Beginning of Essay
Superlatives no longer mean much to this venerable classic, and it was one of the best novels I think was ever written. So I'm more interested in describing what makes the book work. Humour is one crucial factor. By never succumbing to the pretentious grandiosity ....

Middle of Essay
.... are all the better served this way. Issues do not come alive except through the living, breathing experience of their participants and Scout Finch's particular take on the events of this book only makes those events gain in moral strength, not diminish. Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem, Miss Maudie...the characters of this book have achieved an iconic status rare in modern literature. And it has achieved this not by making them Nietzschean uebermenschen, but by entering into their lives with fair, enthusiastic frankness. And to end off, this is one of only a handful of truly successful negotiations between the dramatic (eg. theatre, scre ....