A cry of conscience

PREMA SRINIVASAN

TO KILL a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee has been described as an unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town suddenly rocked by a "crisis of conscience". When it was published in 1960 it became an instant best-seller and later won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 as a novel of substance. Many of us can recall the academy - award winning film based on this novel, starring Gregory Peck, which also became an enduring classic in celluloid crossing boundaries of time and place.

The title intrigues and one wonders what it is that the book has to offer and why is it that it still remains a good read for the young reader as well as the blase adult. The story is told from a child's point of view, which accounts for the freshness of narration and charming clarity of tone. It is the unaccountability of human behaviour, self explanatory to the adult, but still puzzling to the young, which intrigues the reader.

The protagonists are young Scout, the narrator, and her brother Jem. They live with their father Atticus Finch, a lawyer, who brings up the motherless children with the help of their redoubtable black house - keeper Calpurnia. As the children grow up they are forced to take part in the drama of life happening around them. Quite suddenly they are no longer on the periphery, but become involved in the whirlpool of human emotions causing them to shed their innocence as they gain knowledge and experience.

The children live in Maycomb described as a tired old town by young Scout who is occasionally poetic in her descriptions." To the people of Maycomb "the day was 24 hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb county. Their father Atticus Finch derived a reasonable income from the law. He liked Maycomb where he knew his people and was related to almost every family either through blood or marriage." The children share a very close bond with their father and the housekeeper Calpurnia. In this close setting everyone knows what is happening to everybody else and the children grow up in this tight community learning to form strong bonds as well as firm prejudices.

The centre plot of the story revolves round a case which Atticus Finch handles much to the disapproval of the white community. Tom Robinson, the accused, is a black and comes from the working class. Scout learns that her father's stand and his intentions of defending an innocent black man is going to leave a trail of violence in which she and Jem her brother are eventually caught and get hurt. Throughout the tale we are treated to fine descriptive flourishes with which the child recalls the tense moments in the court room and beyond. The reader comprehends more than the child narrator the specific details of the case and the charm of the story lies in this quaint method of narration which allows a lot of space for the reader to make story sense without authorial intrusion in spite of the use of the first person narrative device.

Atticus explains patiently that he is defending Tom Robinson because Tom comes from a decent family and if he as a lawyer did not defend him he would have no self-respect left. He says :"I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature; couldn't ever tell you or Jem not to do something again."

During the course of the story we are treated to a number of little incidents all of which have a bearing on the main plot. The mad dog incident shows the children that their father is pretty handy with his gun and is not physically feeble as they think him to be. The coming of aunt Alexandria as a permanent guest to their home, the visit to the church with Calpurnia's people, Dill's escapades are all episodes which help the plot to develop and reach the anticipated climax.

The tension of the court-room scenes is heightened by the fact that the details of that sordid case is not fit for children to hear. Scout compares the atmosphere in the court-room to "a cold February morning when the mocking birds were still.." Atticus Finch loses his battle and Tom Robinson is convicted despite Atticus' brilliant defence. The black community displays their gratitude by various touching gestures and Atticus plans to go for an appeal. Tom Robinson, the innocent man convicted unfairly decides to take matters into his own hands, escapes from jail and is shot down. One would expect the story to end here but surprisingly it doesn't. Even as we hear of the unfair harassment faced by Tom's wife, Scout and Jem face assault at the hands of Bob Ewell who has a big grudge against Atticus for defending Tom Robinson.

At the end of the day young Scout realises that both she and her brother Jem have "grown, but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra". The book closes with Atticus watching over his sleeping children and his parting words to his little daughter are "Most people are "real nice", Scout, when you finally see them'. After reading the final lines most readers would like to concur with the tribute paid by the Minneapolis Tribune: "the reader will find an immense satisfaction... and a desire, on finishing it, to start again on page one".

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