Why reading ‘A Time To Kill’ (as an impressionable youth) opened my eyes…
This was my favorite book for about 5 years. 1) Because it’s just flat-out awesome, and 2) Because it brought to light issues I’d never truly considered before reading it.
“A Time To Kill” was significant for me because it was the first legitimate, deep thought-provoking “novel” that I truly read and understood. I think I was in 6th grade…maybe 7th, and I felt like it opened my eyes to a whole world I hadn’t really been exposed to before. I’d read other literary works that were well-known and famous, but the intensity of this one and the moral dilemmas presented throughout were so gripping in my mind. I was fascinated by everything from the crimes themselves to the jury selection process and the intensity of the trial itself, all with the strong, strong undertones of racism and the morality (or lack thereof) of each character. It really opened my eyes to a world I hadn’t quite been exposed to growing up in Fargo, North Dakota and Long Island, New York.
