There are few books in American countenance are as vibrant in their narration and touch as many hearts as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The book is a reminiscence of a time and place in our culture that was not so long ago, the fictional town of Mayberry. The central themes of the book touch on race, family, love, loss, loyalty and growing up in the south in the height of Jim Crow. Our narrator is a ten year old girl named Scout, and Lee perfectly captures the voice of this little girl as she struggles with the sometimes violent change going on around her.
Scout may be the narrator of the novel, but the true heroes of it are her father Atticus and Boo Radley, the proverbial "Mockingbird" of the story. Atticus is noble, honest, sometimes stern, and he is loving to his children. He is the perfect picture of what we would want in a father, and was played impeccably by Gregory Peck in the movie based on the novel. Peck supposedly poured a great deal of his anguish into this character, and it makes Atticus come alive. The rest of the cast are equally colorful, from Scout's brother to the poor Tom Robinson.
The book's main narration is around Tom, who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Though he is innocent, he is still placed in jail and threatened with hanging. Atticus will have none of it, and stands for the man and for justice. The rest of the book is the aftermath of the trial and death of this innocent man. It is about Scout trying to understand human nature at her age, even as her own life is threatened by her father's decision to represent a black man.
This is the culture of our country before the civil rights movement, and in some ways, not a lot has changed. There is still tremendous tension between the races. Readers can relate to Scout from any age, and I would encourage parents to have kids about her age read the book.
Harper Lee's novel captures that time between the civil war and now, and makes it a picture we can see again and again. She only wrote one other novel, a precursor to "Mockingbird." That book has suffered, I think. It is an early novel, and "Mockingbird" was the result of extensive rewrites and soul searching. It is hard to grasp the difference in some characters, and people wondered if Lee was in her right mind.
She was to the end. A remarkable woman, she let her work stand on its own, and I think in time her "second" novel Go Set a Watchman will stand its own test against "Mockingbird"
We need more novelists like Lee in this tumultuous time, someone to tell us how things were, and to show us the best and worst of human nature. Losing her is losing a bit of ourselves, but her work and characters will last forever. Scout, Boo Radely, Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch are immortal now, as is Lee. She shines as brightly as her characters, and her face is as synonymous with book culture as Mark Twain in my own opinion.
(Image Courtesy of Boston.com)
