Do they read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in Southern schools? It seems anti-South to me

imdb ^ | Feb 05 | Churchillbuff/Harper Lee

[churchillbuff]

Pardon the vanity, but since there seem to be a lot of Freepers who are southerners, I thought I could solicit their perspective/experience. The family and I rented "To Kill a Mockingbird" last night. First time I'd watched it in years. A moving film, I grant you. Peck is inspiring. But let's face it, the whites (and blacks) are stereotyped. There are few whites (Atticus Finch and family, the judge, maybe the sheriff) who are anything but vile. For all the "sentimental" remembrances of her childhood by ex-Southerner Harper Lee, in fact this story is a slam on the South. So I ask: Is it read in Southern schools? If so, what do the kids take away from it: a sense of shame about their region?

[groanup]

I read it when I was a kid. Also saw the movie when it first came out. I thought it was great.

I found an old copy about a year ago and got about half way through it. It was boring so I picked up a John Grisham.

[PAR35]

Lester Maddox and his baseball bats,

More liberal disinformation. Lester didn't use baseball bats. He used pick handles.

[PAR35]

I didn't read it in school, but I did get around to reading it about 10 years ago. I didn't consider it anti - South. Anyone who grew up in the pre-1960s South should recognize that the themes of the book were not unrealistic.

[Darkwolf377]

" But the movie, instead of showing a realistic mix of human types, made all whites look evil, except for Peck and about three others."

I don't understand how this means it's a racist movie; there are only so many characters in any movie. Wouldn't it be anti-south to assume ALL other characters in the south are racist from this? I mean, Peck and three others with a speaking cast of how many? Seeing how Peck and his kids are three of the main characters, how is this racist? Should he pass people in the street and mention "And he's not racist, either, Scout"?

It's a story about racism, so having a non-racist hero and important supporting characters who aren't racist seems to be a pretty good balance.

[Darkwolf377]

"You seem to want to ignore the very real sins of our past. Not just the south's past, though they fought for it longer, but America's past."

Good point. Though it doesn't address racism, The Scarlet Letter, for one example, shows its region in a far from flattering light.

[ohCompGk]

My question is why would you assume it was a slam only to the south?

I bet you didn't know that in it's heyday (1920's) the KKK's largest membership state was Ohio. Did you know that the majority of blacks that migrated north after the Civil War did so because of economic reasons rather than social?

Because some percentage of the north didn't believe in slavery doesn't mean those same people believed in equality.

My grandpa was a Brethren in Amish country Indiana and used the "N word" to describe blacks (not disparagingly, just matter-of-factly) and had a copy of 'Little Black Sambo' for all the grandchildren to read. I have no doubt he would have chosen to defend the accused man like... what was the character's name?... did and would have encountered the same treatment for doing so.

The fact is that 'To Kill a Mockingbird' could have been set in almost any small town in America at the time, not just in the south.

[ventana]

Oh well, we could also move on and discuss how accurate Inherit the Wind was too! One southern writer who doesnt' play favorites is Flannery O'Connor. Talk about a true minority. A female Catholic in the deep south! :) V's wife.

[annyokie]

My 15 YO read it this year in English class. The book is more nuanced than the film.

[annyokie]

It is an excellent book and a very good movie. I bought it on VHS a long time ago and all of my children have watched it.

The story is about intolerance, not necessarily racism. Boo Radley is the lesson, not the rape trial. Bob Eueal is the villian, killed by the previously scary Boo Radley who has made many generous gestures to the Finch children and, indeed, saves their lives.

A fantastic read.

[freedumb2003]

is that the movie makes all white Southerners (except the Peck character and his immediate circle) look like racists.

But Finch is the point. This speaks to an era more than an area. The fact that Finch sees what is to be done, sees and fights the clear injustice, and stands up for what is clearly right, is what it is all about.

TKAM's main theme is that evil thrives when good men do nothing.

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm fuzzy on it.... I should see it again.

[Phsstpok]

To Kill A Mockingbird is an accurate portrayal of Southern life, according to my father, who grew up in central Mississippi.

He always said that Aticus Finch reminded him of his own father and how he acted while Sheriff of their county. My grandfather only served one term because he was a soft touch and was losing his shirt by helping out folks, whites, blacks and indians, who were down on their luck (it was the Depression) and because he had no patience with the Klan.

I now live in Memphis, but I grew up in New York and have lived in or visited almost all of the states. The most bigoted location I've ever lived in was Boston in the early 70s. The racial hatred and violence in the Southie section of that city during the busing years was incredible. What was more incredible was that those same folks would see To Kill A Mockingbird and condemn "those Southerners" and claim that they were for civil rights, just not in their schools or their neighborhoods.

[churchillbuff]

This speaks to an era more than an area."""

I tend to think it feeds liberal anti-America stereotypes that say America's past is all about hate and racism. This is why liberal teachers like the book so much.

[firebrand]

Right! There are nuances in the book that I'm sure must be missing in the movie. There are gradations among the characters, as I'm sure there must have been in real life.

By the way, isn't the boy who visits during the summer supposed to be Truman Capote? The early part of the book was the most fascinating to me--more about life in the South, before the plot got all diagrammatic and melodramatic.

[annyokie]

You should, indeed. I loved it the first time I say it and I was only 13. The child actors are gems, as is Gregory Peck.

It is well done and as faithful to the novel as can be. It is Harper Lee's only published novel for which she won a Pulitzer Prize.

I guess it's a "southron" gal thing. She and Margaret Mitchell who wrote "Gone With the Wind" only wrote one book each but really packed a punch.

(Flannery O'Connor fans, don't pile on, please. I love her, too.)

[annyokie]

Atticus Finch knows he is going to lose but takes it on the shoulder and does what he knows is the right thing.

The most moving scene, to my mind of the movie version, is when Gregory Peck is sitting on the porch in his rocker and his young daughter asks him "Atticus, do you defend niggers?"

He takes off his eye-glasses and rubs his eyes and tells her, "Scout, don't say Nigger. It's common."

You have to be southern to know that being called common is worse than any other name calling.

[annyokie]

It has nothing to do with agenda. It is a lyrical, beautifully written novel that tackles tough subjects.

[freedumb2003]

You have to be southern to know that being called common is worse than any other name calling

I didn't know that, being a Yankee and all (well, Californian, whatever that makes me).

Agreed, that is a GREAT line!

[SouthernFreebird]

I've never read it.
The South has had her warts, we can accept that and yet still have the love of Dixie. I feel no shame for our growing pains.

[annyokie]

I was born and raised in California, but my folks are Southerners. Getting called common was the worst thing you could ever hear from a parent or any other authority figure.