To Kill A Mockingbird: A Timeless Classic

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To Kill a Mockingbird: to be a classic or not to be Classic novels are hard to come by, and finding a well written one is sometimes hard to do. In order to be a timeless classic, a story must be morally ambiguous and include round characters that are able to “stand the test of time”. Given the criteria, To Kill a Mockingbird is not a timeless classic because the story lacks moral ambiguity as it can be easily grasped by the reader and includes stereotypical, flat characters and myths that could not possibly be believed at the time period that it was set in. One reason that Mockingbird is not a timeless classic is that the main storyline is not arguable and is completely straightforward. In all good novels, there is some moral ambiguity that…show more content…
Generally, good novels will have a tendency to have round, non-stereotypical characters that can “stand the test of time”, unlike Atticus, who believes in a myth that people in that time period could not possibly have believed in. Allen Barra states that Atticus “is an idealized version of Ms. Lee’s father....” and “bears an uncanny resemblance to another pillar of moral authority [Sir Thomas]....” (Barra, 6). This shows that Atticus is indeed a stereotype, as compared to several examples of other people such as being “an idealized version of Ms. Lee’s father” as well as Sir Thomas, who is “another pillar of moral authority”. Also, Barra says that Atticus is “a repository of cracker-barrel epigrams” and that he “actually seems to believe the fairy tale about the Ku Klux Klan that he tells Scout,” (Barra, 8) and that “it’s impossible that anyone who grew up in Alabama in the mid-1930s, when the book is set, would believe that story,” (Barra, 9).This also supports the idea because it portrays Atticus with the characteristics of a “cracker-barrel epigram” or being a flat, stereotypical countryman who would talk about and believe

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