This past July marked the 50 year anniversary of the publication of "To Kill a Mockingbird". It has long been one of my favorite books, one I read every five years or so. I had planned to re-read it this year before knowledge of the anniversary came to me, so the many news stories I heard on NPR made for a happy coincidence.
This time I had decided to listen to the audio version. I don't know how many times I have read the book nor do I remember how old I was when I first read it (I think I was around twenty.) Each time I read it my own life experiences give me the opportunity to experience the story with new eyes, and this time was no exception. Part of that might be listening to it rather than reading it. Having someone read to you is a delicious experience, especially if the narrator can speak in the character's voice. I don't mean voice imitations; I don't mean a woman narrator speaking like a man or vice versa, although that does add richness to the experience (anyone who has ever heard the myriad of voices Jim Dale evokes while narrating the Harry Potter books knows what I mean there.) Rather, I mean a narrator who draws the listener into the story so completely as to make it sound like you are hearing the story firsthand. Roses Pritchard narrated the version I listened to, and she is such a narrator.
The story is one of the handful of books Hollywood ever got "right". But as powerful as the movie was, and as wonderful as Gregory Peck portrayed Atticus Finch, the movie pales in comparison to the power of the book. It is of course a tale of racial prejudice and injustice and a small town's awakening consciousness. Some have criticized the novel for what they consider its one dimensional portrayal of African Americans, and for perpetuating a more subtle form of racism by an equally one dimensional portrayal of whites as saviors. If the story were set today, or even at the time the book was written, fifty years ago at the height of the Civil Rights movement, I might agree with that assessment. But the story was set in a different time, in post Great Depression America.
I am certainly not saying that the times made those prejudices and injustices right. They were wrong then just as they are wrong now. They did, however, exist, much more strongly and blatantly then than they do now. What rights were conferred by law and what actually took place were unfortunately different things. It took men and women of both races to stand up against their friends and courage to challenge society's beliefs - and their own - to make those laws a vibrant reality for all regardless of race. That is the second reason I challenge that one-dimensional assessment: the book is full of characters who did the right things despite being afraid or confused, despised, ostracized and even persecuted for it.
Atticus Finch defends the falsely accused Tom Robinson not only because he is court appointed to do so but puts his full efforts into it because it is the right thing to do, and he actively teaches his children Jem and Scout a better way to live than what the community is teaching, preparing them for greater challenges he knows are coming, and the way in which he handles bitter disappointments and failure. Despite their own flaws, Calpurnia, Reverend Sykes, Miss Maudie, Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jack each teach the children something. Even "minor" characters Dolphus Raymond, Link Deas and Walter Cunningham Sr. prove themselves more valiant than they first appear.
The movie focused on the two main intertwining stories of Tom Robinson's trial and the mysterious neighbor Boo Radley, but left much out. The novel also explores the themes of drug addiction, social and economic class, fascism, and being a Christian not only in word but also in deed. Pretty heady stuff for a child to witness and try to make sense of - and the story is told entirely through the eyes of young Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Wise beyond her years she may be, she is still growing up in a confusing, rapidly changing world. Still, make sense of it she does, through keen observation, loving relationships with her father and other adults, growing first apart from her brother and then drawing again closer to him, and finally, the passage of time and the greater understanding that brings. Perhaps that passage of time is why I myself see the story with fresh eyes every time I read it.
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