Too Much Love Can Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is I think one of the best coming-of-age novel ever written so far, joining the ranks (in my opinion) of Jane Eyre, Great Expectations, and Tom Sawyer. In fact, it is one of my few personal favorites because it reaffirmed my love for reading and even for writing. I finished rereading To Kill A Mockingbird just today for I don't know how many times already, maybe more than my fingers could count 'cause I lost track of it, and the book still didn't failed to mesmerized me, to awaken the child inside me and to find some of the debris of my lost innocence.

I love the way Ms. Lee told the story. She used a child's perspective in the person of course of Scout. The innocence, candidness, honesty, humor, the little naughtiness and mystery in the way Scout recount her story resulted to pure enchantment that I could always catch myself grinning from time to time when I read it. As if the story was mine. So familiar and so true. I was like a child again every time I browse the pages of the book.

Another thing I love about the said novel was it's sheer simplicity and authenticity. The setting was just an ordinary town but the characters were so vivid and almost real that you might think they were just your next door neighbors. The plot too was carefully planned and paced that Ms. Lee was able to turned usual events and activities of daily living into something that is extraordinary and interesting. Most of all, what really bewitched me about the book are the lessons of friendship, the importance of humility and belief in one's principles, and the respect for human dignity.

-oOo-

What will you do for love? This is one of the few questions that really struck my mind 'til now after reading the novel aptly titled Love by the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison which I read every night before going to sleep during the last two weeks. Once again in this work, Ms. Morrison proved to her fans that she could still mesmerize and intrigue them with whatever topic she wants to stir in their minds and likewise to her critics that her flair for making social issues as an interesting subjects in her works has not yet waned.

In this book, Morrison's main characters, all of them black women (reminds me of her another work titled Paradise), were fighting over one man's love and attention. My interest was captured by the rivalry between Christine and Heed, both were former childhood best friends. The former was the granddaughter of Bill Cosey (the man who was the center of their fights) and the latter was the wife of her best friend's grandfather. Got it? The other characters, May (Bill's daughter-in-law and Christine's mom), Vida (Bill's former employee), L (Bill's loyal employee and confidant), Celestial (Bill's mistress?) and Junior (the correctional girl who was infatuated with Bill's portrait) were also in their own ways trying to get even just a chunk of the man's affection. But who would have thought that such love could brought some of them to their own demise? Who would have thought that such love could lead them to misery, loneliness, and isolation? Who would have thought that such love could be as powerful as hate that it slowly consumed them and made them turn against each other?

This book at the end gave me a somber realization. Our obsession about love, that is to love and be loved, often made us blind to the point of insanity. We tend to forget reasons and likewise to value other things that matter such as self-worth and respect, family and friendship. I really pity both Christine and Heed at the end. They ruined their precious friendship and wasted the time to mend it over a love that was never reciprocated. Too much of everything is indeed a bad thing. Too much love destroyed the two best friends. Too much love can kill a mockingbird.