To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee 1960

Devastation Rating

Emotionally Ruined
injustice literary fiction historical political family

Our Take

Scout watches her father do the right thing and lose, and Lee makes the loss feel like the point rather than the exception. Atticus is not a hero because he succeeds — he is a hero because he tries in a world designed for failure. Tom Robinson's fate is American injustice in its most naked form.

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