To Kill a Mockingbird Movie

We've been watching To Kill a Mockingbird movie for few days now. Things are pretty much similar to what I have imagined. Especially the part where Jem and Scout was coming back from Scout's play was almost as same as I had expected. I imagined the scene where everything is dark with trees all around them. However, the costume of Scout was a bit different that I thought. I expected to see a roll of bacon, even though her costume was a ham, I thought it would look like that. The ham costume that Scout wore in the movie looked a bit like a glass bottle. Plus, there was a big hole on the costume so she could actually see what is going on, while I thought the hole was quite small. Still, everything else was so similar to the scene that I imagined. Even the action of Bob Ewell attacking Jem and Scout was similar too. Bob Ewell was over the two kids and threw Jem and Scout, trying to beat them down.
Since the movie was made a long time ago, the screen was grayscaled. However, I thought the settings, such as the house, the clothes people wore, the cars were perfect. I guess the makers of the movie could take advantage of grayscale since the quality is a little bit low, maybe people couldn't see some errors. Anyhow, the actors were great. I thought the actings in the old movies were all funny, but this movie was not. The actors were mostly acting natural, just like the movies these days. To Kill a Mockingbird is probably one of the best old movies that has the feelings of modern movies. I wonder how would the movie look like if they remake this movie again these days.

This book changed my life..

I've read so many books but I have never read any book that had so many great lessons like this one. Maybe it was because we went over the story and found out what is going on and what we can learn from the book in class. However, To Kill a Mockingbird sure was a book that taught me some good lessons. There are several lessons I can remember right now. One of them is: you've got to do your job properly and be responsible for what you do. Atticus is a great example of a person who is responsible and does his job well. Atticus, as a lawyer, he tried his best to defend Tom Robinson against the racist white juries, and did a great job, even though the jury convicted him guilty due to his race.

" "...Cal, what's all this?" He was staring at his breakfast plate. Calpurnia said, "Tom Robinson's daddy sent you along this chicken this morning. I fixed it." ... The kitchen table was loaded with enough food to bury the family: hunks of salt pork, tomatoes, beans, even scuppernongs. Atticus grinned when he found a jar of pickled pigs' knuckles." (pg. 213)

This was when people from African - American community sent Atticus copious amount of food after the trial of Tom Robinson. The African - Americans was quite thankful to Atticus for doing his best to defend Tom Robinson. From here, you can learn that if you do your job and try your best on whatever you are doing, you will earn something someday and the effort that you put in will always return to you. I've been trying my best in classes and putting my effort on the assignments and other things that we do in class. As a result, I've been getting satisfying grades. Therefore, one of the most important lessons that I've learned from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was that I have to do my job, be responsible for what I do, and put all my effort on to whatever I do.

Life Lessons

Through chapters 22 to 28, Jem and Scout learns several lessons from the adults near them. One of things that Jem learned was that there are still many white people who cheats or treats African - Americans cruelly, and those people are pure trash.

""...As you grow older, you'll see whit men cheat black men every day of your
life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it- whenever a white
man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a
family he comes from, that white man is trash."" (pg. 220)

This is a part where Atticus Finch tells his son, Jem about how wrong it is for a white men to treat African - American unfairly. Jem learns that no men, whether they were rich, or came from a fine family or not, shall ever treat an African - American unfairly.

Racism is still existing in this world that we live in. Even though it is not as severe as back in the time where white men had more rights than African - Americans, racism still exists. I believe this is one of the most important lessons to learn because no one has any rights to offend anybody by their races. No one shall be made fun of or offended just by their races-- the way they were born. I think people should keep this lesson in their mind and get rid of racism as quick as possible.

Themes - Mockingbird motif..

There are several themes in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Mockingbird motif is one of the main themes that we could easily find from the book. This short phrase, "killing a mockingbird," has a serious meaning behind it. Mockingbird would be an innocent person, or a victim, who has not done anything wrong, but people dislike them and avoid them for no good reasons. There are few people representing the "mockingbirds" in this novel. Dill, friend of Jem and Scout, Tom Robinson, a person accused of raping a girl, and Arthur (Boo) Radley, which I'm going to talk about first. Boo Radley never did anything wrong, and he was even interested in Jem, Scout and Dill, and wanted to associate with them. However, people in Maycomb thought him as a malevolent person who never wanted to go outside. Another example:
" "Your father's right," she said. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but
make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in
corncirbs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why
it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." " (pg. 90)

In the book, Tom Robinson, an innocent African-American man who was accused of raping a girl named Mayella Ewell, could also be Tom Robinson. This can also be the matter of prejudice, justice versus injustice, stereotype, loss of innocence. Anyway, Tom Robinson is an innocent victim, and it seems that the Ewells are trying To Kill (accuse) a Mockingbird (Tom Robinson).

Atticus as a father

Atticus is a father of Jem and Scout. As a father of two kids, he is a generous, easy, kind, and thoughtful man, but quite strict on certain categories. He is generous and easy enough to let little Scout use cursing words. Scout even asks Atticus what some of the words that are inappropriate for little kids to know, and Atticus explains those words to Scout in a wise way so it doesn't effect Scout in any bad ways. For example,

" "What's rape?" I asked him that night... He sighed, and said rape was carnal knowledge of a female by force and without consent." " (page 135)

Atticus indirectly explained the meaning of word, "rape" to Scout, without using any words that kids shouldn't hear. I believe Atticus is a person who values a person's reputation, and trying to teach Jem and Scout to respect other people and their privacy, and be responsible.

Atticus is a bit similar to my mother, but bit different than my father. Since Atticus is a father, I will compare him with my father. Atticus is, again, a generous and easy-going father. However, my father is not- he's quite strict with things that I do. Atticus is very strict on injuring other's reputations or such things like that, but I believe my father is a little bit easy-going on that part. He lets me criticize some people that have done something wrong. Of course, he doesn't let me criticize people who are innocent. Plus, both of the fathers values the responsibilities. My father tells me that I've got to do something I was told to do, unless there is a critical excuse.