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?
bump for later
That's one reason "why" it is required reading(by liberal edicators) in all areas of the country.
They've been trying to remove 'Huck Finn' for years.
I think that Southerners as a class are
quite capable of recognizing the foibles
of their own society and accepting both the
sinner and the redemption
That's when it was proved that the individual was made for self-gratification and group think was transferred to the government and its minions.
All that's left of social symbiosis are the selfish parasites onboard the struggling host.
I've never read it.
This is the sort of tripe which falls into the category of reading for social indoctrination. Forget the fabulous literary pantheon of the west, and truly honing critical reasoning skills because of an introduction to grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Today's indoctrinators want to mold young skulls of mush with the same shopworn literary drivel they've been promoting for years: Of Mice and Men; Fahrenheit 451; To Kill a Mockingbird. Not that the books in and of themselves are bad, just that they bespeak a larger agenda, and are offered at the expense of a survey of literature which might actually serve to hone the reasoning skills of the students, instead of spoon feeding them social think. V's wife.
Stretch here... The Old Geezer.
By "Churchill Buff", I hope you mean "Winston"
Yep.... Many of southerners read the book, and saw the movie many times.... Have it on tape and now on CD... A great movie. gentleman's Agreement" is another. I remember "Jews not allowed here" posted just as "Blacks not allowed inside". I remember also, Lester Maddox and his baseball bats, and because of that I would not go to his restaurant, "The Pickrick" because of his stance of segregation which was prevalent in those days.
HOWEVER, tHERE IS A NEW SOUTH NOW... A CONSERVATIVE SOUTH.
TRULY "GOD'S COUNTRY"
Is that the one where they have to take down the Confederate flags and remove statues of Confederate generals?
It's a great movie with real heroes that genuinely makes you cry. It's not perfect, but it should not be judged harshly on the basis of the ridiculously PC world we now live in.
It slams the good ole (white) boy thinking and discrimination that was very real at the time.
It's anti racist... Shouldn't racism be slammed?
YEs, racism is bad. What I'm wondering about, though, is that the movie makes all white Southerners (except the Peck character and his immediate circle) look like racists.
You're the last PC-free fellow on earth, it sounds like.
Why do you want to say "(except the Peck character and his immediate circle)" as if they don't count? Racism WAS rampant, most whites were either racist or silent, and it took people standing up to say it was wrong.
The movie had no good guys except the hero? Well duh! The hero needs the bad guys to be called the hero.
What do you want? a movie set in the old south where all the white men were fair, and the black man would have been assumed to have a fair trial? That wouldn't be a credible and believable story.
READ THE BOOK! READ THE BOOK! READ THE BOOK! SKIP THE MOVIE!
No, that would be a stereotype too. 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'm just wondering how Southerners respond to the movie and book. That's the question in my post.
I disagree. It is anti-racism, not anti-South. I agree, it may be somewhat simplistic in its gentle, noble view of the black community. However, it does focus on a very real problem of the era, and the courage it often takes to stand up for what you believe is right.
And it's one of my all-time favorite movies.
I think you should read "A Cry of Absense" by Madison Jones. A more realistic portrayal of race relations in the mid-1960s. NOBODY emerges unscathed.
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.
It took good people to change minds, and the move shows a couple of them. Don't try to set it in modern times as if it is an afront to YOU, it wouldn't be legitimate in these times. But it was legitimate in the setting of those very racist times. Don't white-wash it as if it didn't happen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.