LETTER TO THE AUTHOR - IR
This was the second independent reading assignment that we did the first semester. For this independent reading assignment, we were supposed to write a letter to the author of the book we read, in my case, I wrote a letter to Mrs. Lee for her book To Kill a Mockingbird. In the letter, we had to include any personal connections we made to the characters or settings,
Monica Morales
1041 Camino Calabazo
Chula Vista, CA 91910
December 9, 2011
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Harper Lee
Dear Mrs. Lee,
Many of my friends had recommended your book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and I finally got around to reading it. I find that I truly regret to not have started to read it earlier because it may be the best book that I have read. Although I have not finished it yet, I am enjoying every word of it so far.
I, personally, am enjoying every scene in the book and think that each scene has its own unspoken message and obvious power. However, I do have to say that my favorite scene so far is in Chapter 9 where Scout gets into a fight with her cousin because he calls Atticus a “nigger-lover” for taking the trial and defending Tom Robinson who is a nigger. I like this scene because anyone can relate to how Scout was probably feeling when she felt the need to attack him. I feel that this scene is very relateable and powerful because it just shows how at one point in every one’s life, we feel the need to fight for what we stand for and who we love, whether it is someone insulting a family member or someone insulting your family in general. I also think that this scene is powerful because it shows how much even the younger generations were influenced by the discrimination against the negro population in the United States at the time.
There are so many things in this book that remind me of myself or situations that I have experienced before. One example is Scout’s personality. I feel that my personality can relate to Scout’s in the ways that we are both considered intelligent, but have a short temper as well. I can honestly imagine myself to be in similar situations as she was in because of her temper and will to defend what I believe is right. That, however, seems to be both a strength and flaw of Scout. It can be a strength when her will can be turned into determination for justice, but a flaw when she tries to make everyone else have the same opinion as her, which is when her temper usually flares. This book has also opened my eyes to things that I had never realized before, one of those things being how even the children of this era were very strongly influenced into believing that the negro population was a lower class than everyone else. I knew that racism was common among the older generations, but I was shocked when I read that a six year old would discriminate a negro just as much as a thirty year old. My anger toward all of these racial remarks surprises me. I knew that this book would include discriminating dialogue, but i did not expect it to be like this.
Overall, I am enjoying this book very much. I could see each characters reaction in my head to each individual line of the monologue; I could feel the characters emotions as each scene was happening; I could picture the different emotions of the town as days turned to nights and summer days turned into winter snow storms. I very much enjoyed how you described Jem’s transition from a child into an adolescent. You used beautiful imagery that helped me envision every individual scene. I think this is a beautiful piece of work that I have the honor to read.
Sincerely,
Monica Morales
1041 Camino Calabazo
Chula Vista, CA 91910
December 9, 2011
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Harper Lee
Dear Mrs. Lee,
Many of my friends had recommended your book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and I finally got around to reading it. I find that I truly regret to not have started to read it earlier because it may be the best book that I have read. Although I have not finished it yet, I am enjoying every word of it so far.
I, personally, am enjoying every scene in the book and think that each scene has its own unspoken message and obvious power. However, I do have to say that my favorite scene so far is in Chapter 9 where Scout gets into a fight with her cousin because he calls Atticus a “nigger-lover” for taking the trial and defending Tom Robinson who is a nigger. I like this scene because anyone can relate to how Scout was probably feeling when she felt the need to attack him. I feel that this scene is very relateable and powerful because it just shows how at one point in every one’s life, we feel the need to fight for what we stand for and who we love, whether it is someone insulting a family member or someone insulting your family in general. I also think that this scene is powerful because it shows how much even the younger generations were influenced by the discrimination against the negro population in the United States at the time.
There are so many things in this book that remind me of myself or situations that I have experienced before. One example is Scout’s personality. I feel that my personality can relate to Scout’s in the ways that we are both considered intelligent, but have a short temper as well. I can honestly imagine myself to be in similar situations as she was in because of her temper and will to defend what I believe is right. That, however, seems to be both a strength and flaw of Scout. It can be a strength when her will can be turned into determination for justice, but a flaw when she tries to make everyone else have the same opinion as her, which is when her temper usually flares. This book has also opened my eyes to things that I had never realized before, one of those things being how even the children of this era were very strongly influenced into believing that the negro population was a lower class than everyone else. I knew that racism was common among the older generations, but I was shocked when I read that a six year old would discriminate a negro just as much as a thirty year old. My anger toward all of these racial remarks surprises me. I knew that this book would include discriminating dialogue, but i did not expect it to be like this.
Overall, I am enjoying this book very much. I could see each characters reaction in my head to each individual line of the monologue; I could feel the characters emotions as each scene was happening; I could picture the different emotions of the town as days turned to nights and summer days turned into winter snow storms. I very much enjoyed how you described Jem’s transition from a child into an adolescent. You used beautiful imagery that helped me envision every individual scene. I think this is a beautiful piece of work that I have the honor to read.
Sincerely,
Monica Morales
I really liked this assignment because I thought that it gave us a chance to connect with the author by actually writing to him/her what we felt we liked about the book and what we were able to connect to