Atticus's advice and standing in Boo's shoes. She recounts the events of the book and how it looked like from his viewpoint. She went home, and Atticus read The Gray Ghost to her. She falls asleep and then wakes up, sleepily claiming that she was awake the whole time and talking about one particular character, Stoner's boy, who in the book everyone had assumed that he caused trouble and was evil, but when they got to know him, he was real nice. Atticus answers her, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them." This is talking about Boo because a lot of people in Maycomb were ignorant and assumed things about him, but they never got to know him.
  I thought it was pretty clever of Harper Lee to include The Gray Ghost as the comparison to Boo. Everything just comes back to the life lesson of being tolerant and how you need to walk in others' shoes and see the world from their point of view before you judge them. It'll make you a tolerant and better person and others are going to respect you for it. Overall in the book, there had been many morals, such as walking in others' shoes, don't "kill mockingbirds," always do the right thing even when it's hard, stick to your moral standards, violence solves nothing, have true courage, don't brag about our God-given talents, and when there's a problem, you're the one to solve it even if it's unpopular; you will earn respect for it. There's probably a whole bunch more, but these are ones that we listed in class today. Atticus is probably my favorite character in the book, and if there were more people like him around, the world would be a really great place. To Kill a Mockingbird is an amazing book, and it really shines a light on things such as loss of childhood innocence, what true courage looks like, how we should be tolerant and not ignorant, and what a high moral standard is and how to be a good person.