The NOVEL and YOU

    When you are reading a novel, do you put sticky notes all over to mark "important sections" in the book; are you listening to music, texting, and reading; or are you one who sits in your room and dives into the novel?  Just as there are different ways to read a novel, there are many different themes or connections that each individual has in order to form their perspective of the novel.  Pertaining to To Kill a Mockingbird specifically, I felt that my connection was strong.

    No, my father isn't a lawyer, but the concept of the hypocrisy that Scout experience’s really was what grasped me. 

     On page 267 Scout talks about why she prefers her tom boyish ways, "But I was more at home in my  father's world.  People like Mr. Heck Tate did not trap you with innocent questions to make fun of you; even Jem was not highly critical unless you said something stupid.  Ladies seemed to live in faint horror of men, seemed unwilling to approve wholeheartedly of them.  But I think them.  There was something about them...there was something about them that I instinctively liked...they weren't 'Hypocrites, Mrs. Perkins, born hypocrites,' Mrs. Merriweather was saying.  'At least we don't have that sin on our shoulders down here.  People up there set' em free, but you don't see 'em settin' at the table with 'em.  At least we don't have the deceit to say to 'em yes you're as good as we are but stay away from us." 

    Scout saw that a lot of the women in Maycomb were as hypocritical as the people "up there".  They were saying how others were hypocrites when really they were doing the same thing.  They were thinking that they were "higher in the society" than they were, but that they weren't "better than them" just more privileged.  They wanted no part with them.  Just like they discriminated against Tom Robinson’s and the injustice they wanted no part in it. 

    I know that we, as humans, are all hypocrites at some point and time, but when you are standing, witnessing the hypocrisy it makes you cringe a little to see what's happening around you.  Hypocrisy is one of my pet peeves, even though it happens all around you; you wouldn't want to have the label "hypocrite".  I sympathies with Scout because when I hear myself or someone say something hypocritical I always wish I could get away from it.  As Scout grew up throughout the novel, so are we.  With each day, it changes a new chapter of our lives, and we want it to be the best life story one has ever had.  You want others reading it to connect in some way and feel that your story impacted them.  I know that even though To Kill a Mockingbird wasn't a really story, it impacted me and my way of thinking.