To Censor a Mockingbird
I recently reread Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird because my wife had bought tickets to the Broadway play. She knew this was one of my favorite novels and knew I’d want to see the live performance. But the book is almost always better than the movie and/or play, so I had to reread it to make sure I had the whole story on board. The play was excellent with Richard Thomas leading as Atticus Finch. As I’d expected, it was a tear-jerker. Even the two little words, “Hey, Boo,” makes me tear up.
I was supposed to read it in high school. I started reading it but didn’t finish because 1. television, 2. I didn’t like being forced to read anything, and 3. I was lazy. I finally read it in 2010 and absolutely loved it. Now I’ve read it a second time. I’d rank it as the best American novel…like ever!
If you haven’t read it, you’re either too young to have been exposed to it in your public school system yet or your school has banned it because they believe you are too sensitive for the harsh situations this novel portrays…or you’re illiterate and someone is reading this post to you now. Whatever the case, I highly recommend it. I think every American should read it especially because so many people want to ban it.
Before we went, our brother/sister in-laws told us about a school district in Wisconsin (where they lived a couple of years prior) which had canceled their school production of the play because of the N-word. I was shocked. It’s a terrible word, but the whole reason it’s used in the novel and the play was to discourage its use and racism in general. And this is the most common reason To Kill a Mockingbird is banned across the country over the past fifty years… https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/to-kill-a-mockingbird-remains-among-top-banned-classical-novels
In fact, this is one of those rare cases when something is offensive to both ends of the political spectrum. Some are uncomfortable with the racism (and particularly the racial slurs), some are uncomfortable with the rape and violence. It really does have something to offend most gentle folks. But it also appeals to our better selves despite all the atrocities in the world.
And if you’re uncomfortable with it…well, that’s the point! You should absolutely be offended by the word, “nigger” as well as terrible things like racism, rape, and violence! But that was reality. That was what black people have had to deal with in our culture since before any of us can remember.
A very few have wanted to ban it because it portrays a white man as the savior. Okay, Atticus Finch had integrity and believed in the rule of law, but he didn’t save Tom Robinson. Atticus would have died alongside him had he not been saved by the innocence of his children (I actually just teared up writing those words), but he was not a savior. He was simply a good man.
But Big Steve, we don’t want to ban To Kill a Mockingbird from society, we just want to ban it from schools so that we may preserve our children’s innocence. I get it. Just like you wouldn’t want porn in the school library. Or the Anarchist Cookbook. Not everything is for kids. That’s why we have a drinking age, a driving age, and an adulthood age. However, TKaM was written from the point of view of a child, the narrator Scout Finch, the protagonist’s daughter. She was just starting school at the beginning of the novel. It is intended to expose children to an ugly side of American culture that existed in the fifties to a very wide extent and still exists today. It’s one of those important things that we might not like, but it’s not going to hurt anyone. Its not going to turn your kid into a racist, or a rapist, or a liberal. It’s going to turn them into better humans. If you ban it, you’re denying something good for them and for the rest of humanity. If you ban it, you kill the mockingbird.
What do you tell your little ones when they hear “fuck,” “shit,” or “ass?” This is another case when you’ll have to explain to them this is not a word they should ever say. In fact, tell them, “The N-word is worse than all the other bad words combined. The N-word can get a cap busted in your ass.” Then they’ll ask why they hear it on Mommy/Daddy’s playlist. Tell them it’s art…and in art, anything goes. To Kill a Mockingbird is art.
You as parents have an advantage over any classroom, teacher, or library. You get to teach your kids before they ever get to these places. You get to teach them every day from their day of birth until they move out and never talk to you again. Teach them right, and no amount of other influence will lead them astray. Easy for me to say…all my kids have four legs and lick their butts for entertainment.
But as TKaM’s main character, Atticus Finch says to his boy Jem, “There’s a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep ’em all away from you. That’s never possible.”
Censorship will not save your kids’ innocence. Nothing will. They’re going to lose their innocence at some point, but you can teach them integrity to replace it. This is a great way to kill two birds with one stone (please don’t ban my puns).
-Big Steve