I always found the kids in the book far more interesting. I'm happy she didn't stick with that one. I've read that To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't Harper Lee's first choice. As a reader, I came to appreciate the dual narrative of Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, and how it lent itself to reflections on both the universal and the particular ways we think about race and the “other.” One thing, however, continued to elude me: the book’s title.

Scout and Atticus on the porch talking about the upcoming trial. I had to speed up.Īs I got older and learned more, different scenes stuck. At first I noticed it in small ways: Walking home from friends’ houses in the gloaming I'd pass a yard filled with junk or overgrown grass, and I'd just know that Boo Radley lived there. I suppose my teacher believed that watching someone else's vision of the book was safer than having us talk about the issues of race, class, discrimination, and justice it might raise during the heyday of desegregation battles in neighboring Boston.ĭespite my teacher's neglect, To Kill a Mockingbird stuck with me. The most memorable assignment my teacher gave us was to watch the 1962 film version on one of the local television stations.

Memories are tricky, but as I recall we never talked about the title, or much else, in the book. The first time I read To Kill a Mockingbird was as a student in the 8th grade. The words become part of a series, like 'bite the dust' or 'have a blast.' The title of Harper Lee's 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird is like that for me, despite its profound impact on the way I think about the world. There are phrases you hear so often that they begin to lose their meaning.

To kill a mockingbird cover