On the very last day of the festival...

...I was at dinner with my Beethoven group and Ellen dePasquale (the Associate Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra and our chamber coach). As we were driving to Applebee's we learned that she had named her car Atticus. And since none of us was making the connection to the famous fictional character she soon asked if any of us had read To Kill a Mockingbird. Sadly, somehow, we had all made it through highschool and an undergrad degree without having read this Pulitzer prize-winning book. We were all shocked that out of the whole group none of us had read the book. None more shocked than Ellen though who over dinner decided that we had to email her a book report when we finished. Haha! I thought it was funny getting an assignment from her but I enjoy reading and always appreciate a good book suggestion.

So here is my book report on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

This is a story about the South, racial injustice, a child's view of the world, and the character of a man. It's told as a reflection of a young girl's adolescence and of a volatile time in American racial history. This was a time when if you were black you were guilty.

It's told in the first person narrative by a young girl Jean Louise "Scout" Finch during the 1930's. She tells of her and her brother Jem growing up in Maycomb county Alabama during a time when their father Atticus, a lawyer, was appointed to defend a black man on charges of rape; ostensible rape.

During the year leading up to the trial Scout and Jem had troubles at school and in the neighborhood on account of Atticus's determination to defend this innocent man. Most of Maycomb county didn't think it right for Atticus to stand up for a black man while calling a white man a liar but that's what he did and it was true.

Atticus was a man of character. He loved justice and law, and had respect for the due processes of such. He knew that the jury he'd have would be made up of prejudiced white men but he knew that he couldn't live with himself or expect his children to unless he did what he knew was right.

They convicted Tom Robinson of a rape he never committed and he was shot trying to escape from jail before Atticus could get him out on appeal. None of this happened though before Bob Ewell, the father of the girl who was raped, was shown to be a liar before the whole town.

Bob, being the coward that he was ended up attacking Jem and Scout leaving Jem with a broken arm and himself dead; a kitchen knife found its way in-between a couple of ribs.

This is a wonderfully written, funny, sad, and all-together powerful book. It shows a strong man of character unswayed and inviolable, with a mind for justice and a strong heart for raising his children towards the same. All this in the midst of injustice and cruelty that was once America.

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When I read such examples of injustice it makes me angry, and rightfully so. I always tend to be resentful that I wasn't born earlier. I surely would have made a difference. I surely would have been a source of justice during the time when justice was hard to come by. Wouldn't I?

Then I have to ask myself, do I really think that the world is perfect now? Isn't there still a need for just men in the world?

There certainly is! Then the final question I have to ask myself is this: Where is the injustice happening today where men of character are badly needed to bestow justice?

Am I one of those men? Can I be one of those men? Only if living dead to myself and alive to Jesus Christ.