I was deeply saddened when I heard about Harper Lee’s passing on February 19, 2016 in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
I hadn’t only enjoyed reading To Kill a Mockingbird long before everyone had to read it in ninth grade English class, but I had also fully appreciated its social implications by the time I actually got to Grade 9 and read it again through a more analytical lens.
The novel was Lee’s sole published book for a solid 45 years. After its initial publication in 1960, it became an instant hit and took home the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961.
It makes sense that To Kill a Mockingbird has sold over 40 million copies worldwide and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1962. It deals with the heavy themes of racial relations in the Old South of the United States during the Great Depression in an imaginary town named Maycomb. However, Lee presents the trial of an African-American man (Tom Robinson), who is accused of sexually assaulting a Caucasian woman through the eyes of children—Scott (a “tomboy” who is supposed to resemble Lee’s younger self), Jem (Scott’s brother), and Dill (the siblings’ new friend who is able to see through the town’s traditional consensus against African-American people). Scott and Jem are raised by Atticus, their righteous father and lawyer who gently reminds them that they can “never really understand a person until [they] climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
It shouldn’t surprise you that To Kill a Mockingbird was inspired by a series of unrelated but true events. The first was possibly a case where an African-American man was accused of rape by a Caucasian woman near Lee’s hometown. Numerous scholars, however, hypothesize that Tom Robinson’s character faced the same challenges that the Scottsboro Boys did, a case in which nine black men were accused of assaulting two white women based on questionable evidence.
Perhaps that is what makes Lee’s story a North American classic. Through the innocent eyes of children as the primary observers, we explore a very real issue of that era in time. The story itself is timeless even though race relations have come a long way since the 20th century; in actuality, we still have a long way to go. Though I am realistic in that I recognize it will be impossible to eliminate all cases of explicit and implicit racism, I am also optimistic that we as individuals can be more accepting of different peoples and that society as a whole can be more just in terms of structural prejudices.
That happens to be the case with various social issues that appear time and time again as the main themes driving a riveting story, such as To Kill a Mockingbird. That’s what great art is supposed to do—make us reflect on our current social circumstances and motivate us to catalyze positive social change.
It is works like Lee’s that continuously remind me to keep humanity in mind as technology evolves at an ever-quickening pace. To be honest, it’s easy to get caught up in technological trends, especially when it comes to wanting to join the next wave in the technological revolution. However, we mustn’t forget the very essence of humanity—traits like empathy, compassion, and kindness—that the hard skills associated with learning technological-driven fields unfortunately cannot teach us. Fortunately, reading fiction keeps us in touch with these traits as we explore story-lines in the shoes of the characters.
That is why I encourage all of you to give To Kill a Mockingbird another read-through. On top of paying homage to the great author, it keeps us in touch with our humanity. And don’t stop with To Kill a Mockingbird either—pick up another classic (or any other fictional) novel like 1984, Lord of the Flies, The Catcher in the Rye…take your pick.You could even try Lee’s second published novel Go Set a Watchman, first published last year.
In the meantime, I’ll be re-reading Mockingbird. Though Lee is no longer physically present in our world, we are responsible for carrying forth the messages in her work—and others expressed by different authors in their unique creations—and ensuring that we implement them in our personal and professional lives.
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