To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Novel

7/2-14/2

To Kill a Mockingbird, is narrated by a young girl called Scout being raised in Maycomb, Alabama. She lives with her father Atticus Finch and her brother Jem but she is also influenced and raised a lot by her maid Culperina. This novel explores the racism, classism and sexism in this small town through finding the truth behind their “hidden” neighbour and a court trial where a black man is accused of raping a young white female. Scout and her family have to deal with these moral rights and wrongs as well as growing up and what that means to them.

Miss Maudie – I thought that Miss Maudie was a strong feminist that unfortunalty was in a time period where she her opinion wasn’t valid enough for her to be on a jury. Her interactions with Scout and Jem showed us that she doesn’t have these prejudices that structure Maycomb and believes everyone to be equal as well as children. Which we see when she becomes a trusted friend of Scout and she loves spending time with them always making cake for when they come over. She has a witty personality that shows her strong morals about how rumours don’t describe what a person is truly like. 

Arthur (Boo) Radley – What makes Boo interesting to me, is that he is the physical embodiment of, “don’t judge a book by its’ cover”. Around the town there are rumours of him peeking through people’s windows, eating squirrels and attacking his father which I believe he proves wrong. We discover that he was in fact abused by his father which is one of the reasons why he doesn’t leave the house, as it has scared him so dearly. I’ve watched a few muder documentaries from the accused perspective in which what lead to their actions is early scaring in their childhood. Arthur fell victim to that and had his innocence taken away too soon, but instead of acting out hides away from the world that he is afraid of. He shows his caring and vulnerable side when he looks over Scout and Jem and to is like a guardian angel in some ways, as he’s only seen in the end after protecting them and caring about them.

Atticus Finch – I see Atticus as a role model, he has a strong moral compass but not too forceful in his opinions. He faces scrutiny from his beliefs but still stands firm on them and in my opinion is the moral compass of this novel. “”Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover…He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.””, it’s talking about how family matters and when someone leaves a bad impression it affects the whole family. Atticus doesn’t want his decisions to hurt anyone but it’s what needs to happen for him to be able to live with himself. Because of this I think he wants them to understand what true courage is, and that it’s trying even though you aren’t going to win. “Getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re getting licked before you begin anyway and see through it no matter what… You rarely win but sometimes you do.”, he wants that sort of person to be someone they are proud of. I could see him struggling in raising his kids so he tries his hardest in making sure that they have a strong set of beliefs and morals. One of the biggest things that he teaches his kids is that, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”. Atticus is pointing out that everyone grows up in different backgrounds and that they work and process things in different ways from you. I read this really interesting thing about art and how you will never find one that you love the most because what you like about art is subject to your beliefs and how you were raised and no one can truly capture how you feel. I feel like this relates to that quote perfectly in how we can never truly understand how each other think, I will never understand white supremacy, sexism and other prejudices. I know what they believe in and think, I try to see why they think the way they do but I don’t feel what they do. I will never really understand those sort of people because I don’t want to see what they think.

Prejudice was the overall message in this piece which we see expressed in three different ways. Prejudice is when you have an opinion or judgement on someone or a certain group of people when you have no reason or experience for you to feel this way.

Racism – The prejudice that a black person is inferior to a white person has led to injustice in the law which is targeted in this novel through Tom Robinson. Towards the end of the novel when she tries to understand the situation with her brother, Jem, she says that there is only one type of person in the world which Jem rebuts, “If there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they all get along with each other? If they’re all alike , why do they go out of their way to despise each other?”. Jem’s eyes have opened up after the trial and now understand more of the world and that there is always going to be prejudice in the world. No one is born with prejudices, it’s only taught to us, which is why the two kids Jem and Scout can’t understand why people have these preconcieved ideas around negros. We know the disrespect that that white people had towards black people which we can see through a quote about Calpurina’s church, “Negros worshipped it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays.” showing that the black community truly had nothing and is like the quote, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” except they don’t know any different. Maori make up 50% of New Zealand’s prison population, and of that 18% of maori convicted of a crime will receive a prison sentence compared to 11% of pakeha. Our supposed “justice system” is actually a part of our country’s prejudice towards New Zealand’s indigenous people.

Classism – I knew that a major theme in this novel was racism, and when we were first introduced to the Cunninghams, the way they were talking about them made me think that they were black. It took me a while to realise that this wasn’t the case and that they were instead judging them based on their class. The Great Depression has brought an even greater divide between the classes in Maycomb’s social system. This prejudice that people in a lower class than you are trash to me is utterly stupid and an excuse for people to think they are better than others. This is something that the adults ingrain into their children from a young age so that it sticks with them and they don’t even think twice so that they teach it to their children. “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind, like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” is a quote which represents the social status in the town of Maycomb. You don’t associate with people below you and only focus on the people in your social status. This is similar to where we live today, if we relate it back to the quote those that live in Wanaka are the “ordinary kind”, those in Albert Town are like the Cunninghams, Hawea are the Ewells and other surrounding places like Tarras would be the Negros. Although this was very prominent in this novel, we are able to see it throughout society today in some way.

Sexism – The protagonist of this novel is a girl, who struggles with the expectations society holds for women. This isn’t just Scout struggling with this, as I myself am also a growing girl trying to understand where I fit in the world. Many things have changed from the 1930’s to today, for example women are allowed on juries, we don’t have to always wear skirts and dresses, and we are able to have a high skilled job. I can see this from listening and watching my mother and grandmother, but for Scout she didn’t have these influences. To me, not being able to have your own voice means that you aren’t alive because how else are you meant to get your point across and say what needs to be said. But for Scout she sees that women don’t get their own voice and that their opinions mean nothing to society since they can’t even be on a jury. A jury is supposed to come to an unbiased and fair decision on a case but the lack of female representation shows the prejudice that women are only meant to be seen not heard. This year is the first year at school my year is allowed to wear mufti. At first it was incredibly stressful trying to impress everyone but now I just wear what I want which is usually a baggy t-shirt and a pair of shorts. This is a well-known example of sexism, girls wearing pink skirts and dresses, me and Scout can both agree that they are not our favourite option and would much rather wear jeans. To wear pink skirts and dresses doesn’t mean that you are fighting against these old ideologies but to force it on someone like Aunt Alexandra is. Aunt Alexandra came to have a “feminine influence” on the household which was teaching Scout that tea parties and afternoon naps were her future. Occasionally I could do with an afternoon nap but that isn’t my future and instead want to learn to do something worthwhile. The 1930’s had this stereotype that women do the tea parties and afternoon naps all day every day. My mother has a full time job, a social life and still finds time to look after her two kids and probably dreams of being able to have an afternoon nap. Scout, Jem and Dill have this prejudice towards girls when Jem says, ““Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home – I declare to the lord, you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!” With that I had no option but to join them.” where just the thought of not being like her brother and friend and being what they “think” a girl is, is horrifying. Throughout the whole book, I was absolutely shocked to find only two working females, their maid Calpurnia and Helen Robinson who had to work after her convicted husband was killed. I merely thought the trophy wifes were only an expression but was horrified that women apparently from men had no brain to hold a job. The lack of working female role models explains why Scout was so against being seen as a girl and how prejudice against sex being taught at such a young age affects how children see women and grow up with those views. This is typical of the mindset of those in South America in the 1930’s and we still come across this problem today!

Scout – The biggest challenge that Scout faces is her early introduction to racism and how she deals with something that she didn’t truly know existed. What she learns about racism is from school and her father, she learns the prejudice around race which she then talks to Atticus about to try understand who then talks about equality.  “”You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?””I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody.””, where she tries to separate what she learnt from school from the truth. For a 9 year old to be learning and understanding more about the world than people in our time makes me quite proud that although things used to be much worse than they are now, people still believed in equality. In order for us to understand something which we have no knowledge about, we need to put it in perspective which she tries to do here. Although when I was reading this I felt like she was disappointed about this fact, I was proud that she was at least learning the truth and that caring about someone of a different race should be normal if you care about others. We can learn from this quote that racism isn’t about accepting and caring about black people and looking past the prejudice and instead just seeing them as normal people that you would ask how their day is if you passed them on the street.

Jem – Jem is a bit older than Scout and is therefore able to understand more about what is going on in their town than her. Jem is at an age where he understands what the adults are talking about but is young enough to see everyone as equals not as their prejudice. When the judge is revealing the jury’s verdict, “his shoulders jerked as if each “guilty” was a separate stab between them.”, as he was so sure that in the case of law, justice and a man’s life that people wouldn’t base the final decision on a prejudice they have against an innocent man. I am also at an age where I understand what’s going on and feel the pain that Jem does as it isn’t right. To experience that hope being torn from my body would kill me to have the light sucked out from the room. This quote shows us the moment where Jem loses his innocence and belief that the world can be a better place which unfortunately was the case in that time period. And although it isn’t as obvious, we still suffer from this prejudice today in our courts.

Atticus – Atticus brings challenges with his decision to actively defend Tom Robinson at court. He was given the case by Judge Taylor and chooses to defend a black man against the word of a white woman even though he will receive heavy criticism against the townspeople that will impact himself and his family, “”You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but do one thing for me if you will: you just hold your head high”. I found it admirable how he knew the backlash from the case would impact himself and his family but chose to show them that although the right thing can be hard to do, you should still follow it through. It wasn’t a hard decision for him to do what he thought was right, but to make sure his kids were okay and that his family didn’t get to him was stressful enough. In this novel to me Atticus acts as a moral compass who shows what’s right in the world and sticks by his decision to do the right thing and is a great role model.

Mayella Ewell – Mayella was a character who we only really came into contact with for a very small section of the book, but her biggest challenge was just as big. She faced assault and moral rights with the trial. It was implied that she was in fact abused by her father, Bob Ewell, and had no escape from this or anyone to tell. I can’t imagine the fear that she felt because I have a great home life, amazing friends and people I can reach out to in person and on the web. Today we have many places we can go if you find yourself in a domestic violence situation, but she had no one and could only rely on him. The 1930’s being born is a small town in a low class means that is where you’re going to stay, you were born into it and you will marry into it again which is what would happen to Mayella. “Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world…”She knew full well the enormity of her offence,””, when you feel lonely you can’t but want the comfort of others regardless of who they are. I’m quite on the fence on her decision with this challenge. I understand her lying on the stand about what happened because to go against your abuser is incredibly difficult and when you have nowhere to go it can actually make your situation worse. However she sent an innocent man to jail, and maybe something could’ve been done about her father. Because today, even a whisper of something like that happening and it goes to court. Caroline Flack was a TV presenter accused of domestic violence against her boyfriend that caused widespread attention and although the boyfriend didn’t want charges to be pressed it still went through. This is because in some situations they could be bullied into dropping the charges by their partner.

To me, the title To Kill a Mockingbird is symbolism for killing a child’s innocence, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can him em’, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”. Once a child loses their innocence they can never be the same again and that is the worst thing you could do to a person. That innocence we hold when we are young, we can see all the possibilities and opportunities in the world within our reach until the dark reality sets in. It hardens us and we lose our child-like wonder to the knowledge that the world isn’t how we thought it was. The world is not separated into black and white, or superheroes and villains. Tom Robinson’s children will grow up without a father and learn the path in our racist world earlier than they might’ve liked. When they were younger, they probably just knew to always have their hands out, or to not walk through a white neighbourhood but now they know it is to do with something out of their control. Losing their innocence isn’t just from learning information about our reality, but having to face things that we are too young to see. Our experiences shape us, if we can only remember good experiences, then we will have a positive outlook, but negative experiences will force us to look at the bad in things. For example, I remember two years ago in health class and we were talking about the new building designs for the school and what we thought about them. Someone who was present during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake didn’t feel very comfortable with the two-storey classrooms as it brought back painful memories of that time. Boo Radley shows this in To Kill a Mockingbird in how he was abused by his father and then self isolated himself into his house. What people saw was a “weird” man who was a menace to society but was actually just very scarred from his childhood and was a very brave and kind man. This loss of innocence was caused by humanity hurting him in ways the narrator or I could understand or explain.

I would only recommend this novel to those with the patience to wait things out. You have to have an open mind to how things were in the 1930’s during the Great Depression otherwise you will only see the bad in every character instead of the good. For people like me who enjoy fictional books that are based on real life/events this is a challenging book that you will enjoy. The first part of the book the only really interesting thing I found is Scout, Jem and Dill’s adventures to see their neighbour Boo Radley, and it isn’t until the second part where we learn about the trial where it’s hard to put your book down. This is also no easy read, the way they talk and their slang can be difficult to understand but the message you get out of the book is rewarding and also satisfying.