Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird covers a time span of three years. How does Harper Lee keep the reader interested? Include what she does and...

I have read and reread To Kill a
Mockingbird many times and have never found it to be tedious at any time.
Harper Lee keeps the reader interested in many different ways: Her array of characters
rank among the best of any novel; and by creating Atticus, she developed one of the
pre-eminent characters in all American literature. (The character was further
immortalized by his unforgettable cinematic portrayal by Gregory Peck--one of film's
most enduring and best-loved roles.) The novel takes on a highly realistic tone
throughout, and author Harper Lee explores many social themes: racial injustice, mental
instability, and the loss of innocence being just a few. Perhaps my favorite aspect of
the novel is the humor that the author injects through the narration of the main
character, Scout. It contains both youthful views of routine life and a more mature
perspective seen in retrospect through her eyes as an adult. By the end of the novel,
Lee beautifully connects the two main plots--that of the mysterious Boo Radley, and the
chilling injustice of the Tom Robinson trial--into one breathtaking finale. Scout
endures the learning experience of a lifetime in the three years that encompass the
novel, and the upbeat ending leaves the reader drooling for the sequel that never
came.