There are some kinds of knowledge that can only be gained after many years of life experience. This kind of knowledge is often called by a different name: wisdom. Often times, people look towards others with more years of life experience for wisdom, but occasionally there are young people who are described as being “wise beyond their years”. This term refers to someone who has gained wisdom without going through the long years that are usually required for doing so. So, how is this possible? People who are able to become wise beyond their years do so by going through these real and meaningful life experiences from the comfort of a living room recliner chair by reading the classics. I believe that by reading the classics, books that have been widely adopted into our culture as the books with the best ideas about life, readers put themselves in a position to ponder, experience, and form opinions on some of life’s most morally trying situations. Furthermore, by doing so, the unpredictable turns and obstacles of life no longer seem as daunting to those who have learned from the wisdom of others who came before them.

One of the classics that provides its readers with these kinds of opportunities for gaining life experience and relevant knowledge for living a better life is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book was written during the time of the US Civil Rights movement in 1960, and it tells the story of a tragic case of racial injustice from the point of view of a young girl, Scout Finch, amidst the prime of her childhood. However, the book does not simply say to its reader, ‘racism is bad’, as a civil rights advocate of the time might have screamed from the rooftops. Instead, this book introduces a plethora of real life dilemmas and lessons for readers to experience on their own through the narrative of different characters, and in the end, the reader is left with all kinds of different lessons learned and wisdom that gives them an upper hand when facing similar experiences in real life.

The complexities of the class system is one of these real life issues that To Kill A Mockingbird prompts the reader to contemplate throughout the book. As Scout begins school, she meets a boy name Walter Cunningham who comes from a very poor family. Scout witnesses two very different responses to the class status of the Cunningham family. On the one hand, her father and the town lawyer, Atticus Finch, shows the Cunningham family respect and provides legal services for them. He even accepts produce and nuts in return for his services because he knows that the family lacks the means to pay him with money. On the other hand, Scout’s Aunt Alexandra refers to the Cunningham family with disgust throughout the book because of their class status and says that the Finch family ‘doesn’t associate with trash’ like the Cunninghams. Scout chooses to follow her father’s example and befriends the boy, and her interclass friendship ends up earning empathy from Walter’s father when a lynch mob threatens her and her father’s lives. This procession of events allows the reader to live out the cause and effect relationship where extending kindness to everyone regardless of class status results in less hostility and a better sense of community in society. With this lesson in mind, the reader is equipped with the wisdom to internalize a truth that has taken many millennia of human existence to define: that treating others with the same respect as you treat yourself is the way towards individual and collective happiness in society. This wisdom will continue to serve readers of To Kill A Mockingbird in their lives because the class system and class discrimination was undeniably alive in the 1960’s society when this book was published and is alive in society today, so society will alway have room for improvement when it comes to breaking down class barriers and showing kindness.

Furthermore, as I read To Kill A Mockingbird, I began to realize how much I was learning about parenting just by bearing witness to the different experiences of the characters in the book. Usually when someone wants to be taught a lesson about parenting, they turn towards ‘What to Expect’ or ‘The Rules of Parenting’ books. However, To Kill A Mockingbird, being the cherished classic that it is, doesn’t restrict its influential reach to just one facet of life. Bad parenting is apparent throughout the book, and the detrimental effects of bad parenting on children is often the focus of the plot. For example, Scout’s friend Dill gets neglected by his parents and runs away. Boo Radley, Scout’s crazy neighbor, got locked in his house by his father as a child and was never the same. And finally, Bob Ewell beat his daughter and ended up getting a black man, Tom Robinson, killed in order to cover it up. All this craziness from the parent figures of the book leaves the reader grasping for some sanity and Harper Lee gives it to them in the form of Atticus Finch. Atticus taught Scout and her brother Jem how to read, write, and treat others with kindness, but the most important lessons that Atticus teaches his kids in the book and the readers of To Kill A Mockingbird are taught through his own example. For example, one day in the book, a mad dog is on the loose and the Sheriff comes to Atticus asking him to shoot it because he was once known as ‘One-Shot-Finch’, a legendary shooter in town. He never told his children this, and he hardly ever used this talent of his. Because of this, he taught his kids not only to be humble, but also that there is no reason to use the power that his shooting skill gives him even though others wouldn’t be able stop him. The reader later sees this meaningful lesson instilled in his son Jem when Scout moves to squash a bug, but Jem stops her saying that ‘the bug didn’t do anything to her’ thusreflecting the lesson that just because you can assert dominance over others doesn’t mean that you should do so. Finally, at the end of the book, Atticus loses a court case in which he defended Tom Robinson, a clearly innocent black man accused of raping a poor white girl Mayella Ewell. Racial prejudice causes for this tragic misfire of justice, but after the case is over Atticus does not sulk in his defeat for long because he did all that he could. He chooses, instead, to simply continue living by his values and doing whatever he can to change the world so that it is more aligned with his moral compass. His kids then go through a tragedy of their own when Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father, attacks them in search of vengeance. After this event, the kids no longer see the world with the optimistic innocence that they once did, but instead of being traumatized, Scout follows her father’s lead and doesn’t let the newly discovered evil of the world faze her. She simply goes back to contributing goodness and purity to the world as the book ends with the Finch family reading a bedtime story. The way that Atticus prepared his children for the nightmares of the real world while teaching them how to make it a better place is what any reader would hope for as a parent, so by reading along with the story of how Atticus achieves this, the reader gains experience as a good parent that can guide them in real life. Furthermore, some of the most important wisdom in life is learned through failure, and in this story, Harper Lee introduces three different instances of failures in parenting that the reader learns to avoid in real life. Together, all the parenting examples that To Kill A Mockingbird has to offer can give its readers more guidance on parenting than any “What to Expect” parenting book could ever provide because it gives you the experiences and the wisdom that you need to be a good parent: not just the facts.

Finally, most people think that To Kill A Mockingbird is just a book about the heroism of standing up to racism, and a brief summary of the book would suggest this to be the case. However, after close reading, I think that the wisdom that the reader actually gains throughout the book is not that ‘racism is bad and we should fight it.’ Instead, the lesson of the book is much more widespread: to establish a set of principles to live by and spend your life defending what you believe to be right just as Atticus did. I do not think that when Atticus was defending Tom Robinson, he was thinking ‘I have to defend this man because racism is bad.’ In fact, there is never a moment in To Kill A Mockingbird when Atticus speaks to how bad racism is. Instead, he only refers to his own moral values that are extremely simple. He believesin justice for all, he believes in respect for all life, and he believes in kindness. In fact, when he decides to defend Tom Robinson in court, he tells Scout that it is because he must uphold his sense of justice. Therefore, Atticus takes on this noble battle against racism in the courtroom not because he is fed up with racism in the town, but because Tom Robinson is a human being who deserves justice, kindness, and respect. With this realization in mind, we must ask what is racism other than neglecting to give others the justice, kindness, and respect that they deserve because of their race? What is sexism other than neglecting to give others the justice, kindness, and respect that they deserve because of their sex? What is classism other than neglecting to give others the justice, kindness, and respect that they deserve because of their class? All these issues in society are rooted in the same negligence of basic decency, and the wisdom that Atticus’s character offers us is capable of dismantling all forms of oppression that fit this pattern. Therefore, this nuanced message of To Kill A Mockingbird shows the reader that by never straying from the core values of kindness, justice, and respect for human beings and upholding them against all odds, we can beat whatever form of oppression stands in the way of a more perfect human society in our own lives.

With all these examples in mind, there doesn’t seem to be any doubt that To Kill A Mockingbird is a book that offers an almost overwhelming amount of relevant wisdom andexperiences to its readers, but what is most important to understand about the classics is that To Kill A Mockingbird is no special case. Each of the classics offers a unique set of experiences and knowledge to their readers that remain relevant to readers’ real life experiences no matter when the book was written. Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, which was written in the early 1600’s, teaches its readers lessons on mercy and justice that can be applied to modern day issues of harsh punishment in our legal systems. The Oedipus plays were written even earlier in around 441 B.C., in which lessons of the inevitability of fate can still be applied to conversations of religion today. And the list goes on. All of the combined wisdom from the classic books of the last few thousand years make up humanity’s best approximation of a good life. So, each time you pick up a classic to read, you are making the most out of your years on this Earth by internalizing the wisdom that others have already discovered so that you can go out into the world and discover new wisdom on your own to share with the world. So, start reading.