To Kill a Mockingbird - 1960
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The story is told by the six-year-old Jean Louise Finch.
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers.
As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in the United States with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets.
It doesn't help that it is humid out for real but the book just reads like a Southern summer day. In a good way. It demands attention though. Nice contrast to the bounciness of Gatsby.
ReplyDeleteThe tensions of this novel have been dissected and awarded over the decades since publication in 1960. Prejudice, hypocrisy, ignorance, class, racism and cowardice make up the conscience of a time and place faced off by the morals, ethics, and heroism of one man, trying to fight for justice and teach his children belief and forgiveness for all people. In addition there are wide contrasts in reader’s emotions, brought forth by fear, outrage, love, and humor.
ReplyDeleteThe primary force, even more than Atticus or narrator Scout, is the setting of the deep South in the 1930’s. It drives the thoughts and actions of all the other characters to become a character in its own right. I wonder that Southerners over the racially charged lifespan of this beloved work must see themselves and be affronted by its accurate portrayal of shameful behavior and attitude, yet can still hold it as an enduring work of art. I understand there has been a movement to ban it from schools for its use of ethnic slurs, but that raises my suspicion of whether other discomforts are at the forefront.
The only weakness I see is the depiction of extremes of good and bad. It is satisfying to have right served in the end, as we all crave a judicial ending, but it isn’t realistic in a world where all people are capable of acting on their best and worst instincts. The follow up novel, published after H Lee’s death in 2016, addresses the gray area we really live in, and I think that disappointed all who want to believe in innate perfection of goodness. I better understand now that I’ve devoured Mockingbird in later life.
Harper Lee wrote what she knew, growing up in small town Alabama. The excellence of her storytelling makes me wish there had been more than 2 of her books.
Still making news:
ReplyDeleteWhen 'Mockingbird' was banned in Mississippi, Tenafly students took up pen to protest
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/tenafly/2017/10/30/when-mockingbird-challengtenafly-students-lead-charge-against-pulling-mockingbird-biloxi-reading-lis/806376001/
Following on the heels of Gatsby’s wealthy Northeast, this book, set just scant years later in the rural South, is an excellent contrast if the poster planned it that way. I stand by my early comment that the tone, dialogue, and feel of the book is that of an August evening in the American South. Swampy, dense, oppressive at times, restorative at others for the very sensations that such weather creates and makes one feel alive. Like a sauna.
ReplyDeleteAs you have noted, it is based on the memories of Harper Lee so grounded in real times, real people, etc. The manner of a small Southern town during the Depression, the means of interacting, the classification of people based on a myriad of social and historical factors – all feel tangible and real. While it is a work of fiction, I came away from an adult reading of the book with a sense of having read more a memoir than a work of fiction set in a historical era. Hollywood would say, “based on a true story.”
I didn’t come across any negative feelings toward to portrayal of good vs evil. While Atticus comes across rather clean and holier than thou, there are insights into his interactions with his family, stories of his past, that point to flawed individual just doing the best he can to model and set up a better future for his children. If anything, he might seem out of place or anachronistic in the setting the book takes place but as the neighbor says to Scout, the town needs Atticus to serve a role that no one else will. It is one he has taken on at great cost but one that is acknowledged by the town despite their whispers by the unopposed votes for his place in the state legislature. On the other end of the spectrum, one can feel some sympathy for the Ewells when all things are taken in to account. Victims of the times to a degree, victims of their own prejudices to a degree, mixed together in a cocktail that was bound to prove fatal to at least one if not more.
ReplyDeleteCharacters are strong almost universally. Each unique enough. The society luncheon where Scout is resigned to attend was excellent in capturing the thinly veiled civility of a small town where tensions are high. Dill serves as a catalyst for the meeting of Boo but I found him to be the weakest link in the story. I suppose he serves to break up the brother-sister narrative and provide evidence of Jem’s maturity and changing interests.
It is a complete work with very few flaws and an unfortunate continued resonance in the country it is set.
It has been a different experience reading it this time. I still picture Gregory Peck when thinking of Atticus though.
ReplyDeleteYep perfect casting. Couldn’t put it down. I read Harper Lee’s follow up that they published from a found manuscript after her death 2016 Was disappointed but now I have point of reference & want to reread right away. Scout is an adult revisiting Miss. Title is To Set a Watchman.
ReplyDeleteWatchman was actually written first which is hard for me to reconcile...I think problem is the black- white, good-bad of Mbird vs the gray nuance of Watchman, which reflects reality.
I already posted one link but here's another. The book does have good vs evil element but the appeal to a deeper inner conflict in all of us is evident by how often things like this occur:
ReplyDelete"Biloxi to teach ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in class again. Parents must sign permission slip."
https://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article180807726.html
Here is the article prior to that one:
Deletehttps://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article178572326.html
I’m half thru rereading Watchman and have back to back comparisons with Mockingbird this time. I enjoy it even less. It is widely agreed it was Lee’s first draft for MB & obvious why no one would publish it. It was falsely presented as a sequel & received general disappointment. Here characters are undeveloped & unlikable. Plot is missing. Racists have no redeeming traits. I can see a foreshadowing of better writing to come. Some paragraphs are identical to MB, while in total reversal, Atticus wins Tom’s case. The changes in 2 year gap to MB are hard to fathom..how did Lee’s vision and technique grow so quickly to Nobel Prize caliber? Casual readers felt cheated, as did older Scout, that Atticus wasn't a saint. I feel cheated that someone(s) pulled a fast one in seeking to profit by deception after an old woman’s death.
ReplyDeleteI might slip that one down on the to-read list. I remember the buzz around its release and now understand, per your review, why it disappeared so quickly.
ReplyDeleteI have an odd reaction that the failure was mine and not the book’s since the skillful comfort of MB is universally acclaimed. The first time I read Watchman was with the impression of a sequel that would enhance the aging of beloved characters. In reality, as a first draft it lacks the tight flow of the familiar plot, as well as the perfect foil of a child to tell it. 20-something Scout returning with fresh eyes of NY life, seeing her father & Southern town through enlightened perspective, is a spoiled & disrespectful young woman. As narrator, she is so repugnant that when Uncle Jack slaps her, it seems an overdue reaction of comeuppance. The only strength of this draft is the confrontation between father, uncle and daughter in the end, but it is unbelievable that she attains u-standing in an instant after throwing adolescent style tantrums at family. They respond weakly with love, which lessens their whole. The onus of deception belongs to the publisher and whomever else made money after Ms Lee’s slippage and death
ReplyDeleteI am finding it interesting upon going back through our list to date that the books that we felt had been covered the most, usually as part of required school reading, have been generating the most comments.
ReplyDeleteI am puzzled by 2 things. How could Ms Lee have turned that sketchy first draft into a finished work of art 2 years later? And why at the top of her talent did she swear she would never write another book Did she produce the Nobel version or was it a talented editor or several? Suspicious Ma
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of instances throughout history and various disciplines were an individual gets it right but so much so that it only works once. Perhaps she was one with her muse but the act of getting that story out left her drained. Maybe she knew, per the links I put above, that the conclusion or addition work on her part was not the issue. That the story of Mockingbird was going on continuously in the hearts of all Americans.
ReplyDeleteMore thoughts on the banning of this book:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/15/the-ironic-enduring-legacy-of-banning-to-kill-a-mockingbird-for-racist-language/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.58fd5abf22db
This is an interesting argument not so much for the banning of the book buts retirement from the role it has been thrust into.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/why-are-we-still-teaching-kill-mockingbird-schools-ncna812281