To Kill a Mockingbird

[jack]

This is an interesting one. It seems like everyone was forced to read it at school, and is mostly still annoyed about that, but about half of people think it's great, and half don't like it at all. (Or maybe no-one likes it but me and the education system, I forget.)

I just reread it. I noticed that when I last read it, my impression from reading it at school lingered, which is seeing everything from Scout's point of view. But now, I see everything from all the adults' point of view instead, which gives a fascinating binocular vision on all the events. I remember Scouts painful first lesson at school, but now I sympathise with the poor, young teacher which I never thought to do at the time; and see a lot of the narrative with the Radley house imagining what young Radley would have thought of it

In retrospect, the English lessons about it were reasonably good, I was just at a stage of objecting to analysing books on principle because all analysis seemed either obvious, or nonsense. A few small questions raised in class however still linger in my mind:

* Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow. I was told that was a metaphor, but obstinately refused to listen. What do you think? If so, which metaphor?
* A very unsavoury question. Mayella Ewell says she's never kissed a man. "What my pa does doesn't count." Is that referring to family affection or sexual abuse? It doesn't make any difference to the narrative, since she's awfully physically abused anyway. I thought the innocent reading made more sense, but the fact that line was there inclined the other one.
* Atticus reports Tom Robinson cutting and running from the jail he was sent to. "Seems to me he was tired of taking white men's chances." Is that true, or a mildly comforting lie to Scout on account of him being murdered by the guards and a story spun. (As always, when I first read it, I took the literal/simple reading.)

Comments

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

I never read it at school. We read a book called "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" instead, which I've never heard of since, and which no one else seems to have heard of either. It feels a little bit like someone thought "Hmm, if I write a novel about race relations in the South in roughly the same era as TKaM, maybe I'll get on the GCSE syllabus too."

I read TKaM about five years ago and liked it. I should probably read it again, because I don't remember it that well, as is often the case with things I've only read once.

Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow. I was told that was a metaphor, but obstinately refused to listen. What do you think? If so, which metaphor?
I don't remember that incident in the book. From what you describe, it seems to be fairly clearly saying something about race, but I don't know exactly what. Context might help.
There are racist insults like "coconut" and "Oreo", meaning a black person "acting white", i.e. they look black but are white on the inside. So the snowman could represent someone with white skin who "acts black" or feels empathy with black people. Maybe Atticus? I don't remember enough to say.

[ravingglory.livejournal.com]

I read "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry". I don't think it was for school though. I think my mom just read it to me. I was around ten at the time. It made fairly big impression on me though. (Of course I also grew up in the states)

Now that I think about it it's kinda a "lets shock the kids so the understand that racism was bad" book. But hey it worked on me.

Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I can't remember much more about the snowman. Basically, they make it. At first it's a caricature of Mr Avery, and then Atticus asks them to change it, and Jem borrows Miss Maudie's sheers and hat for it. And then it melts :)

Insults, yeah. I think my favourite was "banana", "yellow on the outside, white on the inside, and bent". I can't remember quite what was suggested at the time, but it could be:

* A white person with a core sympathetic to the black community, eg. Atticus
* A white person who preferred "acted black" except for being rich, ie. Mr. Dolphus Raymond
* A black person with a veneer of "acting white", eg. Calpurnia
* A black person forced to accept the white community's standards, eg. Tom Robinson
* A superficially respectable community, but with racism under the surface.

The juxtaposition of those disturb me, but a case could be made for all. But that could either mean it's an interesting metaphor, or I'm reading too much into it.

Re: Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I looked it up on google. The top ten hits all agree that it is important symbolism, although all ascribe a different combinations of meanings to it. Ones I missed: that skin colour is superficial; that hiding your skin colour can't work (since the detail of the the mud showing through); the future coming together of black and white people.

Re: Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow

[andrewducker]

I'd say it was "We need the black people to make things actually work, but then we put a thin veneer of white folks over the top, to make it fit our prejudices and expectations."

Re: Jem and Scout make a snowman out of mud and a thin coating of snow

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that one :)

[simont]

"Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" [...] which no one else seems to have heard of either

<raises hand>

Not, I confess, that I can remember anything at all about it; but then that hardly sets it above most other stuff I read in school English lessons. The only texts I can remember anything more than the title of were Lord of the Flies and a couple of the usual-suspect Shakespeare plays, and in the latter case that's probably only because you hear of the same plays everywhere else and absorb the plots by osmosis. (Though LotF I did genuinely like and have since gone out and bought a copy to re-read for pleasure, which I think makes it actually unique among things I encountered in English lessons.)