Based on your experience of reading the novel, discuss whether the portrayals of black and whites are appropriate. Should we continue to read this novel? Why or why not?
This is an excellent question, as I read To Kill A Mocking Bird, I could help but notice the standing points of the white and black citizens. I didn’t think it was possible for Scout, a six to eight year old little girl could capture the raw emotions involved with this book. Everybody will have their own opinion on whether or not this is a good book, in my opinion it is a wonderful book. The language was easy to understand, it was powerful without being disrespectful, from this book I actually took a lot away about Southern American culture. I have lived in Georgia and Alabama, this summer I visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and it was a huge eye opener. I think this book is very appropriate for schools and summed up everything I learnt about southern history and culture over the duration of the summer. Undeniably this book is a classic, I support this book being read in schools across the country and across the world. As canadians I feel we can be naive to these situations.
As Ms Green first mentioned before we began the book, African-Americans appeared passive in this story. I don’t believe that there was much they could do, but I don’t think that they intentionally took a backseat to Caucasians. There is a very delicate social structure in the South, this book was set just after the Blacks were no longer along to be enslaved, so everybody was still very cautious about what they did and said. I think the portrayals of blacks and whites were very accurate.
I saw this fountain at the Birmingham Institute of Civil Rights. This is just an example of segregation between black and whites that was apparent in Alabama around that time. At the exhibit, they play a movie, in the final scene there is this picture. Then they pull up the projector screen and they have this actual water fountain.
A final Limerick summarizing the book…
There once was a town called Maycomb,
In the summer Scout and Jem’s roam,
And as they grew up,
There was a mad pup,
Atticus shot it and hit home.
In the beginning they were afraid of Boo,
They thought rabbits and cats he chew,
He turned out to not be so bad,
As he carried Jem home to dad,
Tom Robinson was under judicial review.
Jem lost sleep over Tom,
Scout and Jem had no mom,
There was a division,
That required revision,
Miss Stephanie claimed Boo was a peeping tom.
