Another book to cross off my classics list: "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Set in the mid-1930's, this book is the story of a sleepy town in the deep south told through the eyes of a 9 year old girl named Scout. Scout lives with her brother "Jem," their black housekeeper Calpurnia and their father Atticus. Atticus is a southern gentleman. He's an extremely civilized, intelligent lawyer and I loved him the minute I started the book. This man, who had his children in his late 30's (rather late for his time) is now in his 50's, is raising his children on his own, as his wife died when Scout was 2. He is very educated, sensible and learned. His character reads ahead of his time. He is above prejudice, above the male-dominated thinking of his time. He is given a case to defend; a case he could have easily turned down. Defend a black man accused of rape by a white woman and her trashy family. A daunting task. Atticus takes it on with class, much to the chagrin of his sister and most of the town.
The story, told through Scout's eyes, shows a lot of the danger Atticus was in defending this man, only Scout is never really aware of it. But most of the story is not even centered on this case. It is centered on Scout, Jem, their pal Dill and all the wonderfully eccentric people of this town, including the elusive "Boo" Radley, a man who has not left his home since the age of 19 (and is probably in his 30's by the time the story is told.) The children imagine stories about "Boo" as they walk by his house each day twice a day, to & from school for 3 years. Sometimes they sneak in his yard to peek in. As the 3 years of the story go by, we see "Boo" leaving them little gifts every so often in the hole of a tree.
Atticus loses the trial, but everyone knows that the black man is innocent. Everyone knows the young woman and her father who brought the charges against the black man are white trash. But in the 30's, you don't acquit a black man against a white woman....ever. But the town knew. And the white trash father, Mr. Ewell knows that the town knows, and is bitter. In a late night drunken binge, Mr. Ewell plans the murder of those two young children; he's too much of a coward to face Atticus. In the dark melee, Jem's arm is broken and he is knocked unconscious....and Mr Ewell is dead. Scout, wearing a pageant costume and her vision impaired by it, is not sure what happened. All she knows is, Mr. Ewell was crushing her in a bear hug and the next second, he's torn away from her. A stranger helps carry Jem to their home. As she sits in Jem's room, talking to the police and her father, it suddenly dawns on her who the stranger that helped them is; the pale man hiding in the shadows of the room, afraid of the light. My throat closed up as she looked at him, teared up and whispered "Hi Boo."
At first, Atticus thinks it was Jem that has stabbed Mr. Ewell. The police officer does not accept this and states that Mr. Ewell fell on his knife and stabbed himself. We all know what really happened. We know that Boo protected "his children," and Scout finally understands what is happening; what they are doing by covering this fact up. It's a sin to kill a mockingbird; they don't harm your crops, they don't destroy your gardens. "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us." They don't involve Boo, because to do so would be to kill a mockingbird.
