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I’m diving back into the literary world with a true American classic, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, written in the 1960s, offers a poignant glimpse into the life of a young girl named Scout Finch. She lives in a small Alabama town during the 1930s, the heart of the Great Depression.
What I find so compelling about this book is how Harper Lee captures a child’s innocent perspective on some very complex issues. We watch Scout grapple with societal problems she doesn’t quite comprehend. Lee’s writing style echoes a child’s view of the world where optimism still shines, even amidst hard realities.
The story confronts themes of racism, economic hardship, and the complexities of human behavior. As the daughter of a well-respected lawyer, Scout has a front-row seat to the injustices of the era, particularly those surrounding race relations in the American South.
My Immigrant Perspective on Reading American Classics
Reading any book is like listening to a song; we interpret it through our own unique lens. Our backgrounds, feelings, and experiences all color how we understand the written word.
As an immigrant, there’s something deeply relatable in Scout’s childhood experiences for me. That feeling of seeing the world with a touch of naiveté is amplified when you’re new to a country. There are social cues to learn, unspoken rules, and hidden behaviors.
Immigrants and children share this: a period of adjustment where you rely on others to guide you until you can decipher the world around you. It’s fascinating how that parallels what Scout goes through in To Kill a Mockingbird.
While the central focus of the novel is to highlight the devastating effects of racism within the US, the book touches me in a different way. As someone who sometimes feels like an outsider, that sense of otherness is familiar territory.
Racism, Empathy, and the Pain of Otherness
Of course, I recognize that my experiences as an immigrant in no way fully represent what a Black person in the American South faced (and continues to face) in terms of racial injustice. It’s vital not to equate those struggles. Yet, the feeling of not quite belonging can be a starting point for understanding the pain of otherness.
The more we read, listen, and truly open our minds to the experiences of others, the more empathy we can cultivate. Even if we cannot completely walk in another person’s shoes, we can strive to broaden our perspective.
This is what To Kill a Mockingbird awakens in me. A desire to keep asking questions, exploring new ideas, and actively listening so I can better understand those around me. This is part of what makes us human—the ability to connect through our differences.