RIP Harper Lee

It's always sad to report the loss of a talented, much-loved author, or any human for that matter.

I was a young girl when I first read To Kill a Mockingbird. I did not understand it at the time. We lived in the country where there were no black folks. This was west St. Louis County, Missouri. One thing the years have taught me -- as I write from my desk in south Georgia -- that collectively we must experience the framework of ethnic groups to fully understand people of different religious, cultural practices, race, and attitudes, and their places in time.

Could the events in "Mockingbird" happen today? Of course. We have also learned that technological progress over time doesn't translate to people progress.

Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama.

Go Set a Watchman was written by Lee before Mockingbird, but published decades later. It became a phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller when it was published in July 2015.

Harper Lee received the Pulitzer Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and numerous other literary awards and honors. She died on February 19, 2016.

Respectfully submitted,

Gerrie Ferris Finger
Journalist and Author

On Harper Lee's Mockingbird

I was not a big fan of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I never got the title. I grew up in the country and the darn birds were a loud nuisance.
  

 I live in the city now, and they're still a loud nuisance that steals the voices of insects, animals and other birds. At night, my word, they'll keep you awake mimicking crickets or bob whites (quail). Baaaa -- (upnote) -- White! Said over and over, it gets on one's last nerve, as we say in the South.

About the title, Sparknotes writes:

1. "Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, a number of characters (Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as mockingbirds—innocents who have been injured or destroyed through contact
   with evil."

US Fish and Wildlife Photo

Okay. I never thought of mockingbirds as innocents, in fact they are rather crafty. Why not To Kill a Bluebird? Now that songbird, with its distinctive beloved voice, is welcome in every garden as a voracious feeder of pesky insects and are a  joy to see and listen to on a lovely summer morning.

US Fish and Wildlife Photo

I realize I'm picking on an icon, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a sensitive author. I read the book when I was a teenager -- in school, of course -- and again about ten years ago to see if my first twinges of boredom reoccurred. It's still slow-moving like the South of the period in which it was set. (Though, by today's literary fiction standards, and length, it moves along.) And, having experienced the attitudes in the book, I appreciate the value of it in today's society. For me, the shrill of the mockingbird's voices resonates with that which is stolen rather than that which is innocent.

Told from a child's point of view, we meet the Finches (bird irony here?) one summer. Scout, her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill, plot a way to aggravate the town weirdo, Boo Radley. Into this "innocence" the alledged rape of Mayella Ewell, the white daughter of the town drunk, occurs. That crime hardly phases the kids. But then Scout's father, Atticus Finch, is hired to defend the alleged rapist, Tom Robinson, a black man; and soon the children are witness to the town's deplorable attitudes -- racism, classism and the valiant struggle for justice against ignorance.
  
Harper Lee was born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926, Lee wrote one novel and vowed to never write another. She helped research a book by her life-long friend, Truman Capote: In Cold Blood. However, she will publish a book that she wrote before her famous Mockingbird, titled, Go Set a Watchman, to be released in July, 2015.

 As quoted in To Kill a Mockingbird, "People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for."

So true.

Happy Reading (whatever your preferences)

Gerrie Ferris Finger
Running with Wild Blood - 2015
http://amzn.to/1HZxd1A

HAPPY 50TH 'MOCKINGBIRD'

Yesterday, my favorite Southern novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, turned 50.

Monroeville, Alabama is having a mega-celebration birthday party for the book, authored by hometown girl, Harper Lee. I used the word "girl" calculatingly, because in the South boys are, well, "boys" and girls are "good ol' girls", no matter the age. The festivities are to run all summer and four editions of the book are planned by publisher, HarperCollins, each with a different cover.

Harper Lee, as is her self-imposed legend, most likely will avoid the limelight. She is 84, lives in Alabama and has never published another book. TKAM was originally published in 1960 by J. B. Lippincott and Company and won a Pulitzer Prize.

The classic of high school lit classes, the plot takes place in the Great Depression. Scout Finch, an avowed tomboy, lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, in Maycomb, Ala. Atticus is a prominent lawyer and the Finch family is well off. One summer, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood. Dill becomes fascinated with the spooky house on their street called the Radley Place, owned by Nathan Radley, whose brother, Boo, has lived there for years, never going outdoors.

Scout, and Jem make fun of Boo Radley, doing everything in their power to lure him outside. Atticus stops it, admonishing the kids to understand and sympathize with the odd Boo. But the three sneak onto the Radley property, where Nathan shoots at them. Jem loses his pants and returns for them later. He finds them sewn and hanging on the fence. Scout find more presents in the tree, presumably left by the mysterious Boo.

A fire breaks out in a neighbor’s house, and during the fire someone slips a blanket on Scout’s shoulders as she watches the blaze. Convinced that Boo did it, Jem tells Atticus about the mended pants and the presents.

In a seeming subplot, Atticus agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman. In this break with the societal norm, Jem and Scout are made fun of. Scout doesn't take kindly to this treatment and wants to fight back. They find refuge with the black community.

At the trial, Scout and Jem sit in the colored balcony. Atticus proves the accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying. That Mayella propositioned Tom Robinson, was caught by her father, and then accused Tom of rape to cover her shame and guilt. But Robinson is convicted. Scout can't understand why, and Atticus explains he had to do his duty, but that the verdict was a foregoing conclusion, given the culture they lived in. Shortly after, Scout learns that Tom Robinson had been killed in an escape attempt.

Bob Ewell is raving mad at Atticus and the judge and vows revenge. He tries to break into the judge’s house, then attacks Jem and Scout as they walk home. Jem is wounded. Boo Radley intervenes, stabbing and killing Ewell. The sheriff protects Boo by saying Ewell tripped over a tree root and fell on his own knife. Boo once again confines himself to the Radley house.

Moral of the story: Scout's experience with prejudice and hatred gives her an understanding of what others must go through in a stratified society. She begins to under sympathy and practices kindness.

The New York Times reports that in Rhinebeck, N.Y., Oblong Books will host a party with Mocktails and a performance by the indie band the Boo Radleys.