To Kill a Mockingbird has once again been banned, probably by yet another myopic school board with little-to-no understanding of its cultural value. For those of you, like myself, that were not assigned To Kill a Mockingbird somewhere back in high school, the primary plot is one of institutionalized racism in a small town. It is told from the perspective of Scout and Jem, daughter and son of Atticus, a lawyer defending a black man in court against the accusations of a white man and his daughter.
As it progresses, the overarching plot of To Kill a Mockingbird is revealed organically, with the upcoming trial initially playing second fiddle to childhood adventures. The beginning of the story is filled with somewhat pointless childhood memories, but as time passes, the children learn more about the trial, despite the efforts of their father to shield them from it. By the end, the trial itself comes to dominate their lives as it dominates the story. As far as storytelling goes, the plot is elegantly written, while dangerously toeing the line on revealing too little too late.
The value in the story is fairly obvious, as it perfectly encapsulates the dangerous mindset of racist people that would otherwise be good people outside of a mob. Without being too blunt, the heavy material is presented in a way that is easy to process, alongside a faithful depiction of society from a specific, and often unseemly, time period. Not content to present a single social issue, the story is crammed with additional difficult topics, including sexual assault, racism, classism, sexism, courage, the struggles of single parenthood, and the loss of innocence, among others.
It also makes frequent use of the word “nigger”, which is why it gets banned.
To summarize my feelings on the matter, if you’re more upset about offensive but time-period appropriate language, and not the fact that a ruthlessly abusive father escapes the law by simply being white, then your sensibilities are all kinds of fucked up.
Praise aside, I do have some complaints.
I dislike how the children are always right, never mean harm, and are presented as nigh faultless angels. I’m not even a parent, and I can tell you that children are little devils more often than they’re saints. Even the most well-behaved child is a natural-born liar and a thief, long before they learn to condemn those activities. The notion that any child could be somehow exempt from such behaviour is beyond wishful. The children are also excessively intelligent and articulate for their ages, which grows tiring (seriously, Scout is six years old). In addition, some of the scenes feel wholly unnecessary, although that is possibly personal preference.
As a parting analysis, To Kill a Mockingbird is well-deserving of its accolades, and rightly should be assigned reading. To ban it is not only ridiculous, it’s an attack against good morality.
The audiobook performance by Sissy Spacek is perfect excellence, especially because of her beautiful accent (which may not be regionally accurate, but it’s good enough to fool this Canadian).
