Posted on 02/26/2005 8:52:48 AM PST by 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?
Literary ping
Thanks for the ping. I loved the indictment of "progressive" education in TKaM. And the church ladies reminded me of my mother and the Officers' Wives Club :-). Not their racial attitudes, but their general interaction.
You know it. I went to school with children like Walter Cunningham. Not a pot to pee in or a window to through it out of, but proud as peacocks and resourceful little suckers.
I love the ladies and their tea party. I was a tomboy and remember having to keep my ankles crossed, saying "Ma'am" and serving cakes to the "ladies."
I used to do the dishes after the OWC luncheons, and drink everything left in the glasses :-).
You bad! ; )
I've never read it. I went to public schools in Jackson, MS post-segregation.
Naw, we can't read a lick.
It mirrored the times.
Harper Lee is Southern
In fact, she was a playmate of Truman Capote's.
I have just pinged 3 Mississippi schooled Southern gents.
No we shoot him with our sling shots and BB guns
Robert Duvall played Boo.
It was his first role.
I've read the book and seen the movie. I've never thought of either as anti-south, but somewhat indicative of the way things were then. The story could have been set in lots of different places with different players. Harper Lee grew up in the south, and that's what she wrote about.
Well it wasn't all peaches and cream either. To ignore past racism is as wrong as to focus only on racism.
Most people like their history nice and simple. History is messy. There are certain parts that people would prefer to see shoved in a closet because they feel ashamed. That is the wrong way to look at it.
Others think that because the something was not always perfect that it should be scorned. That is also the wrong way to look at it. You have no reason to feel ashamed because you were not there. It has nothing to do with you. And nothing is perfect. We can only try to do the best we can and try to improve. If we do that then there is no reason to scorn.
I read it for school, and I attended (gasp!) a mostly-white prep. school in Jackson, MS. Incidentally, my high school did not exist prior to the advent of forced desegregation and busing.
I knew you were a preppie all along.
I should have added...I don't remember anyone ever remarking that TKaM was "anti-South," nor do I remember anyone disliking the movie or the book. I myself enjoyed both.
I confess. It's true.
So of course if they love TKAM, it is because they can manipulate it into an exclamation point to their "religiously" held beliefs about race and the South. They see themselves today in their support of gay marriage as none other than Atticus Finch on steroids. It's sickening but true. They are uninterested in anything that gives three dimensions and flesh and blood to their pet stereotypes.
Indeed....we are "tolerated".
I like the movie fine.
I can also see why liberals like it.
I went to the same school as Bourbon when it was founded and I am not a Preppie. Bourbon is 2nd generation post busing. They did this in Jackson...the first metro area btw at Christmas break in 69. SCOTUS pushed it and gave them 2 weeks to submit literally. Oddly unlike Boston some years later, there was no violence even though the Jackson State riots took place only about a mile from my newly foricbly integrated Jr High.
It should be noted that prior to the busing, it was school choice. We had a number of blacks already. Whites could attend black schools too.
Today, the schools are a zoo...complete and utter decay. I have cousins who have tried to teach there, it's simply too dangerous and pandemonium.
Forced Busing in Jackson Mississippi killed the public school system....a hard death too I might add.
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