TKAM

            As the original namesake for my blog, I figured I should put a lot of effort into this blog on To Kill A Mockingbird. Just kidding, I put a lot of effort into all of my blogs. Actually, despite using this novel’s name as part of my blog title, I had a lot of trouble really getting into its story.

            It’s Spring Break and I’m just hanging out on Siesta Key Beach with friends. While everybody else is catching up on reading Mockingjay or one of the other books in The Hunger Games series, I decided to pull out To Kill A Mockingbird (let’s call it TKAM for short). Living a solid 5 minutes from Siesta Key my entire life, I have had some experience with reading on the beach; I’ve found it’s a quality idea. So, I figured this endeavor would be no different than my previous beach readings.

            But here’s the problem: it’s Spring Break and I’m trying to do school work! That’s like a turtle trying to outrun a cheetah…it’s just not going to happen! So, I put the book down and decided I would further procrastinate.

            Fast forward three or four days to Friday. I am back on campus (one of the few) and there wasn’t much to do, except homework. So, it only made sense to delve back in to TKAM.

            I remember reading this book in 8^th grade in Dr. Dean’s class. I don’t remember much about it, and I figure I probably just Sparknote’d most of it. But not this time. I opened the book and immediately was able to delve into the wonderful prose displayed by Harper Lee.

            Although the story was very good, there were a lot of things I was confused about. After a while, I figured out that Scout is the one narrating. But, it took me a while to realize that the Finch’s were white, along with most of the people written about in Maycomb. Also, Scout is a girl. Got that, too.

            As I blogged about with Huck Finn, I had a lot of adventures with my cousins John and Josh. I spent almost every day of every summer of the first 14 years of my life at their house. And they lived on a golf course that was built into a small forest area. Sounds like adventure to me.

            Reading through the first part of this book, I could do nothing but relate to the adventures of Scout, Jem, and Dill. My cousins and I may not have ever acted out shows like Tarzan, but we definitely had a neighbor we liked to fool with. His name was Boo Radley. Not really. But he was a mystery that we tried to learn about. I’ll spare y’all the stories and just talk about TKAM.

            Atticus is a really interesting character to me, because everything he does is absolutely intentional. Everything he says, everybody who hears it, and every action he takes is to get a message across or teach a lesson, especially to his kids. I really like that about his character. It makes me feel like everything he says should be paid close attention, and that captures my focus.

            Overall, I am excited to talk about the story that appears out what seems to be another adventure: a story of pursuing one’s interest and ignoring that of society, a story of growth (especially in Scout), and a story of a family standing strong in a poor situation.