To Kill a Mockingbird

Submitted by turkeyjizz t3_yfv6nf in books

When I was in middle school our teacher had us read this. I can say now, furtively, that this book isn't made for sixth graders. When I was told to read this, do my "report' on it, there was no way I could understand just what Harper Lee was trying to get at. Some say it's the greatest piece of American literature that you can put your hands on, however, I believe that it transcends what us as "Americans' understand what is a true piece of art is.

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This book is based in the 1930's, a time that almost anyone alive today just cannot relate to or perceive, including myself, to what life was like for American's, black or white.

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I cannot say in this climate, how the world is, how it relates to people of African descent, but I can absolutely say that it shows a side of white culture; how our white relatives and those that came before them, treated our black human beings.

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I cried...this book absolutely tore me down. Reading Tom's trial and ultimate verdict hurt me. I could never and will never understand what it was like being black before our grandparents became ninety years old. Coming out in 1961, this book was ahead of its time, and I can only be saddened that no one in this day in age takes it to heart. This read has an important and timeless message, that however dated, will always speak in volumes. I am blessed, humbled, and disgraced to have had the opportunity to read just how life was like for our fellow humans of color, and will never know or understand just what it's like to be so oppressed, or to be so cornered by only the color of your skin.

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God help us as a human race, if we cannot learn from stories just like this. And god, forgive me, for being so ignorant to just what actual human struggle truly is.

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Comments

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jaisaiquai t1_iu5dbxo wrote

>how our white relatives and those that came before them, treated our black human beings.

Please tell me a word is missing here, maybe "fellow"?

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TheCanadian1867 t1_iu5bvra wrote

I couldn't stop giggling at the fact that this post was written by a guy by the name of "turkeyjizz"

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drewfarndale t1_iu69fpa wrote

Isn't it on a lot of banned book lists in the US now? The rationale being used that is too upsetting! That. Is. The. Whole. Sodding. Point.

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pbc120 t1_iu9jwmu wrote

In some states it is, not in the whole country. Not surprisingly, in most, if not all republican states 🤡

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HungAhFuh t1_iu70ert wrote

Black kids still have to live it, so maybe children just reading about it isn’t that terrible of a concept.

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[deleted] t1_iu8wfit wrote

I think OP was saying that the content of the book is fine, but children are introduced to the harsh messaging too early. Which I personally agree with - I really liked the book when I read it in 9th grade and I think that was the right age, but there are many other books that handle racism well enough at a children's level for elementary-middle schoolers, with the same themes but maybe explained in a simpler way

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HungAhFuh t1_iua3otd wrote

>but children are introduced to the harsh messaging too early

I was called the n word at 10, the year before I went into 6th grade, children should feel uncomfortable with the harsh messaging of the story so the harsh reality that people actually have to live through daily is more readily understood.

Also this is a genuine question, what parts do you think are too much for middle schoolers?

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[deleted] t1_iub0uvb wrote

I am so sorry! That's a horrible word, and I hope I didn't seem like I was minimizing your experiences in any way

The thing is that most kids won't be able to comprehend what this word means, or even what racism is because they're still so young. Yes, kids who've experienced racism certainly can, like you, but most kids statistically would not. I don't think I even understood what racism was properly until 2020 with George Floyd's death, and I had absolutely no clue what it was until maybe 8th grade (I'm in high school). You can and should teach acceptance in many ways, but I don't think a book featuring the n-word numerous times and sexual assault is the way to do it. I believe kids themselves are innocent naturally, and racism is taught not something you're born with. So I don't see the point in scaring some of them - idk about you, but if I read that book in 5th/6th grade I'd go home crying as I'm a huge pansy and loser lol - when there's tons of books on racism that can present it in a child-friendly level. I'm not saying never to read TKaM, it's a brilliantly written book and I loved it so much, but elementary and middle school is a little too early in my opinion.

I can't quote the book directly as it's been a while since I've read it, but the general parts with the court trial and how the guy was wrongfully accused of sexual assault/rape. I wouldn't have understood it at all at that age, and part of the importance of a classic book in general is analysing its messaging and themes. It's not that my parents even hid the concept of sexual assault from me either, I was well aware of consent and all throughout my childhood, but the language was just so foreign to me even in 9th grade. I can't imagine lessons going over well with complex language/grammar, hard themes and then adding the rough content that the book tackles. Middle schoolers are still kids, not even teens, so I think it's a book better suited for high schoolers.

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hannah-h-13 t1_iu872kv wrote

We read the book so we could check the box of talking about racisms and white culture and how poor and terrible human beings can be but we never had a real conversation about what it meant for us because our teachers didn’t know how to talk deeply about these topics because it was uncomfortable

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MorriganJade t1_iu62dov wrote

I mean it depends on the child, when I was in sixth grade I could read pretty much every book I can read now and did and I'm glad I read it as a child and had no problem understanding it, and many other children also have no problem understanding it ever since it came out. if you didn't know enough about the history of racial oppression it's your educational system's fault, especially if you actually live in the US but often in other countries we learn more about that than the locals in some places

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Dawgfanwill t1_iu7awc1 wrote

I have no idea how To Kill a Mockingbird ever got on middle school reading lists, but it has no business being there. I was forced to teach it to 8th graders one year, and they had no understanding of the significance of events, even in the rare cases that they could comprehend what the text was saying. 10th-11th grade is the sweet spot for it. Challenging, yet engaging.

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akira2bee t1_iu8wb1t wrote

Can't agree more, I had to read it twice for school: once freshman year of high school and again sophomore year of college. I absolutely did not understand it in high school and found the entire story completely boring except for the trial.

When I read it later I was in awe of how much the nostalgia of Scouts childhood affected me. Made absolutely no sense to read it when I was still a child.

I feel like teachers/schools see a "kid" protagonist and forget that its technically Scout as an adult looking back on her childhood.

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MissAngela66 t1_iu8pdod wrote

I read the book in school but I want to say it was freshman or sophomore year. Personally I think the book should be read and then the movie watched. I know that sounds wasteful but I think it would help with the overall context and meaning and purpose of the book.

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Lettuce_stan_SS t1_iu77vnq wrote

Wow 6th grade? Seems a little young for something with a more heavier message. When I was in 6th grade, pretty sure I was reading books along the likes of The Hunger Games. Not a book focusing around the massive societal issue of racism and their injustices within our country.

I, as well as most people I know, started reading American literature around 9th-10th grade. Even then, there was a good amount of hidden messages/themes that would fly by students' heads. So I can't imagine how a 12 year old would handle analyzing something like this.

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nicosmom61 t1_iu884wa wrote

You do know that when Harper Lee saw Gregory Peck (the actor who played atticus ) said he looked just like her daddy . I do think that she had a fondness for Peck . Yes this book was meant to show the struggle of life in the 1930s . My great grandmother was alive during the 30's she told my mother that life was a severe struggle back then .

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Sharona1970 t1_iu8mrdj wrote

Interesting. Any sixth grader in my culture would grasp the impact and the message of this story quite easily. I come from an Orthodox Jewish background where children are taught about the Holocaust in great detail and it is discussed often probably starting in fourth or fifth grade. Many kids in the community who are that age have great grandparents who were Holocaust survivors. We all have a deep understanding of how horrible people can be to their fellow human beings. What we do not have is any sort of collective guilt over the terrible treatment of black people in this country’s history.

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Bright-Lion t1_iu8sowq wrote

I think maybe that’s exactly why it’s important to expose white children to understanding racism at an early age. And this book is a decent place to start.

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priceQQ t1_iu8w7q1 wrote

The movie is also excellent. I think the book does a good job of being accessible to 8th graders based on its point of view, style, length. Its efficacy is one of the reasons it irks racists. Compare it to Huck Finn, which meanders.

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[deleted] t1_iu8wo85 wrote

I read this book in 9th grade, and I think that was the perfect time personally

6th grade is way too young imo for that kind of content. 11 year olds cannot typically understand racism beyond a very surface level explanation, let alone heavy racial language and major sexual assault themes. It's not that they shouldn't be hearing about it, but TKaM is like dumping Ronald McDonald in a vegan convention. It's too much for a young kid to understand, and they'll probably get scared or fail to understand the themes to begin with, which is the point of reading the book.

That said, my brother was in 4th grade when he read TKaM, and he was fine with the content. But he's a pretty mature, intelligent kid to begin with, and he still was a little unprepared for a lot of the messaging because he was like 7 or 8. He read it without my parents' knowing, and they wouldn't have let him read it if they knew because he did get a little scared and confused. 9th grade was the right age for me personally, but I know some of my classmates also couldn't handle the themes at that age

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pbc120 t1_iu9jzgt wrote

Finally got to see the broadway show this week and I could not recommend it enough. It’s so worth it.

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one_fishBoneFish t1_iudgttr wrote

When you go for a re-read of this, try out the audiobook performed by Sissy Spacek.

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Chymick6 t1_iu7qd9z wrote

I had to read that book when i was in sixth grade and HATED it. I get it was about the systemic racism but I've been brought up without the idea of racism, I'm Canadian and my grandparents never spoke I'll of foreigners.

I did re-read it later on in life and understood it much better, still don't like the book, hate the way it's written and i still find it trash, but i understood the contexts better. i will say that i hated about 90% of the books i was forced to read as a child and i much prefer reading what I'm interested in. If you want to see systemic racism, just crack open a book of medical ethic history... The tsukegee study, the lead paint research study, the list goes far and makes you go, what the f**k is wrong with us

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Chymick6 t1_iu7qha5 wrote

Imma add that i was learning English in sixth grade so maybe add the fact that the book is written in a way that can placate an English learner

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walkinmybat t1_iu5p7us wrote

...well... I would say that, while emotionally very effective, the book was not very useful, in that it didn't provide any analysis, any suggestions or directions for how to make things better. In that sense it's a lot like Uncle Tom's Cabin and not so much something from which we can learn. Things actually are better now than they were - no doubt partly due to the book and how it was received, all of which had much more to do with the international situation at the time than with the actual conditions on the ground - but unfortunately we're not actually less racist; we have only learned to APPEAR less racist. Even that is a good thing, of course; but much more progress is possible, and we seem to be stagnating, as the murder of George Floyd kind of indicated. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a much earlier work, actually provided a much more useful analysis of the moral issue, and something from which we all can still learn a great deal if we will (we won't, I know, but we could). You noticed that Mockingbird is not actually a children's book; neither is Huckleberry. Give it a try, if you haven't as an adult, and see what you think.

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wheres-the-waffles t1_iu652ua wrote

It’s a story told through the eyes of a child. How can a child give an analytical commentary on how to do better when they do not understand what is even happening or why?

This story allows the reader to view the story in the lenses of the innocent and allows the reader to realize how messed up things are and what is right and wrong. Perhaps helping to lend an eye that not everything is black and white.

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