To kill a mockingbird (by Harper Lee)

(Amazon UK link)

I had to read Harper Lee’s classic novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ when I was a teenager - I guess about fourteen. I don’t think I enjoyed it all that much. But I’m not sure I really understood it. The issues of segregation were completely new to me, in the UK in the 1970s, and I didn’t get why there was so much dialect even amongst the supposedly educated white people. 

I’ve had a copy of this book sitting on our shelves for the past thirty or so years, and kept thinking that maybe I should reread. But I only got around to doing so this week, and the reason is that the recently discovered sequel, ‘Go set a watchman’ is next month’s local reading club choice. I’m not quite sure how a sequel can have been written before the main book which shot the author to fame, but perhaps I’ll find out more when I read it.

In the meantime, I’ve been reading ‘To kill a mockingbird’ over the past few days. I knew, vaguely the story - that a white lawyer in a town in the deep south of the United States was defending a black man, accused of a crime. But I hadn’t remembered any of the details, nor the outcome. And I found it quite a gripping storyline.

The novel is told in the first person by Jean Louise Finch, known to her family and friends as Scout. She’s nearly six years old when the story begins, and it’s clear that she’s telling it from the perspective of an adult. She adores her older brother Jem, and they usually spend their summers playing and exploring together. Their mother died when Scout was two, and they live with their father, whom they refer to by his first name, Atticus. He is a lawyer, and is a likeable, caring person. He’s a good father, and compassionate to all.

The book is set in the 1930s, in a fictional town in Alabama. The Finch household employs a ‘domestic’ - a black woman called Calpurnia. She has brought up the children, she does all the cooking and housework, and she returns to her family each evening. Atticus treats her with respect, as he does all black people. But he’s in the minority in this town, where racism is rife. 

I found it quite disturbing that a word now considered highly offensive is banded about, not just by white racists but by the black people themselves. And they see themselves as somehow inferior. Many are not literate, and they see it as right and normal that there are ‘black’ churches and schools, separate from the ‘white’ ones. 

A gentle, married black man called Tom has been accused of raping a 19-year-old white girl, who comes from a poor, often violent family. The book leads up to the court case, where Atticus - by his questioning and deduction - make it quite clear what actually happened…

I had realised early on what the outcome was going to be. This book was written, in part, to expose the horrors of racism, and the unfairness experienced by so many people of colour. The author based a lot of Scout’s experiences on her own childhood; perhaps that’s why it all feels so authentic. And apparently there were real-life cases similar to the one in the novel.

But there’s a lot more to it, too. Scout and Jem know most of their neighbours, but are very curious about one who is reputed to be a total hermit who never leaves his house. They have a friend known as Dill who lives in another state, but comes to stay with his aunt in the holidays. There are scenes when Scout starts school, too; she hates it because she can already read and write, but is told that she’s doing it wrongly. 

There are some light-hearted scenes as the children banter with each other, and a lot of warmth between Atticus and his children. This is excellent social history, bringing to life a small town in the deep south of the US in that era. But it’s so much more. And when it was written - published in 1960 - there were far fewer books about racism than there are today. Indeed, in the 1960s, there was still some segregation in parts of the US, as I discovered when I read the excellent book ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett about fifteen years ago.

More than once it becomes clear that adult prejudices and bigotry are learned. The children in the book see far more clearly how important integrity and honesty are than many of the adults. There's a very thought-provoking short scene where the rise of Naziism in that period is compared to the way black people are treated in Alabama. Most of the adults brush it off and seem unable to see it. 

I’m not sure it was an entirely appropriate book to read as a teenager in the UK in the 1970s, as I was quite ignorant and didn't appreciate it. Then again, some of my classmates loved it. But I am very glad I have finally got around to reading it again. Definitely recommended, despite the offensive language used; I assume it really was used in that way at the time, and it certainly helps to make the point.

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