“To Kill a Mockingbird”: America’s 60-year-old wake-up call
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Since its 1960 publication, Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been widely acclaimed for its engaging characters, simple prose and revelatory plot. The novel is a coming of age story set in the mid-1930s American deep south. Over the course of three summers of adventure, mischief and courtroom confessions, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is awoken to the racial injustice of her small Alabama hometown.
With 30 million copies sold worldwide in over 40 languages, it is considered one of the greatest novels of the 20th century and is a staple of the American public school curriculum. Nearly all Western students have at least begrudgingly watched the Oscar-winning 1962 film of the same name in their high school English class.
Unlike some classic novels such as ”Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” ”Heart of Darkness,” and ”Gone with the Wind,” whose portrayals of African Americans have been heavily criticized in recent years for their offensive outlooks, “Kill a Mockingbird” continues to be modern literature’s beloved standard.
Despite being a finite work in a rapidly changing world, the novel’s numerous motifs, themes, lessons, character arcs and political activism has been nonetheless applicable to each rising generation and shifting time period.
The story takes place between 1933-1935. Because of the economic turmoil left after the 1929 stock market crash, President Roosevelt created the New Deal initiative. This was a series of government-funded public works projects, financial reforms and regulations to propel the nation forward.
Utah State University’s Family Life building on the quad, constructed in 1935, was one of the 230 buildings constructed in Utah as part of this program.
Created for citizens’ advancement, the New Deal negatively affected Blacks. The written legislature allowed public work employers to reject any worker they felt could not complete tasks. Underlying prejudice disproportionately favored whites over Blacks so they were rarely hired and economically suffered long after their white counterparts were benefitting from the president’s relief efforts.
The New Deal is never mentioned in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but the unequal distribution of wealth between Blacks and whites is clearly seen within the story’s fictional town of Maycomb. (Maycomb, Ala. is an almost exact replica of Harper Lee’s childhood hometown, Monroeville, Ala., and reflects the demographics of the time). While whites are spread out all over town, Blacks reside only in a small, rundown neighborhood along the border. Their church, likewise, is unmaintained and unable to afford more than one hymnbook for the whole congregation. The whites who are financially challenged receive welfare checks while Blacks do not.
One of the central plots in ”To Kill a Mockingbird” is when attorney Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, defends a Black man in court. The fictional case bears striking resemblances to two of the time: the prosecution of the Scottsboro Boys and Walter Lett.
In ”To Kill a Mockingbird,” 25-year-old Black Tom Robinson is on trial for the rape of the 19-year-old white Mayella Ewell. Mayella comes from a ”white trash” welfare family who lives beyond the law and is looked down on by the town. Tom is well known among the Black community and respected by his white employer for his hard work. Despite the prosecutor’s questionable honor, contentious behavior on the stand and Atticus’s strong case showing his innocence, Tom is convicted. The word of a white woman, regardless of socioeconomic status or credibility, is stronger than that of a Black man.
The Scottsboro Boys case took place in Tennessee in 1931. Nine African American boys ages 13 to 19 were falsely accused, convicted and executed on charges of assault and rape. While traveling from Chattanooga to Memphis, a group of white teenage girls and boys tried to push them from the train. When this was not successful, the white teenagers went to the police and reported the ”Scottsboro Boys,” as they became known, had attacked the boys and violated the girls. The accused African American teens were immediately arrested and put through rushed, unorganized trials oversaw by all-white judges, prosecutors and juries. Medical evidence proved the attacks and rapes had not occurred. Yet, all except for the youngest who was only thirteen were sentenced to death.
Similarly, the Walter Lett case in Monroeville, Ala. in 1934 ended with the death penalty despite lack of evidence. Thirty-year-old Lett was accused of raping white Naomi Lowrey. The case was shaky and pointed in Lett’s favor but ended fatally due to the same prejudice seen in Lee’s novel. He was kept in prison for several years while appeals were made and, sadly, was driven to madness by the time the electric chair finally took his life.
The realism of Tom Robinson’s case makes “To Kill a Mockingbird” a compelling look into the racism of the 1930s. Beyond this, the day-to-day prejudice seen within the town mirrors what African Americans have faced on a daily basis every day before and since its publication.
After his conviction, Tom Robinson is shot 17 times in the back while trying to escape.
This resembles the recent case of Rayshard Brooks. On June 12, a 27-year-old Black man was killed in Atlanta after falling asleep in his car in a Wendy’s drive-through. He was unarmed and calm, though showing signs of intoxication, and was fatally shot twice in the back after resisting arrest.
In both cases, the men were young, had small children and were unarmed. They put no one else in immediate danger. Although they were both going against the law to resist arrest and execution respectfully, their deaths were unnecessary uses of force on the part of law enforcement.
In both fact and fiction, African Americans are condemned and endangered by the American justice system: the one place that should be freed from prejudice.
Over the years, the book has been repeatedly banned in schools. It was most recently banned in 2017 in Biloxi, Miss. school district because it allegedly made people uncomfortable. Similarly, the novel has fallen under criticism for attempting to idealize American racism. This, however, is not the case. On the contrary, it exposes the shortcomings of ordinary citizens and acts as a wake-up call for whites.
Harper Lee was white, as are her protagonists, appealing to that audience. From the first page, Scout takes the reader’s hand and personally leads them through her life, showing them along the way the process of growing up and awakening to the injustice around her.
Atticus Finch, although now seen as an anti-racist literary hero and literary voice of reason, is the typical American man of the time. He works his 9-to-5 job, comes home to a cooked meal and spends his evenings with his feet up reading the newspaper. He never does anything exponential; he does his job, is generous to the less fortunate and follows his own conscience rather than societal norms. In the long run, his choice to represent Tom Robinson was a small act of rebellion against injustice.
This comes to show that by doing the same — following our conscience and standing against injustice — we can take a step towards change. Lee is inviting us to actively show our convictions. The journey to equality is long and far from over, but, in Atticus’ own words, “simply because we were licked a hundred years before we start is no reason for us not to try.”
One of the book’s most profound parts is found towards the end when Scout’s third grade class is discussing the growing unrest in Germany as Hitler gains control and uses it to persecute the Jews. Her teacher is appalled by the Nazis’ actions, and yet was openly talking in degrading terms about the African American community during the trial.
Even nine-year-old Scout notices the irony. She puts it perfectly when she asks her older brother, Jem, “How can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home?”
The novel’s purpose is to prompt white Americans to reflect upon their own actions and work towards change. If it makes people uncomfortable to realize reality, it is doing its job. The microaggressions and social injustices seen in it are rooted in real life. In this way, it can be read as a cautionary tale — a story centered around a moral warning of consequences to come when certain actions or inactions are followed. It repeatedly warns against the dangers of white prejudice against the Black community; a warning which, although has been read by millions of white Americans, has gone unheeded. Everything that occurred in the book in terms of racism is still happening today under different circumstances and various capacities.
In 2015, Harper Lee’s second novel, “Go Set a Watchman” was published. “Go Set a Watchman,” set in the 50s and follows Scout as an adult, was written in the mid-50s but was originally rejected by publishers. It was then reworked into “To Kill a Mockingbird” and collected dust in Lee’s basement until found by her editor. By then, Lee had suffered a stroke and was in no state of mind to endorse its publication. Because of this, it has fallen under heavy criticism and was met with mixed reviews by fans.
While “To Kill a Mockingbird” is the easier read as well as the more enjoyable one, and there are several plot points that make it clear why it was initially rejected, “Go Set a Watchman” is just as applicable to the modern world.
At 26, Scout returns to her hometown of Maycomb after living in New York to find it changed in disturbing ways. Similar to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” she is slowly awoken to the truth of racial prejudice in her beloved hometown and even among her closest loved ones. It works to fulfill the same purpose of opening America’s eyes.
In parallel to young Scout’s epiphany regarding the treatment of the Jews, adult Scout has a provoking soliloquy after seeing her boyfriend and familiar townsmen at a County Citizen’s Council meeting discussing “the Black Plague.” She asks herself, “how can they devotedly believe everything they hear in church and then say the things they do and listen to the things they hear without throwing up?”
This is a question we all should ask ourselves at times like this.
“Go Set a Watchman,” though not nearly as acclaimed, is a thoughtful continuation of Harper Lee’s brilliant classic that should be read with a mind open to criticism and change. Ut allows those privileged to go through life without experiencing racism to see their mistakes.
With its contemporary issues and easy writing style, “To Kill a Mockingbird” deserves every ounce of praise it receives. Lee’s visionary work has never been more applicable than the present. It should not only be read but looked to as a physical conscious for America.
*Graphic by Rosie Davis
Dara Lusk was born and raised in northern Virginia outside of Washington, DC. She is majoring in English with an emphasis in Technical/Professional Writing and a minor in Anthropology. When not writing she loves reading and annotating classic literature.
@dara_marie_