“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird… Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
Harper Lee (1926--) was born in Monroeville, Alabama and has only published one novel. I suppose when your first attempt is a Pulitzer Prize winning best seller, that is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest literary work of the 20th century you don’t really need a follow-up. Many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are based on aspects of Lee’s life as a child in Alabama. She was a tomboy, much like Scout, who was very close to her father, who was a lawyer and a member of the state legislature. She also grew up as a neighbor and friend of Breakfast at Tiffany’s author Truman Capote, who is the model for the character Dill. Capote even mentioned in an interview that the character of Boo Radley was based on a real man who lived on their street and who left them items in a tree when they were young. Lee began studying law in her junior year of college, likely because of her admiration for her father, but dropped out after she realized that writing was her true passion. I think it’s safe to say she made an excellent decision. In 2007 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush for her literary contribution to American culture. Harper Lee is now 85 and spends time her time between Alabama and New York. She reportedly deeply values her privacy, doesn't make public appearances for anyone but the President, and never makes speeches. I really like knowing that she and I are from the same state and that she could have been only a few hours away from me while I was glued to every page of her masterpiece.
If only the world were full of men like Atticus Finch, it would be a much better place to live. The truth is what makes a man like Atticus so special is that the world is not full of them, that he is one of a special kind of men. I love the line in the book when Miss Maudie says Atticus is special because he is the exact same way in his home as he is in the town and the same way in town that he is in the courtroom. It seems like a simple statement but it is also so rarely true. Harper Lee created Atticus Finch with influences from her father and it is easy to see how a person who grew up with the ideas of such an outstanding man has never married. Could any real person ever measure up to Atticus Finch? He took on the defense of Tom Robinson even though he knew that there was no way he could win the case, and even though he knew that it would cause his peers to look down on him. He was the senior lawyer and it would have been so easy for him to just turn down the case. He could have refused to defend Tom because he was different, because he was black, but he didn’t even when everyone said that he should. Atticus did what he knew was right.
“They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.”
He raised his children the way that all children should hoped to be raised, with love and respect. He treated them always with kindness and never shied away from teaching them. He made Jem read to Mrs. Dubose even though she was cold and criticized Atticus in front of his children. Jem didn’t realize that Mrs. Dubose was sad and dying and fighting for her freedom in her own way. He used the experience to teach his children an important lesson about how to live courageously.
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”
Atticus didn’t win his case, but he fought for an innocent man with all of his being. He sacrificed so much over the course of the novel and in the end the ramifications affected his whole family, but you have to believe he never regretted his decisions. He fought for what he believed was right and he knew that he could always walk proudly and with respect from his children. Every man should be so lucky, well really every man should be an Atticus Finch.
