How “To Kill a Mockingbird” Has Changed Society
The novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Harper Lee’s first book, and it was published in 1960. The story has encouraged cohorts of readers to small-town Alabama in the 1930s and offended them with a sobering account of racial inequality and social injustices. The book has never been out of print, and it has sold more than forty million copies since its first publishing. Generally, the novel is considered a formative read of our youth, with themes and lessons to transform individuals into better people.
The story occurs in the setting of sleepy Alabama town in 1936, a couple of years after the declaration of the race as being “separate but equal” and about three decades after the enactment of the Civil Rights Act (Lee). The narrator of the story is Scout Finch, a nine-year-old tomboy who conveys the remarks of her family punch-up to deal with the racial prejudice shown towards the African American community in the surrounding areas. Scout Finch, the protagonist, is raised with her brother Jem Atticus by their old widowed father, Atticus Finch. The father is a protuberant lawyer who trains his children to be emphatic and just. He teaches the children and their friend Dill never to kill a mockingbird, for it is a sin. Implicitly, the father alludes to the fact that birds are always innocent and harmless. The sensible black housekeeper Calpurnia, the neighbor Miss Maudie, helps the father to train the children to live and behave honorably (Maxwell).
The effort to teach Scout Finch and Jem Atticus are from the three adults. For instance, Miss Maudie narrates to Scout why it is debauchery to kill a mockingbird. She speaks, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They do not eat our gardens neither do they nest in corncribs. They only sing their hearts out for us” (Grimes). Subsequently, the children grow up becoming more aware of the community attitude towards the black race.
As the story begins, the children are preoccupied with mysteries of injustice and prejudice, especially when the father stands to defend a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. The family becomes a target for social injustices and hatred. Thus fear encamp the hearts of Scout and Jem. Although Atticus Finch attempts to defend the black man accused of raping a white woman, he fails several. The father’s advocacy strives to inspire the plot of the novel.
Although he may not have won the case, Atticus is considered auspicious in making the townspeople to recognize and struggle with their prejudice. Miss Maudie, after Robinson’s trial, comments that although Atticus won’t win the case, he is the only advocate who can keep the jury for long. She implies the effort of Atticus in the awakening sense of racial prejudice among people and pursuing them to live and behave honorably.
Importantly, Atticus, in his defense for Tom Robinson, the defendant in the Mayella rape case, proves that Bob Ewell attacked his daughter Mayella. He demonstrates the innocence of the black man. However, the incident attracts hatred and threats from the community. In fact, at one point, he faces mob intent for lynching his client. Tom is unjustly convicted and later killed while he tried escaping from the custody. Some characters compare his cruel death to a senseless slaughter of songbirds –killing a mockingbird.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is indeed no sermon. The novel presents social lessons in a seemingly effortless style, confronting the complexity of racial prejudice concerns with astonishing clarity and resilient sense of reality. The book has changed society’s view of people. On the day of Lee’s death, many readers of her text expressed the emotional opinions of the novel. Gabby Gillespie, an eighteen-year-old from New Jersey, says, “I will always be struck by the scene where Atticus has lost the trial, and Jem struggles to understand how something so undeniably wrong has been allowed. I will always turn back to the book for Atticus’s wisdom to serve as a model for how to go forward after a moment of blatant injustice” (Kundmueller). The novel has impacted the way people approach justice in society.
Moreover, the novel has shaped the perception of people in approaching social life. A reader from North Carolina, Janie Booth, testifies that the book made her distinguish between understanding others and imposing her views on them, and the transformative power of empathy. She assures that “the book has markedly defined my academic experience, and I am certain that if I can approach life with the same curiosity, empathy and joy that permeates ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ I will be a wholly better person” (Allen). Literature is all about leaving people changed for the better, and “To Kill a Mockingbird” proves to have done that to the readers across the US and the world.
The novel has also rekindled people’s reading habits advancing the course of literature in society. Sometimes, people need exciting and captivating stories to grow their reading abilities and interests. One reader, Allison Quijano, comments that the novel “truly captures my love of reading, and what I hoped to help cultivate in my students” (Grimes). She first listened to her father to read the story to her while she was a little girl, and while in school, she used the book for her English class read. Besides, the book, being her favorite, is now her class read. The book has some transformative power to the audience, and it leaves a remarkable experience in the lives of the readers.
Many readers, especially the youth in society, are looking up to developing Atticus Finch characters and attributes. Many consider Atticus, a role model. Responding to the New York Times, Beverly Wixon, a resident of Florida, comments that “The courtroom scene taught me that people are often treated unfairly based on their color instead of who they are. I’ve tried to live as honorably as Atticus Finch and earn the respect of all races by treating my students fairly” (Cavoto). “To Kill a Mockingbird” has changed the perception of the majority of readers on racial issues and social justice. They have learned to view the problems from other people’s eyes instead of making a premature judgment.
What about the effect on career decisions? The book has ha significant impact on people’s career decisions. James Roth, a sixty-three-year-old, in his response to the New York Times, comments that the book was the critical determinant of his decision to become an activist and go to law school. Kerry Weaver, a sixty-year-old, testifies that the book and movie formed her into a humanitarian that she is today. She was inspired by the fact that the book presents one man standing against many in society for justice to prevail. Atticus became Kerry’s hero and encouraged her to become a humanitarian that she may stand for the minority, the underprivileged, and those receiving social injustices (Grimes).
Besides, Patrick, a thirty-year-old from Warren Ohio, acknowledges that the racial commentary in the novel was compelling and intriguing. The kind act of Jem in helping the addicted Mrs. Dubose compelled him to stand up to drug addiction, and the few hours he spends with his own addicted family have born much fruit. Each reader has a story to tell and share their experience of reading the novel and how it has impacted them (Maxwell).
Furthermore, authors of literature materials have also expressed the impact of the novel on their work and the entire literature field. One of the writers of literature books comments that Lee’s story is freshly relevant today as it was at the time of its writing. The novel has covered the same issues that are affecting the world today –racism, social injustices, and prejudice. As a result, any authors refer to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” in advancing the need to live and behave honorably as Atticus Finch advocated (The Sydney Morning Herald).
In conclusion, many readers have each a story to narrate of their experience with the book. The number is significant, and testimonies are too long to be finished in a five-page paper. However, the few we have chosen indicate the considerable impact that the novel has created among the lives of its readers. Even though the book was written a couple of decades ago, it portrays the same concerns the world is experiencing, and the readers of the novel are determined to live for a change in society.
Works Cited
Allen, Autumn A. “Whose Side Are You On?” Moral Consequences of Young Readers’ Responses to Kill a Mockingbird. Research on Diversity in Youth Literature 2.2 (2020): 5.
Kundmueller, Michelle. “To Kill a Mockingbird and Legal Ethics: On the Role of Atticus Finch’s Attic Rhetoric in Fulfillment of Duties to Client, to Court, to Society, and to Self.” British Journal of American Legal Studies 8.2 (2020): 289-325.
Cavoto, Janice E. “Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” African American Studies Center, 2004. Accessed 3 Aug. 2020.
Grimes, William. “Harper Lee, Author of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ Dies at 89.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, 20 Feb. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/02/20/arts/harper-lee-dies.html. Accessed 3 Aug. 2020.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 2010. Accessed 3 Aug. 2020.
Maxwell, Anne. “How the Moral Lessons of To Kill a Mockingbird Endure Today.” The Conversation, 15 Aug. 2018, theconversation.com/how-the-moral-lessons-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-endure-today-100763. Accessed 3 Aug. 2020.
The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Impact of To Kill a Mockingbird: Five Writers Reveal How It Affected Them.” The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 2015, www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/the-impact-of-to-kill-a-mockingbird-five-writers-reveal-how-it-affected-them-20150706-gi60rq.html. Accessed 3 Aug. 2020.