To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, will remain on top 10 lists of "best-sellers by first time authors" for years to come. Like Margaret Mitchell and Arundati Roy, Harper Lee managed to write a nice tale of a messy affair. Apparently based on her personal experience as a child in Alabama, a southern state in the USA, it is both witty and profound. Lee believed in writing what she knew - as honestly as she could, and the sincerity of the narration is the book's strength.

My favorite dialogue sequence, right from the mouth of babes (Dill and Jem: Age:10, trying to get their eccentric neighbor out of the house) and couldn’t be more profound:

“Dill, you have to think about these things,” Jem said. “Lemme think a minute…..it’s sort of like making a turtle come out…..”
“How’s that?” asked Dill.
“Strike a match under him.”
I told Jem if he set fire to the Radley house I was going to tell Atticus on him.
Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful.
“Ain’t hateful, just persuades him – ‘s not like you’d chunk him in fire,” Jem growled.
“How do you know a match wont hurt him?”
“Turtles can’t feel, stupid,” said Jem.
“Were you ever a turtle, huh?”

That made my day and sold me on the book.

The most amazing aspect of the book is that it deals with a sordid plot – a lawyer fighting a case defending a black man accused of raping a white woman in the 1930’s, in the deep southern state of Alabama. A very grown up story narrated in the voice of a 6 year old and as seen and comprehended by the eyes of completely innocent children who know no race or creed – just humanness.

This style of narration has two effects. A, an adult story told with an innocence that makes the reading feel, Oh So Clean! ….and B, the contrast of innocence in children who have no baggage and the irrational prejudices of grown-ups who carry too much unnecessary baggage, works brilliantly to bring out what the author intends – the irrationality of racism and importance of being human.

I read this book right after I wrote the post on how I could never fall in love with narrators of the story and I almost had to eat my own words. I loved the little girl, 'Scout' Finch, who narrates the story, but unfortunately she didn’t become the first to break my belief about narrators, ‘cos I loved her dad even more. Atticus Finch is older than dads of 6-year olds usually are: about 50. He complains about not being upto the kid’s rambunctiousness, but he is the perfect gentleman who does the right thing even when stuck in a tight spot and brave in a way that really matters. He is a talented shot, but an even better lawyer. Above all, he is a great dad. He’s awesome because he doesn’t feel the need to color the children’s thoughts – he let’s them make their own judgments and see the right from the wrong, helping them along when they can’t make sense of the facts. Above all, maybe the image of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the 1962 movie stuck in my head.