http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/state/alabama.html
Finally, I finished To Kill A Mocking Bird. Now, I understand why this novel becomes best seller of all time up to now according to Guinness Book of Record. Further it had great impact of the American society and won a Pulitzer Prize It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American fiction. This amazing novel reminds me about Harriet’s Uncle’s Tom cabin who also had tremendous impact on the society. It was speculated that American Civil War was triggered by this novel.
The novel is loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. A mocking bird is actually a symbol of the innocence:
“Mockingbirds just make music…That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p8)
“I remember when my daddy gave me that gun. He told me that I should never point it at anything in the house. And that he'd rather I'd shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but he said that sooner or later he supposed the temptation to go after birds would be too much, and that I could shoot all the blue jays I wanted, if I could hit 'em, but to remember it was a sin to kill a mockingbird...Well, I reckon because mockingbirds don't do anything but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat people's gardens, don't nest in the corncribs, they don't do one thing but just sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”. (p100)
So, it is about the killing of the innocent. Yet, it’s not as simple as that. There’s so much complicated affairs related to this matter. The story is narrated by a six years old Scout Finch who expressed her feelings of her surrounding through her eyes.
This novel is the story of the early childhood of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch with her ubiquitous Jim and Dill, chronicling the humorous trials and tribulations of growing up in Maycomb, Alabama, from 1933 to 1935. She was about in her 6-9 years old. She expressed her dangerous adventure with her elder brother, Jeremy Finch, and her neighbor, Dill. Maycomb's was Southern small town in which nobody locked their doors at night and the local telephone operator could instantly identify callers solely by their voices. It was a secure environment for the children. Yet, the town was harshly divided by social class and prejudice. It was in threat by racial prejudice that was commonly found in Southern society although slavery had been legally abolished in 1865. Little Scout, Jem and Dill had not yet realized this rooted evil that breathed around them. Partly, because Atticus had provided code of honor and conduct that always led them right…codes that were sometimes the opposite from the norms and codes of the Maycomb people.
At first, I felt a little bit bored spends reading its beginning. It revealed Scout’s days lamenting that she must attend school and her afternoons engaged in various schemes to provoke a mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley, to emerge from his house. As Scout, Jem, and Dill become increasingly obsessed with luring Boo outside, they put themselves at greater risk, at one point incurring Boo's brother's gunfire. Boo and his family lived in seclusion and so much negative rumors about them. They thought Boo was a kind of hideous monster who dwelled in that house. They feared him. They created a play to described Boo’s life. When Atticus found out, he was angry and forbad them to make fun of their neighbor simply because they chose to live in a recluse. Scout also described the stereotype of each family in her neighborhood, the Ewll, the Cunningham, etc.
Scout and Jem's misadventures suggest an idyllic childhood, one tempered only by the rules of their beloved servant, Calpurnia; the standards imposed on them by their prudish Aunt Alexandra; and the particularities of their neighbors, Miss Maudie Atkinson and Mrs. Dubose. Scout at the beginning felt a little bit annoyed with Cal who taught her to read…she considered her as her constant irritation. Yet, it had never occurred to them what it was like to live as a black in their society. Later on, she found out and had great respect for Cal.
Atticus finch was their moral patron. He’s a man of strong principle and moral, honest, and respectable. He let them learn and know the truth by themselves…often discussing matters with Scout and Jem…he created a democratic atmosphere in his household. Yet, he kept enacting the principles for the children to respect others who had different views with them. He forbad them to fight and let not them got strayed by false prejudice. He let them grow and learn…invited them to discuss matters that they disagreed upon…respected his children’s opinions. What he said (his words) never contradicted his action and conducts. His words were the mirror of his deeds and vice versa. He was a man of integrity.
Atticus was assigned a case defending a local black man, Tom Robinson, who had been unjustly accused of rape by Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman from a family of ill-repute, Scout explored her beliefs, her father's moral obligations, and the dynamics of her community. (the case was similar with the Scotsboro Case in the real life of the American segregated society in 1930s). Atticus was willing to take this case despite the strong opposition from his neighbors and colleagues. He was a fair and just man who could not stand to see injustices run past across his face. He felt it was his duty to defend Tom – even if he knew he could not win (no case of black man against white man won in the deeply segregated society before). He was willing to take the risk…his social standing, his comfortable life, his professional career, and his safety and his children. Atticus told his children
"As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash."
Scout and Jem had not yet realized this danger. Their innocence protected them to have prejudices. Gradually, they knew what it was all about. They knew that the people thought it was not right for their father to defend a black man. They knew that their society lived in dualism. They lived in segregated society where the blacks were inferior from the white. They learnt this as the case grew. A six year Scout saved Atticus from a mob lynch in front of Tom’s prison. The mob was moved by her innocence and let the family and Tom go.
“They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it –seems that only the children weep,”
Eventually, having heard all the evidence in the trial, Atticus could collect evidence of Tom Robin’s innocence. Mayella and her father showed bruises on her that could only inflicted by a left handed person. Tom was a right handed, and his left arm was not functioning since he was twelve. He knew Mayella Ewell and his father had lied. Although, he pitied her for her suffering (it was revealed from her testimony and Tom that she suffered hardship as well as sexual harassment from his father), he could let her send an innocent man into death.
“The witnesses for the State, with the exception of the Sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted. Confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all Negros lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women. An assumption that one associates with minds of their caliber, and which is in itself, gentlemen, a lie, which I do not need to point out to you. And so, a quiet, humble, respectable Negro, who has had the unmitigated temerity to feel sorry for a white woman, has had to put his word against two white peoples. The defendant is NOT GUILTY, but somebody in this courtroom is.”
“She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.... She was white, and she tempted a Negro.... No code mattered to her before she broke it, but it came crashing down on her afterwards.”[p. 216]
Despite the facts that proved Tom was innocent, the Jury found him guilty because they could not let a black man win. They could not let a black man felt pity on a white woman. It was a great sin for their society. Anybody present at court could see the man was innocence…including Scout, Jem and Dill who sneaked in the court without Atticus’s permission. Even, Dill cried and felt so uneasy in hearing the verdict because he could not understand why respectable juries did the wrong thing. His innocence was children innocence who could always see the truth no matter what. The court changed the children life forever.
Jem was devastated; His innocence was vanished prematurely after this court. He had to learn the bitterness of injustice that presented in his society. It showed the new truths. Jem strated to be able to distinguish between his protected life and the prejudiced one that occurred inside the adult world of his community. The trial opened Jem s eyes to the evil and discrimination that he never noticed before. He had seen evil… yet he was proud of his father… a man who stood up alone. Atticus later explained that he might lose the case but it was a baby step for something greater. He had made the jury to hesitated and they took hours of debate before the verdict was read. It was just the beginning … a small step that would lead to greater things. Yet, Atticus forbad Jem to hate the Ewell.
"Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there."
Bob Ewell still held a grudge against Atticus and judge Taylor who defended Tom’s case. He swore he would get his revenge. But no one would imagine he would unleash his anger to two young innocent children. With a knife, he madly attacked Jem and Scout. A final climax that made me cry. An incident that showed that Boo Radley was not as bad as they thought. He was a good man who was falsely accused.
After these wide opening events, Scout, through her 9 years old eyes, learnt about hatred of the two races. And no one could feel and see what it would feel until one experienced it himself. She could see that Tom and Boo Radley was a mockingbird.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb in his skin and walk around in it."
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