Part 8: Letter to Harper Lee
Dear Harper Lee,
I just read To Kill A Mockingbird a few weeks ago, and I thought it was great! I really enjoyed the story line and the topics you brought up. I especially liked reading about how Jem and Scout grow and change what they believe morally. It was interesting to see how worked up Jem got at the courthouse, and how Scout got upset too, even though she didn’t understand why most of it was so wrong. One thing that I didn’t like as well was that when Boo Radley saved Scout and Jem, Scout just automatically forgot everything she has every heard about him. I don’t think that was very realistic because in real life kids would be a little creeped out if someone who never leaves their house, left it in the middle of the night to save them. But on the other hand I liked how she forgot so easily because that shows that she learned that gossip isn’t always right. I liked how you brought up stereotyping and gossiping. I think that everyone can relate to those topics and it made me really think about what stereotypes I have and try not to think about them anymore. I’ve always understood how the African Americans were treated in the 1960’s, but I never thought about how it would go to have a white man against a black man in a trial. Now I fully understand that the African American’s hands were really tied, that it didn’t matter what the truth was, they just took the white man’s word. I also didn’t know that towns were really divided by their social class. I thought it was interesting how people looked down on the Cunninghams and just let the Ewells do whatever they wanted to.
From: Ellen Converse
