Books That Made Me Cry - To Kill a Mockingbird
Books can affect you in any number of ways. Sometimes they introduce you to new ideas and make your world bigger. Sometimes they speak to something deep inside you and make you feel like someone else understands. Sometimes they just wrench your guts out and send a cascade of hot tears down your face and make you wish you hadn't started reading that chapter on the bus.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
When'd I read it? This was an assigned reading book in 9th grade. I specifically remember it was around Thanksgiving, because that was the year I was in Illinois for my grandparents' 50th anniversary.
What's it about? Oh like you don't know. In case you haven't attended a middle or high school in the United States, To Kill A Mockingbird recounts a few years in the life of Scout Finch, her older brother, Jem, and their neighbor, Dill, in Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1930s. In addition to spending their time speculating about/mocking the mentally ill shut-in across the street and the mean old lady on the corner, the three children get an education on structural/institutional racism when Jem and Scout's father, Atticus, is assigned to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Despite Atticus' strong courtroom defense (there's substantial evidence that Mayella was actually attacked by her father, Robert E Lee Ewell), Tom is found guilty. Meanwhile, the children learn another lesson about not making assumptions about people when the aforementioned shut-in, Boo Radley, saves them from a knife wielding Bob Ewell.
Why'd I cry? So, there's this scene after the jury goes into deliberations, where Jem, Scout, and Dill are sitting up in the courtroom balcony with Reverend Sykes and the other black people who've come to watch the trial where Jem is talking about how sure he is that the jury will find Tom innocent. And the contrast between Jem's naïve certainty and my own knowledge of institutional racism and the inevitability of the verdict, followed by Tom being killed trying to escape and . . . Anyway, yeah, you know the story, the waterworks.
Would it make me cry again if I re-read the book now? I'm not sure. Lee's novel is still undeniably powerful, and deals with issues we're still grappling with. But on the other hand, I'm little more cynical about the novel's use of the white savior trope (though it is notable that Atticus doesn't actually succeed in saving Tom). Anyway, I may read it again sometime, so we'll see.
Links:
A New York Times piece on Mockingbird's use of the white savior trope in relation to the recent publication of Go Set a Watchman.
The opening credits from the movie adaptation, featuring Elmer Bernstein's excellent score.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
When'd I read it? This was an assigned reading book in 9th grade. I specifically remember it was around Thanksgiving, because that was the year I was in Illinois for my grandparents' 50th anniversary.
What's it about? Oh like you don't know. In case you haven't attended a middle or high school in the United States, To Kill A Mockingbird recounts a few years in the life of Scout Finch, her older brother, Jem, and their neighbor, Dill, in Maycomb County, Alabama in the 1930s. In addition to spending their time speculating about/mocking the mentally ill shut-in across the street and the mean old lady on the corner, the three children get an education on structural/institutional racism when Jem and Scout's father, Atticus, is assigned to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Despite Atticus' strong courtroom defense (there's substantial evidence that Mayella was actually attacked by her father, Robert E Lee Ewell), Tom is found guilty. Meanwhile, the children learn another lesson about not making assumptions about people when the aforementioned shut-in, Boo Radley, saves them from a knife wielding Bob Ewell.
Why'd I cry? So, there's this scene after the jury goes into deliberations, where Jem, Scout, and Dill are sitting up in the courtroom balcony with Reverend Sykes and the other black people who've come to watch the trial where Jem is talking about how sure he is that the jury will find Tom innocent. And the contrast between Jem's naïve certainty and my own knowledge of institutional racism and the inevitability of the verdict, followed by Tom being killed trying to escape and . . . Anyway, yeah, you know the story, the waterworks.
Would it make me cry again if I re-read the book now? I'm not sure. Lee's novel is still undeniably powerful, and deals with issues we're still grappling with. But on the other hand, I'm little more cynical about the novel's use of the white savior trope (though it is notable that Atticus doesn't actually succeed in saving Tom). Anyway, I may read it again sometime, so we'll see.
Links:
A New York Times piece on Mockingbird's use of the white savior trope in relation to the recent publication of Go Set a Watchman.
The opening credits from the movie adaptation, featuring Elmer Bernstein's excellent score.
Comments
Post a Comment