Book Review: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A story about America’s deadliest sin
I read this years ago when I was in high school and was not old enough to understand the big themes. At the time what I liked about it was the story and the writing style. Someone had given me the book and I never gave it back, and I would often open the book at random and read a paragraph or a chapter. I just really liked the writing style, I guess.
Theme
Reading it again now as an adult, I do appreciate the story and writing style, but what I really notice now is the themes. The main one is prejudice. The story is about racism, but it’s really about prejudice, all kinds of prejudice, not just what you feel for a man of a different race. It’s prejudice against someone from a different family from yours, prejudice against someone from a different social class from yours, prejudice against someone with a different set of values from yours, prejudice against someone with different habits from yours … And the beautiful thing is how Harper Lee manages to knit all these strands together in one story.
The book has levels. Level one is the book as a story about children growing up. This was the level I comprehended when I read this as a teenager. Now as an adult, knowledgeable in the ways of the world, I have since learnt about prejudice and racism and so I now know know this is a story that tries to explain people and why they do the things they do: the question it concerns itself in particular is “why are people so darn prejudiced?”
The white people were prejudiced against the black people. The more well-to-do white people were prejudiced against the impoverished white people. Aunt Alexandra was prejudiced against people on the basis of what families they came from. And most people in town were prejudiced against Boo Radley on the basis of the rumours about him. But in the end, it was that Boo Radley who saves the two children, Boo who they have all along thought is some kind of hideous monster because of the stories they have been fed.
Plot
The novel contains two concurrent stories. The first one is the story of Boo Radley, the recluse. The second one is the story of Tom Robinson, the black man who was falsely accused of rape. The way the two stories end up connecting is ingenious.
Atticus and Lincoln
By the way, I’d just like to say that Atticus Finch reminds me of Abraham Lincoln. About six years ago I went through a phase where I was obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and read everything I could find on him, so I have a pretty solid idea in my head of what kind of man Abraham Lincoln was, and Atticus Finch reminds me of him. I wonder if Harper Lee was thinking about him when she created that character, considering that Lincoln is the president who ended slavery in the US, first by plunging the country into civil war on account of the slavery question; secondly, with the Emancipation Proclamation; and thirdly, with the 13th Amendment (I’m showing off). Atticus is an upright, reasonable, logical, easy-going father figure with a sense of humour and who stands for his ideals, a peace-loving man, but not a coward, he is ready to fight for his principles and more than capable of winning when it comes to a fight — and that’s also who Abraham Lincoln was.
America
It’s a very American book. As American as Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, a book it shares a kinship with when it comes to setting, theme, and the language spoken by its characters. The book takes you to America in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, in a sleepy, little Alabama town. As I was reading, I kept wondering if there is a distinct Kenyan quality that one could identify immediately if they read a Kenyan book. Of course there is, but the thing about such a quality is that it’s kind of ineffable. Sure you could say that the Americanness is a product of the setting, language, themes, and so forth, but how these elements meld together and birth a feeling of pure Americanness is a magic process and not a lot of books do that, and a lot of those that do don’t do it intentionally.
Each country has its chief deadly sin, and for America that would be racism. Makes me wonder what Kenya’s is — tribalism is not good enough, considering it is politically manipulated antagonism, which is nothing like the deep hatred you see in To Kill a Mockingbird. That country will never heal its soul until it settles the racism question. But what is Kenya’s deadliest sin — is it corruption? I believe it is, greed, ours is a man-eat-man society, and our government is the biggest predator in this jungle. Anytime a book from another country has you reflecting on your own country or environment, that’s generally a sign that the book is a good one.
