The Bigger Picture

It has really surprised me that To Kill a Mockingbird has brought up far more controversy it seems, than other books we’ve read. But even though it is apparent that there is quite a bit of racism in the novel, I think it is still seen as a “bad” thing in the end and that’s what lets the book stand out as a positive read. Atticus is fighting for a proper cause, maybe going against the majority, but still pointing out to us the horrors of the time. There are many things in our history that we may not be proud of and that are sensitive subjects especially having to deal with any kind of racism. However, though these pains are deep we must not try to hide from the past. These are important opportunities for learning. As I said in class, if the reception of a text/play/ or whatever is under question than is the duty of those performing/selecting the work to make sure communication portals are opened between the audience and the piece. If it’s a play let’s have an introduction and discussion afterwards. In the classroom let’s make sure everyone’s comfort levels are taken into consideration as well by creating smaller more personal discussion groups.
But some have mentioned that TKAM is not anti-racist enough. The thing I take issue with here is that if we view this novel as a mirror into the historical time of the book, these were the circumstances and racism happened. We should be communicating with the past through reading this novel and looking on the mistaken behaviors of the time and the demons of our past to better understand how these circumstances came to be and how we can avoid them in the future. I would furthermore say that TKAM may not necessarily be focused on handling the race issue of the time. Maybe it’s about Scout’s journey into maturing as a young girl in light of the horrible things going on around her. We tend to let the race issue take all of our attention, though it deserves plenty, and miss the other critical sides of this story as well.