This past week I attended a performance of To Kill a Mockingbird, the Broadway adaptation of Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel. As I walked from the parking lot to the theater, a middle-aged white woman was walking behind me chatting with friends.
She proudly announced that she had never read the book or seen the movie. She didn’t even know what the story was about. I turned around and asked her what planet she had lived on for the last 60 years or so. She did not seem to appreciate my comment and smugly assured me that her friends would fill her in on what she had missed by not reading the book. Over the next couple of days, I asked other people, and I found that the woman was not as much of an anomaly as I thought.
It’s kind of like some of the people who come into the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Public Square where I volunteer. A woman asked me one day which side Ohio was on in the Civil War. Or the teenage who shrugged his shoulders and said “I don’t know” when I asked him to identify the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
Maybe I’m just an elitist with little patience for the culturally illiterate — meaning the person who lacks a basic understanding of their own culture. And I put anyone has never read To Kill a Mockingbird or seen the movie or has no idea of what the story is about in that category.
Culturally illiteracy is analogous to the person who cannot read and write. It doesn’t take a lot to realize how difficult it is to function when you lack the basic knowledge of the three R’s. But as a cultural illiterate, you can survive under the radar, probably never knowing what you missed and living in your own little cocoon filled with people like yourself.
Most of you reading this article know the story of To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson, a Black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman in 1930s Alabama. The story is told by Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the daughter of Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer who defends Robinson. As the story progresses Scout, who starts out as the naïve observer, learns about racism, and cultural and class differences. Her encounters with Arthur “Boo” Radley, a reclusive neighbor with mental health issues, teach her that people should not be judged by what someone else says. In a great bit of Hollywood trivia, the part of Boo Radley was the film debut of actor Robert Duvall.
Since its publication in 1960, Mockingbird had been the subject of controversy. There are the conspiracy theorists who say that Harper Lee never wrote the book, that it was in fact written by Truman Capote. That’s because Capote in real life was the character of Dill, the boy next door who spent that fateful summer in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. As an adult Lee helped Capote research the background for his award-winning book and later a movie, In Cold Blood.
Libraries and school districts have sought to take the book off reading lists and shelves for younger readers. Some libraries have attempted to totally ban the book — kind of like putting it on the Index of Prohibited Books established by Pope Paul IV in 1557 to keep Catholics from reading bad stuff. Over the years the Index has included such dangerous readings as The Count of Monte Christo, Madame Bovary, Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre.
The most common reasoning for a total ban of Mockingbird is that the novel “makes some people uncomfortable” i.e., it makes people look at American history from a perspective other than white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants. It also makes the reader look at the history of justice for Blacks in the American South during much of the 20th century.
Or maybe they feel uncomfortable because they identify with the group of men that wanted to lynch Tom Robinson. Or realize that had they been on the jury they would have voted to convict Tom Robinson even though it was made clear in the trial that Tom couldn’t use his right arm, making it impossible for him to put bruises on both sides of Mayella’s neck.
Others complain about the use of the N-word some 50 times over the course of the novel, along with the discussion of rape and incest that they feel will taint the minds of middle-school students and give rise to discussions about race and sex that are beyond their comprehension.
The Broadway play augments Lee’s original script, putting greater emphasis on social issues of the 1930s, like child labor; illiteracy; incest; child abuse; interracial marriage and mental illness. There is even a new character who is hearing impaired and signs his lines. The Black characters are far less subservient than in the book and screen play. Calpurnia, the Finch’s maid, while still respectful, speaks her mind in several scenes.
Unlike the book, the play starts out with Scout reading the obituary of Robert E. Lee Ewell — Mayella’s father, who is the story’s ultimate bad guy. She wisely questions how he could have fallen on a knife and killed himself. But in the end, Ewell’s death is all about eye-for-an-eye justice. He has condemned Robinson to death by forcing his daughter to make false allegations against him and attempted to harm Scout and her brother in retribution for Atticus defending Robinson. But the person most shunned in the community, the mental health patient Boo Radley, comes to the rescue and kills Ewell.
The powers that be, in the form of the county sheriff, the local judge and Atticus decide to let the dead lay buried. Early in the movie Atticus is forced to kill a dog afflicted with rabies to protect the rest of the society. Ewell’s death is a subtle analogy to that of the rabid dog.
If you have never read the book or seen the movie, I can see why you have no understanding of Black Lives Matter. I understand why you think that George Floyd got what he had coming. Sadly, you live in a world of the culturally illiterate, and as much as the woman I overheard at the theater believed, you can’t learn these kinds of cultural lessons from your friend.
Atticus Finch explains in a classic scene in the movie about getting his first gun. His father told him he could shot jaybirds but never kill a mockingbird because they do no harm and only made people happy with their songs. It’s one of those basic values of our society that some people missed and many more will miss because they never read or were allowed to read Harper Lee’s masterpiece.
To Kill A Mockingbird runs through May 15 at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square as part of their Key Bank Broadway Series. More info.
5 Responses to “COMMENTARY: The Mockingbird and Cultural Illiteracy by C. Ellen Connally”
Sss
As much as things change they remain the same.
John Reynolds
Like the Nazis before them, the attempt by the MAGA crowd to suppress history and to promote a superiority myth will end in massive bloodshed if Americans let them have their way. Most Americans have also never read the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which should be required history curriculum in high school as well as require courses in logic. There is nothing more dangerous than stupidity in power.
Mel Maurer
Thanks.
Peter Lawson Jones
Two more spot on commentaries this week, Your Honor. Only in the first one, you neglected to mention “backbone.” LOL!
Caroline Moore
I attended a Catholic School through 12th grade. We had summer reading list and this book was on that list in high school. Most people have never heard of the book! It was eye opening back then and if read by the current generation could be an eye opener for some of them. Your commentary is spot on!!