To Kill a Mockingbird- First Thoughts
So my English class is now starting To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. We haven’t read that far into it thus far, so I can’t make very intelligent comments about the plot or anything, or even try to explain what the book is about. I still haven’t quite gotten far enough to figure it out yet.
It’s an interesting book so far, mainly because of it’s likeable and realistic characters. Personalities are more in depth and important, and you get to know the characters by not only what they do and say, but descriptions of how they’re feeling and their past, which makes it all so much better to read and have a vested interest in.
In comparison to Huck Finn, it’s almost like you can further realize that the characters Twain used are simply built and used as tools, making them less relatable and less likely to actually have the reader actively care about them and more likely to just see them as a part of a cartoonish play, actors instead of real people. Huck Finn did have a really good personality, but you could tell every little detail had some little purpose, and it leaves the reader wondering why they should assume he could even possibly be a real person.
So far my favorite character is the nice neighbor Miss Maudie. She’s ever the optimist, and even sees her house burning to the ground as a good opportunity to expand her garden and plant more flowers and less house. She’s always kind and respectful to the kids, calling them by their full names, not dodging around the truth, and actually listening to what they have to say. You can clearly see that Scout is intelligent through the conversations with Miss Maudie, but since most other people simply see her as young and unknowing, she doesn’t often have the chance to show off her intelligence.
The main theme that we’re discussing alongside the book is the idea of “The Secret Lives We Live”. Yep, all capitalized with no further introduction. I’m not exactly certain how it fits in completely, but we recently did an activity on it in class to have further thoughts on it.
We decided, as a small group, that a secret was simply a selective white lie. By not telling some people one thing, you’re withholding information from others for personal gain. White lies are not bad things within themselves, but you can easily see how harmful secrets have many of the same consequences as harmful lies.
On a side note I still can’t believe this movie was a thing.
EDIT: So I didn’t add enough to this blog post, or at least not even remotely close to everything I needed to add, so I’m adding a couple thoughts kind of late.
What’s been emphasized the most in class is a short moment in the beginning of the book, which my teacher has labeled as one of the most accurate descriptions of the depression.
“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I [Scout] first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square ... People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it...."
This characterizes the depression because of the way people lived through it. It was called the depression not just because of the economy, but the physical sense of tiredness and broken hearts that made everything move slower, and things seem to sag and hot days seem to be unbearably so.
People had no place to be without jobs, and no money to spend if they did, so they ambled to places, grabbed what they needed, and were in no rush to complete any of it. Harper Lee is really using advanced techniques to help the reader get a far more advanced understanding of the time period, and learning and applying the tools she uses her can help fellow readers convey their point and mood far better.
This is the environment these children are growing up in. So far Atticus is the only one to be their true role model throughout all of it, steadily showing them that morals are to be upheld in all aspects of life, not just when it’s convenient, and to stand up for what you believe in.
The character I’m following for class, Scout, has not clearly been introduced yet, so no updates there.
(To be perfectly honest I’m editing this post after I read the book so I’m attempting to remember my thoughts back then.)
Three questions for next week’s discussion:
1. If Boo Radley is showing himself as this nice character that does good for people, why did he stab his mother?
2. Why does his father insist on keeping him locked up and away instead of sending him to school, and why does his older brother go along with it?
3. Did he actually stab his mother or was that his father’s fault?
