To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Society vs. the Individual

The small community of Maycomb is a sleepy little town where there is a kind of social convention about what is right and wrong, a sort of prejudice, some sort of social framework of how to think or act in certain situations, sometimes a social conduct that is not supported by the general law.

Scout, the narrator, is mocked at school because her father, the lawyer, is going to defend a black man, a right granted by law to every human adult, but in white people's minds the coloured man is an inferior being hence he is considered deprived that right, a view white children have inherited from their folks. In its most extreme manifestation, this attitude can slip into a serious crime in the eyes of the penal code: taking the law in one's own hands, but little, if a crime at all, in an individual's eyes: a lynching is averted, but this situation in which not only the perpetrators do not realize the extreme gravity of, but also those who prevent it don't make an official report about it to the authorities.

Aunt Alexandra, in addition to her code of conduct as a woman, and as an adult member of the society, thinks Scout should dress herself according to Scout's future role and chores as woman associated to gender, in gown; the girl herself rather dresses herself for the moment in pants, to be able to do things. Regarding people in common Aunt Alexandra has the same opinion, one should hang out with those who are of the same kind as oneself. In its most severe expression, this attitude can lead to a serious consequences: as when a father in his lost honour makes up that his daughter has been subjected to rape, the father can in his shame neither to himself or socially handle, or comprehend that his daughter has felt natural desire to a black man, and the general opinion accepts the father's version of the facts and the court judges the coloured man for the alleged crime despite serious flaws in the evidence. The society itself can not bear the shame that its caste system is disturbed which could lead to the collapsing of foundations and social chaos.

This ceaseless confrontation - society versus the individual; legislation and how individuals relates to it or live their parallel lives in their own ethical and moral beliefs - is revealed through Scout's experiences and vivid narrations that highlights this lopsided way to run a society that keeps double entries.

Throughout the book runs the story of a neighbour who Scout never have seen but only heard stories about, despite her maybe 8 years of age. Due to myths, rumours and children's vivid imaginations the proportions of this neighbour becomes very grotesque. The adults are at a loss and do not know how to meet or deal with the children's delusions; adults just murmur to show respect, well grown-ups understand there is a gulf between the reality and kids fantasies. But are the adults, and in extension the society, aware of that they are the responsible ones of the children's lack of behaviour? It is perhaps here that society beats knot on itself: the double bookkeeping paralyses - at one hand a society's Constitution and the rights and duties of its citizens, at the other hand groups of individuals with their private beliefs that destabilise the society - the adults and their inability to dislodge what they themselves have created off the agenda.


Reference list

Lee, Harper, To kill a mockingbird, Heinemann, London, 1960


PS

But aren't the heroes or the bad guys in the novel depicted a bit too stereotypical; is it because of this Harper Lee uses a child as the narrator, and easily come around the fact that humans are complex beings; a young mind who isn't really able to reflect on peoples behavior; children often distinguish people just good or bad, not both.

To Harper Lee it isn't enough to draw the coloured guy just coloured, as if Tom Robinson's version on the alleged rape at the trial against him wasn't enough evidence to prove him innocent; Harper Lee has to make him criple to, to make us really understand that this guy could by no means have done the horrid crime he is accused of.

In Tom Robinson there is no evil. He is poor, having a hard life, with a big family, and he is a bit naive to, he help white folks; maybe he was warned about it, but he is depicted as he doesn't understand these kind of sophisticated informations. And, how come he is so stupid trying to esape prision; running like a frightened animal? He must have been aware of the armed guards! Well, Harper Lee knows we have preconceptions about black people, by letting the novel be told through the eyes of a child, Harper Lee is trying to disguise it.