Every time I pick up a book, I look for the blurbs, the reviews at the back of the book, and when I picked up this book, I remember reading something like—“Kill all the bluejays you can if you can shoot them but remember it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird”.(Would like to apologise for any deviation from the original as I am almost writing out of what I had committed to memory long ago.) The profoundness of the words just overwhelmed me and I straightaway bought it. Till date, it remains the best piece of fiction I have ever read in my life. So what is about this book which sets it apart from the rest? What I believe is its memorable characters: the Finch family – Scout, Jem and Atticus, who has become a folk hero in legal circles.
It was altogether a different story when I started the book; the first few pages were all about the escapades of three young children in Maycomb County – a fictional small laidback town in Alabama. After reading a page or two, I had this feeling that it was a wrong judgement to take up this book as I had outgrown reading the adventures of pre-adolescent kids. But I still persisted and slowly started liking it, especially Scout – a fearless, spirited, assertive girl.
The story unfolds through the eyes of Scout Finch, a six-year-old girl who lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. The first half of the story is all about the escapades of Jem and Scout and their neighbour – a boy named Dill – and their fascination with their neighbor, the mysterious ‘Boo’ Radley, whom nobody in the county has seen for many years but about whom everyone has a story to tell.
Then a scandalous incident occurs which shocks the whole county –Tom Robinson, a black man, a ‘nigger’, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman. To the disappointment and chagrin of Maycomb’s citizens, Atticus agrees to defend Tom.
Despite substantial evidence of Tom’s innocence, he is pronounced guilty. Tom is shot and killed while trying to flee from the prison. In the end Bob Ewell, Mayella Ewell’s father, who feels humiliated by the trial, attacks Jem and Scout, and is accidentally killed. The Sheriff reasons with Atticus of holding Jem or Scout responsible. Finally, everyone accepts the theory that Bob fell on his knife and got killed.
I must confess that at the point in the story when Tom is killed, I lost interest and was forced to question author’s judgement. If it is a story of an underdog winning against all odds, then why his character was killed? But in the end when Atticus accepts Sheriff’s theory that Bob Ewell got killed because of accidentally falling on his knife, did I get the symbolism – Tom Robinson is the mocking bird and Bob Ewell the bluejay – and the words resonnated “Kill all the bluejays you can if you can shoot them but remember it’s a sin to kill a mocking bird”.
Once I was discussing this book with one of my friends whom I had recommended this book, and the discussion veneered to Atticus – whether there are people like him left in this world, who would stand for their beliefs, no matter what. Perhaps there are not! As we grow up, we ourselves witness the degradation of our beliefs, our value systems – what seemed utterly wrong in our idealistic adolescent teenage years is perfectly acceptable now. In nutshell, your values go down the drain.(Now I don’t mind shelling a few bucks to get a license made.) It is here that this book strikes a chord, a resonance – Atticus is all you wanted to be but never could be because you are so afraid to be left at the end of this rat race called life.
Sniggers would call it high-flown, patronising towards Blacks, and yes it is but read it for the sake of Utopia.