11-3 assignment for TKAM

Harper Lee's intent when writing To Kill a Mockingbird was to tell an emotional story and cause the reader to be pulled into the emotions. Since this is the only book that Ms. Lee wrote, she packed quite a punch in this one work. She choose to fight prejudice by appealing to the common people, rather than fighting at a high governmental level. One of the emotions that the book stirred in me was anger. My anger was directed toward prejudice in general, and more specifically, toward the Ewell family. How dare the Ewell family lie, especially in court, in hopes that a black man will be condemned to death? Because the book is based on hard facts of the time makes my anger more intense. Another emotion that arose in me was compassion. Just as my anger was deep, my compassion was equally deep. My utmost compassion was for Tom Robinson and his family since he was wrongly accused of a crime and due to the society that he lived in, there was no hope for his acquittal. To my surprise, I even felt pity for the Ewell family because of their absolute ignorance! Because of their prejudice, the Ewell family was actually more hopeless that Tom Robinson. They were hopeless in the sense that if given the chance, they would do the same thing over again, just for the heck of it. There was also a great sense of satisfaction in the fact that Atticus was willing to risk his reputation, and possibly his life, for Tom Robinson. I believe that the book is as emotionally stirring now as it was when it was published.