Thursday 11 October 2018

To Kill a Mockingbird

        To Kill A Mockingbird - Audiobook


I read quite a lot of books mentioned or recommended by one of my Polish friends, Raf. I perhaps would have never read To Kill a Mockingbird if not for his passing comment that the book is remarkable. That and my guilty conscious (have I mentioned that I am a specialist in GUILT?) not having read such a famous book, featured for a long while on many short lists of must-reads. Now, I had a chance to redeem myself and I took it. I was a little surprised that my local library had a lot of school versions of the book but none in the form and length that was originally written. I got a copy from another library and having started to read I understood why my library has so many abridged versions but few originals. It is a book for school youth taught in many countries around the 8th grade. But it is also a book for adults. For good, decent grownups or for children who we want to be trained to be sensitive, good, caring, tolerant individuals later on. I like very much the sentiments masterfully conveyed in the book and at the same time think that they may be a little (or a lot) outmoded. It seems to me that the core values of current societies are so different to those promoted by the book that young people may laugh at them or at least doubt in them. I sincerely hope I am very wrong.
                                      Image result for to kill the mockingbird

Thinking more about the book I remembered the part when Dill Harris, the young friend of the main characters Scout and Jem, cries during the court case of a black person accused of rape of a white girl. Observing the proceeding Dill cannot cope with injustice he sees as he realises that the innocent person will be punished even if the accused is so obviously innocent. The boy cries because he realises the horror of people blindness caused by prejudice towards those who are different in some ways. Like having different skin colour. An older man says, Dill cries because he is still a very young and has not lost his innocence. This allows him to see how wrong and tragic is the situation of the accused. He has not been influenced by the society. He does not have any preconceived views on life yet. But while his innocence protects him from being like others, he is going to lose it and, in few years, he will not cry in similar situations and wrongs will not pain him in the same way. If I take this message as a lesson I see why the book may be embraced by young children, before they lose their ethical virginity.  This makes me retract my earlier doubts, at least to some extent.


Image result for to kill the mockingbird
The crying boy stands on the  right obviously in a different mood this time. Apparently the character of Dill was based on Truman Capote when he was a child. 
                                     

I am still afraid that in the current times with technology giving information to even very young they must see what happens around them and what values are important to be successful, popular, macho, admired, rich and famous… And they see that many countries in the world are currently ruled in populistic manner and that the need for truthfulness seems to be forgotten by many nations. People like Trump, Erdogan, Putin, the Polish leader and many others lie blatantly and too many people do not seem to have a need to stop and think if they are not pulled wool over their eyes. They vote for dishonest, racist, misogynistic politicians as long as they see some benefits for themselves in the election promises. It seems to be difficult to find an honest politician who really wants the best for their country. They seem to want the best for themselves. Australia was always, in my eyes, more upstanding in its politics, but this seems to belong to the past. The same seems to happen to the values of the citizens. Again, I hope I am wrong.

Looks that I have complicated the subjects again, but my mind meanders sometimes and finds new unexpected associations. Returning to the book I liked it for its language, humour, sentimentality and life lessons. I got reminded of some life rules that I may have not paid attention too lately. Like:

It is not necessary to tell all you know. Folks do not like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.”

OR

“One must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one cannot do anything about them.” This one will be always difficult for me to follow.

9 out of 10 for me.to be allowed to be killed.
I stay with the question : Are any Mockingbirds still around? I mean human ones who are too beautiful inside to be killed. I am sure they are even if not in politics.



6 comments:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_mockingbird

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, this is indeed the bird that it is a sin to kill. Its calling is absolutely beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Rummuser for a link.
    2 observations - first - the scientific name = polyglottos - polyglot - that obvious for a mocking creature.
    Second - call audio demonstration has Russian subtitles - 0:00 chick tweet, 0:15 - hello, I am mockingbird, 0:22 - how are you, 0:32 - tweet, tweet, 0:47 - they wrote a book about me.
    I knew that learning Russian in primary school will bring some fruits.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to see that you are still reading my posts even if we seem to appreciate different books. Not always, but I am reading The Noise of Time and so far I like it. Read your review in Good Reads so maybe we will have a nice disagreement discussion one day. I am looking forward to it.

      Delete
    2. The Noise of Time - Russian climate again - looks like we agree in this point.
      As for my Goodreads entries - they are not really reviews. I do not see a point in writing review of a book, that has been already reviewed by hundreds of people. So I rather write comments on some aspects of a book, which I found interesting, agreeable or, more often, not agreeable.

      Delete
    3. I am a bit confused here. You did not like the book, I believe, and I do. I am a bit surprised that I like it as it is not my cup of tea. Looks like I change my tastes.
      I have the third part to read and then I will write my views.
      It is interesting with the Russian commentary on the mockingbird. I also noticed it but did not understand that much as you did.
      By the way, is your family going to be home for Christmas? I am planning few days in Melbourne at this time. Maybe we could all catch up?

      Delete