To Kill A Mockingbird

Temporary Simplicity


I have begun reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have only just started, therefore life in the book seems rather simple right now. The narrator is a girl named Jean Louise, but better known as Scout. Right now, she is almost six years old. She has an older brother named Jem, who, right now, is almost ten. They live with their father, Atticus, in the Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. As I have said before, Scout and Jem's life right now is rather simple. Scout has started going to school and her teacher, Ms. Caroline, does not like her much as Scout already knows how to read quite well, which is in stark contrast to her classmates who cannot. This is all that has happened so far; this will be a short post because not much has happened in the story. 

 I know that their lives (Scout, Jem, and Atticus) will become very complicated (as this is quite a famous book and I have heard from others about how the simplicity does not continue for long), and it amazes me how life can change from simple to much too complicated within a period of time without once hinting that life will take an unexpected turn. The start of when life twists doesn't seem like a twist at all. It may seem like nothing changed and nothing will change. So when life seems to turn unexpectedly, it usually isn't unexpected but merely a build-up of events like a tidal wave. I find it quite tragic when people get swept away by the course of their lives, because when life itself is the ocean, where would you ever find a grip to steady yourself?  

The story is set in the past. Is it because Scout and Jem live in the past that life can be simple, even if it is only temporary? I believe so because I have never heard of a comfortably simple life in the present. All the gadgets that are supposed to make life simpler actually make life more complicated. Sometimes, I wish for the simple lives people like Scout and Jem seem to have, but, are their lives really that simple? Am I just seeing the surface of their lives and therefore am not seeing the complications? I'm not sure, but hopefully, I will find out.