Week 4: To Kill a Mockingbird (5)

I have had the chance to read for several hours this week, and am nearly finished with To Kill a Mockingbird.  I am excited to see how the book ends!  At this point, I have read completely through the trial scene, and really like the way Lee set it up.  The trial scene, like the rest of the book, is presented to us (the readers) through the child-narrator's eyes.  I believe this is important because the reader sees all angles and sides of the trial.  The child is only eight or nine, and does not completely understand what is going on so, even though she is biased towards her father (and wants him to win) she tells everything she sees in the courtroom.  Also, because she is with her brother who is a few years older than her, but still very innocent, the reader is shown how a slightly older child would react to the situation, and believes the defendant will be proven innocent even though the odds are against him.  I also love that this book does such a great job of laying out exactly how things would have been in Alabama (and most of the South) at the time.  The author was extremely straight-forward and laid everything out for her readers to see.