Is it just a co-incidence that any book I pick up these days seems like a wonderful long lost friend? Or is it just that I am giving too much of a gap between two consecutive books? So much so that I am so book starved that no matter what I read it seems just par excellence?
The latest thing I have held in my hands is “To kill a mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
While the story set in the backdrop of the South America is about rampant racism as it was in the early years, what I liked the most about the book is the narration.
As seen through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch a.ka. Scout, the whole story takes a new dimension. I found myself loving her like I couldn’t have loved her more if she were my own daughter. Naughty, irascible, terribly witty and incisive yet so much like a kid. Statements like
The latest thing I have held in my hands is “To kill a mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
While the story set in the backdrop of the South America is about rampant racism as it was in the early years, what I liked the most about the book is the narration.
As seen through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch a.ka. Scout, the whole story takes a new dimension. I found myself loving her like I couldn’t have loved her more if she were my own daughter. Naughty, irascible, terribly witty and incisive yet so much like a kid. Statements like
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
“I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.”
coming from a four-year old take a complete different flavor.
The “streaks” as defined by Aunt Alexandra and as seen by Scout are two entirely different things. As Jeffery Archer pointed out aptly in his masterpiece “The Prodigal Daughter” – “...prejudice is something a child only learns from its elders”.
Jim’s - the elder brother’s metamorphosis from the partner in crime in the early chapters to the adolescent teenager who tries hard to emulate the rare quality of “Atticus”, their father, is beautifully drawn out. From an unruly prankster to Scout’s bodyguard in testing times, his character is beautifully cultivated.
Then there is Atticus! The single father who doesn’t play the parenting game by the book. Indeed the very fact that the kids address him not as Dad or Pa but Atticus brings this out in full force by the end of page one itself. As you go on, the intrigue just builds on. Be it never bragging about his shooting prowess or be it his candid discussions with the kids, Atticus rules the roost.
IMHO, it reaches a crescendo of “wow” in this scene…
Uncle Jack: “She asked me to tell her about what a whore lady is.”
Atticus: “Did you tell her?”
Uncle Jack: “No, I told her about Lord Melbourne.”
Atticus: “Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him, for goddess’s sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em. No, you had the right answer this afternoon but the wrong reasons. Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time, when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.”
The “streaks” as defined by Aunt Alexandra and as seen by Scout are two entirely different things. As Jeffery Archer pointed out aptly in his masterpiece “The Prodigal Daughter” – “...prejudice is something a child only learns from its elders”.
Jim’s - the elder brother’s metamorphosis from the partner in crime in the early chapters to the adolescent teenager who tries hard to emulate the rare quality of “Atticus”, their father, is beautifully drawn out. From an unruly prankster to Scout’s bodyguard in testing times, his character is beautifully cultivated.
Then there is Atticus! The single father who doesn’t play the parenting game by the book. Indeed the very fact that the kids address him not as Dad or Pa but Atticus brings this out in full force by the end of page one itself. As you go on, the intrigue just builds on. Be it never bragging about his shooting prowess or be it his candid discussions with the kids, Atticus rules the roost.
IMHO, it reaches a crescendo of “wow” in this scene…
Uncle Jack: “She asked me to tell her about what a whore lady is.”
Atticus: “Did you tell her?”
Uncle Jack: “No, I told her about Lord Melbourne.”
Atticus: “Jack! When a child asks you something, answer him, for goddess’s sake. But don’t make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles ‘em. No, you had the right answer this afternoon but the wrong reasons. Bad language is a stage all children go through, and it dies with time, when they learn they’re not attracting attention with it.”
Wow, I mean this is JUST SO PROFOUND. In my opinion, everyone who desires to bring up a balanced child should read Atticus ooops I meant “To kill a mockingbird” for sure.
Also, the strong racial prejudices that are just as relevant in today’s times is beautifully highlighted. An unbiased lawyer, Atticus Finch, who believes truth needs to be defended so that he can live with himself without guilt is termed a”nigger lover”. His kids, Jim and Scout, are subjected to a lot of ridicule within the family as well as at school. In spite of all contrary evidences the all-white jury hands out a guilty verdict to Tom Robinson. Aunt Alexandra’s open disdain for Calpurnia the black maid and her closeness with the kids – All these incidents bring out the skewed mindset people have over racial issues in manner that is as instructive and self-corrective as it is unobtrusive.
Hmm, finally the kiddish story Jim and Scout have grown up with. Arthur a.ka. Boo Radley. The reclusive neighbor who locks himself indoors for a better part of his life. Who leads an abstemious lifestyle in compliance to the “foot-washers” and yet takes an inexplicable liking to the truant kids in the neighborhood.
There are a chain of incidents and events in the book that make you fall in love with it and then some more. Be it Scout’s first day at school or Aunt Alexandra’s reprimanding her to be “more like a lady” and Atticus’s declaration that he thinks Scout as she is now is “just fine”.
Maybe the storyline is not something special, maybe the characters are commonplace and not a rarity in themselves, maybe the narration is slow and drawn out at times… Yet as Sir Humphrey Appleby would have remarked,”Let me explain this. If there had been an inquest about the readability of this script, which there hasn't or not necessarily, or I am not at liberty to say if there has, there would have been a project team, which, had it existed, on which I cannot comment, would have been disbanded had it existed, and the members returned to their original departments, had there been indeed any such members, would have found this to be an entirely acceptable a read worth of grasping of even simple minded souls educated, if it can be called education, at the LSE.
Archana, if I am pressed for a straight question, I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another, in terms of the average of reads that are churned out every year, then in the last analysis, it is probably true to say that, at the end of the day, you will find, in general terms that, not to put too fine a point on it, there is really was very much in this book to learn from, one way or the other. That is why it is imperative that the issue of special recommendation is pushed through, acted upon, immediately, without any further delay, leaving aside procedural matters on the validity of the question about any precedence here.”
And once Sir Humphrey Appleby has remarked it, who am I to comment? ;-) Right Junta? So go ahead and grab a copy today, if you have not already read it…
Also, the strong racial prejudices that are just as relevant in today’s times is beautifully highlighted. An unbiased lawyer, Atticus Finch, who believes truth needs to be defended so that he can live with himself without guilt is termed a”nigger lover”. His kids, Jim and Scout, are subjected to a lot of ridicule within the family as well as at school. In spite of all contrary evidences the all-white jury hands out a guilty verdict to Tom Robinson. Aunt Alexandra’s open disdain for Calpurnia the black maid and her closeness with the kids – All these incidents bring out the skewed mindset people have over racial issues in manner that is as instructive and self-corrective as it is unobtrusive.
Hmm, finally the kiddish story Jim and Scout have grown up with. Arthur a.ka. Boo Radley. The reclusive neighbor who locks himself indoors for a better part of his life. Who leads an abstemious lifestyle in compliance to the “foot-washers” and yet takes an inexplicable liking to the truant kids in the neighborhood.
There are a chain of incidents and events in the book that make you fall in love with it and then some more. Be it Scout’s first day at school or Aunt Alexandra’s reprimanding her to be “more like a lady” and Atticus’s declaration that he thinks Scout as she is now is “just fine”.
Maybe the storyline is not something special, maybe the characters are commonplace and not a rarity in themselves, maybe the narration is slow and drawn out at times… Yet as Sir Humphrey Appleby would have remarked,”Let me explain this. If there had been an inquest about the readability of this script, which there hasn't or not necessarily, or I am not at liberty to say if there has, there would have been a project team, which, had it existed, on which I cannot comment, would have been disbanded had it existed, and the members returned to their original departments, had there been indeed any such members, would have found this to be an entirely acceptable a read worth of grasping of even simple minded souls educated, if it can be called education, at the LSE.
Archana, if I am pressed for a straight question, I shall say that, as far as we can see, looking at it by and large, taking one thing with another, in terms of the average of reads that are churned out every year, then in the last analysis, it is probably true to say that, at the end of the day, you will find, in general terms that, not to put too fine a point on it, there is really was very much in this book to learn from, one way or the other. That is why it is imperative that the issue of special recommendation is pushed through, acted upon, immediately, without any further delay, leaving aside procedural matters on the validity of the question about any precedence here.”
And once Sir Humphrey Appleby has remarked it, who am I to comment? ;-) Right Junta? So go ahead and grab a copy today, if you have not already read it…
