To Kill a Mockingbird - 1st Reflection

 To Kill a Mockingbird - 1st Reflection

 

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by the now esteemed-author, Harper Lee, was published in 1960, and became a smash-hit instantly when it came out. The story was revealed layer by layer by the protagonist, Scout Finch, a nine-year-old girl living in a self-isolated community of Maycomb City, Alabama. Through her untainted and naïve mindset, we see her inner-thoughts and interactions with the courageous, troubled, selfish or condemned people of her hometown.

 

And from my self-introduction and my tone in the previous paragraph, you might’ve guessed I am absolutely astounded, moved, and whatever-positive-adjective-you-can-think-of about the heart-wrenching plot and characters in this book. To give you a more comprehensive view of the overall theme of this novel, I will divulge in one of my favorite arcs in this plot.

 

This little story begins with rumors about a Mrs. Dubose. It was said that she kept a pistol at all times underneath all the wraps of clothing she wore. Every time Scout and Jem Finch, her older brother, walked past the Dubose house, Mrs. Debose would holler hideous and disrespectful accusations at them. However, their father, Atticus Finch, tipped his hat and greeted her with a smile no matter how ugly and vicious Mrs. Dubose’s spat was. He was a gentleman and told Scout and Jem to hold their head high and don’t mind her.

 

However, it all went wrong when Mrs. Dubose accused Atticus Finch as “a piece of trash like the people he works for.” At this time, Atticus had just taken on the defense for a black man in court; Jem and Scout had experienced the ripple effect, mainly consisting of ridicules and exclusion from school peers. They did as Atticus told them, holding their heads high, but this time, Jem went mad and destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s camellia in her garden. When Atticus found out, he made Jem apologize to Mrs. Debose, and she wanted Jem to read stories for her for two hours at a time for a month as compensation. Despite his weariness and unwillingness,  he did so and hated every second of it. Mrs. Dubose would lay on her bed motionless, seemingly spacing-out, but every time Jem made a mistake in his reading, she was sharp to point it out. And she was adamant on telling Jem how much of a scum his father was and Jem should regret destroying her flowers. As time went on, she closed her eyes and all her limbs released a tension and fell asleep. Then, Jem and Scout went home and sat in anxious anticipation for the next reading.

 

Their sessions went on longer and longer each time; however, Mrs. Debose’s sudden fits filled with nasty words were less frequent. Jem and Scout now held a sort of indifference toward these fits; the words still brought out a fierce fire in their spines, but the Finches never lashed out anymore. Atticus went with Jem and Scout one time; Mrs. Debose smiled at him and said she hadn’t had a fit in nearly two hours. It was agonizing for Jem and Scout. Over a month after the reading session ended, Atticus revealed that Mrs. Debose had died. Mrs. Debose had been a morphine addict. She could’ve spent the rest of her short life on it and die without pain, but she refused.

 

“She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did,” Atticus said to Jem. The fits were one of the symptoms from withdrawing her addiction, and what Jem and Scout thought was torture sent from hell was actually a welcomed distraction for Mrs. Debose’s pain and suffering.

 

And the next lines of dialogue were one of the most transcendently beautiful words ever composed. Atticus said to Jem, “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. Mrs. Debose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I know.”

 

I read through the eyes of Scout, and at first, I thought how much of an unruly and despicable woman Mrs. Debose was. Just like the rumors suggested, she held a grudge with everyone in this community. But when the truth was revealed, I had it all wrong. Not everything is what they seem. Rumors, our perceived-perspectives, our projection, they all help us paint a layer of somebody’s action in a different light.  

 

I remember playing a game called The Beginner’s Guide. The protagonist loved playing and creating video games, and he met a person named Coda in a video game convention. He thought Coda’s games were like nothing he had seen before, they were innovative and personal. They became friends and they created game for each other to play. Then, he realized Coda’s games became increasingly dark, incorporating themes like loneliness, depression, peer-pressure, social anxiety and such. He wanted to help Coda break through this invisible wall they had with the outside world; therefore, he started showing people Coda’s games without their consent. People really liked it, and the protagonist thought he did a great thing; he helped his friend. However, Coda then wrote a letter dedicated to him in a game. They said making games with dark-themes did not mean they were depressed, and the fact that the protagonist saw them as such said more about his own state-of-mind than Coda. The protagonist wanted recognition, attention; he wanted to be a good person. He was projecting his state-of-mind onto Coda’s games, and he then used their games to receive the attention he wanted for himself.

 

This makes me wonder, how many times have I thought someone was one way but fails to see the suffering underneath the surface? Or have I ever thought someone was desperately crying for help due to my own state-of-mind when they were simply playing with a dark-themed idea? Our opinions on someone or something often times are hindered by other unrelated influence, and the subjects in question become narrow and one-dimensional. And in the story of To Kill a Mockingbird, almost everyone has an agenda that paints everything else in a different light. In Jem and Mrs. Debose’s story, I learned that, at first, Mrs. Debose was seen as a demon descended from hell for the Finches, but she posed as a blessing in disguise. They learned not to bow down for empty accusations; they learned not to make of someone from rumors and face value; they learned it was courageous to commit to something even though they might be of disadvantage and have a high chance of failure.