The world through the eye of a child! Once we all saw it and found it to be fascinating and full of wonder. As we gained on wisdom(one hopes!),
We lost on innocence and ultimately most of us end up being a cynic and search for the worst possible interpretation of the world around us.
Occasionally comes a piece of art which forces us to reconsider our worldview and reminds us of the innocence of a child’s vision.
They make our spirit soar and bring back smile on our lips and even if briefly, the life once more seems beautiful.
Reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is one such experience. It is the only work of fiction by Harper Lee but this single novel is enough to give her a place alongside likes of Tolstoy, Kafka, Dostoevsky or Faulkner.
Perhaps it lacks the monumental sweep of The Brothers Karamazov or War and Peace, but it has touched more hearts than either of the two.
The book narrates the incidents of a small sleepy town with all the virtues and vices accompanying such places. Three children lead a life of charm and occasional boredom there and the description of their idle musings will surely bring back sweet memories of yesteryears back in our consciousness.
The characters slowly revealed themselves through various incidents and gradually we are introduced to Atticus – a lawyer by profession and father of the narrator of the story.
He is an unlikely hero with understated personality and principled yet uni-dimensional outlook towards life.
His off hand style of parenting drew criticism from neighbors and relatives and at the same time his own children found him less than exciting father compared to those of their friends.
But then, he is one of those rare individuals who live the same way in public as well in private. And the life is not easy on such individuals for occasionally they will be challenged to the extent that they will be required to make a choice which most of us dread to make – to select either ones principles or personal(and that includes ones friends and family) safety and security.
The challenge came through a case in which a person with black skin is charged with raping a white skinned lady.
Quickly, the small town polarised based on racial prejudices and it seemed like beauty, truth too is in the eye of the beholder. And ultimately it came to Atticus Fitch to remind the society in general and juries in particular of the necessity of looking into the facts with colourless eyes.
With that he also epitomised those timeless lines of Kipling.
‘If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you .’
However, to define the book as a mere ‘courtroom drama’(though there is plenty of it) will be a gross injustice to the work for in spite of its seemingly simple story line it deals with many important issues like empathy, class division, teaching methodology of schools, parenting, racial and gender prejudices, importance of privacy, hypocrisy and may be I am missing on a lot of other equally important points.
It is to immense credit of the author that in spite of the multiple issues dealt, the book never lost its flow or pace. The language and narration is so charming that one is tempted to start all over again after finishing the book.
And rest assured, one will not be deceived if one reads the work once more for then some unnoticed pearls will come into notice which was missed or overlooked during the first reading.
To sum up, I have not yet come across any reader who has not liked this timeless classic. The only other book which comes to my mind which has given me similar pleasure for having described the world through the eyes of a child is the Bengali novel ‘Pather Panchali’ by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay.
Noted film-maker Satyajit Ray made a critically acclaimed movie on the book but still I would say that the book is far superior to the movie. Alas, his words could not reach a wider audience.
One is tempted to agree with the author’s vision of life entirely for it is almost flawless but if cornered, I will quibble with the author on her message delivered through Atticus, ‘Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’
I would prefer even the blue jays to be spared of the bullet!