Though it’s not a current topic for the book club, I thought this might be worth the discussion.
Yeah, it’s still a good book. The movie’s just as good, which is quite an accomplishment in itself.
As to Finch’s manliness, this movie isn’t “The Sands of Iwo Jima”, nor was it meant to be. Atticus doesn’t have to be John Wayne to deal with conflict. To try to contend otherwise is to rather miss the point of the entire work. Dealing publicly in the field of literature, the author of the article should be expected to be a bit more perceptive.
So be it. Not everyone sees literary works in the same way, and neither does everyone appreciate a classic to the same depth as others. Apparently, this is one of those cases. In the end, the critique raises more questions about the motivations (and literary abilities) of the critic. Personally, it takes nothing away from the book IMHO.
Robert Duval
I agree with Habibi that it’s a wonderful book, and that the movie is also worthwhile. Even though Gregory Peck was a notorious leftist, he was a brilliant actor, and he brought the character Atticus Finch to life in his performance in the film. The notion that Atticus Finch was a ‘feminized male’ is just a lot of neurotic modern sophistry. In my view both the book and the film stand as significant works of art. By all means, enjoy them. You’ll be richer for the time spent.
Ya can’t go around defending those negroes-it makes you a girly man. /s
That Huffington Post writer has just demonstrated ignorance of the South and the southern upper classes.
To explain, the southern upper classes dominated their culture not by money alone, but by strength of character, coupled with a strong sense of diplomacy, interdependence and order. Their households were strictly patriarchal or matriarchal, and they did not respect or tolerate bad behavior.
Both Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and Mark Twain described this strength of character, as well as the culture and language unique to the region, though Twain is the far more accessible to the modern reader. (Rawlings works are linguistic masterpieces, however, and are an essential study for anyone who hopes to understand southern culture.)
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is a scene which dominates the book, in which an upper class gentleman, Colonel Sherburn, kills an offensive and belligerent drunk, then singly faces down a lynch mob while armed with a rifle. He then derisively sneers about the ‘essential cowardice of “Southern justice” ‘ as the mob slinks away.
Harper Lee would have been very aware of such characters when writing TKAM. As such, the polite and sometimes not-so-polite disdain that Atticus Finch holds for the lower classes is obvious. He will not stand for their antics. This also gives him considerable moral authority as a defense attorney—nobody in authority is going to mess with him. Another good reason to point out that he is a deadly shot.
Those unfamiliar with the distinct class differences of the South do not grasp the cultural chasm that exists between the classes, even today, so apply their caricatures of southerners far too broadly.
A real Atticus Finch would be a person of respect, and though it is unlikely that he would gun you down under most circumstances, if you made yourself a fool in front of him, you would be well advised to get out of town.
And as far as feminization goes, if you improperly make a fool of yourself in front of an upper class southern woman, this could be considerably worse, and you just might end up being escorted out of town.
Please, Newsbusted is a horrible environment to try to read an article. Let’s read it here. Not on excerpt list.
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Did you ever consider the lead character in Harper Lee’s fabulous “To Kill A Mockingbird” to be a feminized male not in any traditional sense manly?
Atticus Finch, one of the greatest male figures in modern American literature?
Well, that’s what Jesse Kornbluth wrote at Huffington Post on the 50th anniversary of this fabulous book being published.
For those that are fans of this novel like so many Americans, the following quotes from this astonishingly silly piece [1] are guaranteed to offend:
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is a woman’s book.
Written by a woman, Harper Lee, but more, written by a woman who dared to see herself as her region’s Jane Austen. Told by a six-year-old girl. With a hero who’s not, in any traditional sense, manly.
Not in a traditional sense manly?
According to the town sheriff, he’s the best marksman in the county. This is said after this “feminized man” protects his family by shooting a mad dog approaching their home.
In another pivotal scene, this “feminized man” stands face to face with the drunken antagonist that’s just verbally assaulted him. When he gets back in his car, he comforts his scared son by saying that he shouldn’t worry — the guy’s all bluff.
Maybe most importantly, despite the likelihood that he and his family would be publicly condemned for his decision to defend a black man accused of rape, this “feminized man” takes the case.
When questioned by his daughter about his decision to do so, this “feminized man” tells her that if he didn’t, not only couldn’t he hold is head up in town, but he could never tell her or her brother what to do in the future.
Yet, according to Kornbluth, these are all feminine qualities:
And one more female value, once common in the heroes of Western movies, but less and less common by the time Harper Lee wrote her novel -— a willingness to do the right thing, regardless of the consequences. Readers often forget, but this is the foundation of the character of Atticus Finch: He takes on the legal defense of an African-American, knowing he can’t prevail in court. [...]
I’m not one for stereotyping, but how many men do you know who step up to confront unpleasantness and conflict?
Actually, most of the men I respect. If stepping up to confront unpleasantness and conflict is a female trait, then America was built by a lot of “feminized men”:
Atticus Finch is -— let’s just say it -— a feminized man who appeared a decade before America started hearing about feminism.
Nonsense. Atticus Finch is a paragon of strength and virtue that many American men have looked up to for 50 years...including me!
Readers are advised that it has been forty years since I read this book, and I am at this time much more familiar with the fabulous film which I believe to be one of the finest movies ever made. With this in mind, if I have depicted scenes here that were in the film and not the novel, please accept my apology.
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The book beat the movie.
looking at the movie now I see if as propaganda though I know for many here it’s akin to the Bible...maybe even more important for some
so be it
the charictature of the racists and the techniques in filming seem to me now as an adult of 53 years who was raised as aboy in that precise time in that precise locale..almost.. to be hamfisted messaging...not quite Mississippi Burning or Grisham to film but a prelude to that
I’m done with all that...it has lead to worse shite than it griped about then
BTW, If this is the worst case of media bias during the week, it was a very good week ...
... or a very slow and uneventful one.