Let me ask the politically incorrect questions, since no one else has.
Tom Send a noteboard - 24/05/2011 03:14:50 AM
To Kill a Mockingbird deals with racism, yet one has to ask the question: does it not engage in its own form of racism?
Take a look at the white characters in the book. If one sets aside Boo Radley and Atticus Finch, we are left with children and a host of characters with venial and not so venial sins. People can't act as their conscience dictates, or they are bigots, or they are just downright bad.
Now look at the black characters. They are shown to be uniformly respectful, good-natured and innocent. The oppression that they faced may have played a role in making Southern black society more polite, but I suspect that Lee is also unwittingly falling into the "noble savage" motif. The blacks in the book are victims, but they are also stereotyped and consciously set aside as being different.
While Lee may have also written the characters this way to make a point, the end result is that the book's statement against racism is weakened for it. It would have been a far more powerful book if Atticus had defended a guilty black man at some point as well, and had to explain to Scout that people of any color can be good or bad.
Take a look at the white characters in the book. If one sets aside Boo Radley and Atticus Finch, we are left with children and a host of characters with venial and not so venial sins. People can't act as their conscience dictates, or they are bigots, or they are just downright bad.
Now look at the black characters. They are shown to be uniformly respectful, good-natured and innocent. The oppression that they faced may have played a role in making Southern black society more polite, but I suspect that Lee is also unwittingly falling into the "noble savage" motif. The blacks in the book are victims, but they are also stereotyped and consciously set aside as being different.
While Lee may have also written the characters this way to make a point, the end result is that the book's statement against racism is weakened for it. It would have been a far more powerful book if Atticus had defended a guilty black man at some point as well, and had to explain to Scout that people of any color can be good or bad.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
To Kill a Mockingbird by Nelle Harper Lee
22/05/2011 06:28:11 PM
- 8455 Views
I reviewed it last year
22/05/2011 07:45:48 PM
- 2070 Views
Huh. I seem to have missed that.
22/05/2011 11:17:11 PM
- 1975 Views
As you noted, though, it's a fuller depiction of the South than "racist people."
23/05/2011 12:00:01 AM
- 1957 Views
It's a beautiful, incredible book.
22/05/2011 08:21:48 PM
- 1895 Views
Also
22/05/2011 11:33:27 PM
- 1847 Views
Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
23/05/2011 09:55:52 PM
- 1936 Views
Re: Don't you think that, you know, too many people have read it already?
24/05/2011 12:05:11 AM
- 2013 Views
Does that disqualify it?
24/05/2011 01:49:54 PM
- 1868 Views
I don't know, if a lot of people want to have this book in a Book Club, I have no objections.
24/05/2011 07:01:38 PM
- 1901 Views
Bah. This seems like a lame book. It will never catch on.
23/05/2011 01:31:10 AM
- 2020 Views
Um, there's already a rfilm version of this.
23/05/2011 01:11:36 PM
- 1759 Views
Suspect he knows that.
*NM*
23/05/2011 01:15:46 PM
- 997 Views

Boy, that sarcastic subtext can be so hard to grasp in this virtual madness. *NM*
25/05/2011 06:49:03 AM
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I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like this book. *NM*
23/05/2011 09:37:52 AM
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I've met some, but it was a casualty of middle school English. *NM*
23/05/2011 07:40:27 PM
- 910 Views
One of my nieces didn't like it. I think it was because she was forced to read it for school.
24/05/2011 02:33:23 AM
- 2088 Views
Re: One of my nieces didn't like it. I think it was because she was forced to read it for school.
24/05/2011 10:15:45 AM
- 2044 Views
Let me ask the politically incorrect questions, since no one else has.
24/05/2011 03:14:50 AM
- 2088 Views
I don't understand why having a guilty black man would have made it more powerful.
24/05/2011 05:59:17 AM
- 2041 Views
Hmm
24/05/2011 10:22:50 AM
- 1984 Views
I could see your argument if Tolkien were writing about feminism.
24/05/2011 02:15:42 PM
- 2002 Views
I think that's a fair point.
24/05/2011 07:00:04 PM
- 1998 Views
Calpurnia is a stereotype too.
24/05/2011 11:54:26 PM
- 1901 Views
The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
25/05/2011 08:09:58 PM
- 1865 Views
Re: The difference, at least in my recollection, is that Calpurnia is well-educated.
25/05/2011 10:59:26 PM
- 1961 Views
I think there was at least once incident showing a racist black person
24/05/2011 07:33:09 PM
- 2140 Views
I think it was written to accomplish a goal and it did that very well
25/05/2011 04:08:17 PM
- 1903 Views
Given your introductory portion
11/06/2011 01:28:40 AM
- 1912 Views
I have read both
11/06/2011 11:35:11 AM
- 1747 Views
All of Twain's stuff is great
13/06/2011 02:27:55 AM
- 1965 Views
Re: All of Twain's stuff is great
13/06/2011 08:17:05 AM
- 1866 Views
And some poets - Tennyson and Yeats come to mind. *NM*
13/06/2011 10:11:31 AM
- 889 Views