Part 2 of To Kill A Mockingbird

Wow! What an end to a book. The book started out as a simple story of a child's life, and ended with the murder of an innocent man, the becoming of a hero in Boo Radley, and the death of an evil man. I never saw this ending coming. Scout's life also changed with the trial of Tom Robinson. She grew up in the second half of this novel before our eyes. A lot happened in the second part of, "To Kill a Mockingbird," but I would like to focus on one thing, the sighting of Boo Radley.

Boo Radley is a mysterious man. He never comes out of his house for anything. He has not been seen in years, so people do not even know if he is still alive. Miss Stephanie even claims that she saw him peeping in her windows. It is not until the last 20 or so pages of the novel where we actually see Boo Radley. Boo Radley is actually a hero when we see him. Boo saves Scout and Jem from the drunken Bob Ewell who is out to get them after Atticus tore him apart on the witness stand. There is a fight at the end of the novel between Sheriff Tate and Atticus of whether Bob Ewell fell on his knife killing himself or if Jem stabbed him. I believe that Boo stabbed Bob with one of his table knives. Bob Ewell was set on killing Scout and Jem, but Boo saved them. Boo risked his life for those kids. Boo truly cared for them. He proved to the neighborhood that he was not a creeper or a stalker, but he was actually a hero.

I believe this book teaches us some important lessons. We see what the power of equality is and the different tiers of people in this world. The power of equality is seen when Tom Robinson is convicted on what is two uneducated people's testimony. There is no evidence and the stories do not really add up to each other, yet Tom is still convicted. The only reason Tom was convicted was because of his skin color. The only advantage the Ewell's had in the trial was that they were white. It is a good thing that this nation has come a long way since then, and we look at each other as equal. There will always be inequality in this world, but we are able to minimize it better than we used to.

We also see how there are different tiers of people in this novel. The people on top do not have to be rich, but most of them are people in high standing in the community. Then it trickles down to the farmers, then to what is essentially the white trash, then to the different races of people. It is a sad reality, but this will never change, only the people in the different tiers will change. There are different tiers today like the different races of people can be anywhere in the tiers, but the concept and the meat of the idea is still the same. Of course the rich people will be on top, then the people that make an honest living, then the people that are collecting welfare. Not everybody is equal in this world. This nation has come to accept different races of people, but we still are divided in many ways.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" shows how far this country has come, but it also makes us realize how far we still have to go. It shows how anyone can be a hero, and that equality should be the backbone of this nation.