Harper Lee's evocative piece, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most profound pieces of American literature of the 20th Century. A central factor leading to its impactful nature is the development of relatable characters, whether laudable or despicable, which have since become archetypes of certain personas. These personalities represent interminable characteristics of American history and highlight elements of the development of the American social conscience.
Since the initial publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch has been a symbol of an individual whose moral compass points true North. Interestingly, Atticus is assigned the defense of Tom Robinson, he does not seek it out himself. This makes his character especially important because rather than making Atticus a crusader for equality, he is portrayed as a man answering a call of duty, a notion much more understandable to the average reader at the time of publication in the early 1960's. Atticus faces a difficult circumstance in that he resides in an environment hostile to the efforts he is charges to carry out in the name of the law.
As the trial of Tom Robinson ends and his conviction is pronounced, Atticus and his son Jem have a moment of commiseration over the lack of justice in these proceedings. This established an incredibly important characteristic of Atticus Finch. His role as a father carries pedagogical responsibilities and his son's outrage at the injustice of Tom's conviction asserts in the reader's mind that Atticus has been successful as a father in teaching true morality based on objective principals and not a version of morality that is subjective in nature, manipulable by design, and reactionary in practice.
Lee's exhibition of Atticus Finch is brought full circle following Bob Ewell's attack on the Fnch children and subsequent demise. Atticus eventually accepts that the official report of Ewell's death will relate that is was accidental despite this obviously not being true. This moment indicates to the reader that ultimately Atticus Finch's moral responsibility holds firm even when not in concert with the laws of the land, highlighting that the greatest moral obligation is to justice. Justice being served, Atticus returns to tend his children, thus beginning, traversing, and ending the novel in much the same note, that of answering a call of duty.
Dear Mr. Radley,
Atticus says I have to write you this letter so I am but I just want you to know that even if he hadn't said that I got to I would anyhow. I wanted to tell you thanks for coming to help me and Jem when Mr. Bob Ewell came after us with that knife. It was kind of you and mighty brave. I wish I were as brave as you Boo, I really do. I also wanted to thank you for all the presents you been leaving for us in that tree. Me Jem and Dill, Dill is the other boy aside from Jem who I'll probably marry pretty soon, well we three sure did get a hoot out of all those things though we only just figured its been you leaving them.
I also wanted to tell you something else. Me and Atticus aren't going to tel anybody it was you that saved us from Bob Ewell. Jem figures you'd just as soon not have people patting you on the back and taking your picture for the papers. He says you stay all shut up in your house because you want to and I reckon that it isn't so bad as I once thought. Though if you ever decide you want to come out and have a swim or something, I promise I won't even dunk your head in the water and you can come over and have dinner after if you want to.
Since you probably been at home all this time maybe you didn't hear but Tom Robinson is dead. He got shot trying to run away from jail. Sometimes I still think about sitting up in that colored gallery, hearing that jury say that Tom was guilty of doing them terrible things. I think about how damn mad I am, more so even than Atticus about it and I find I wish more people were just like you Boo. Never hurting a soul and doing nothing but bringing a little bit of happiness into peoples' days. I reckon if a person has got to be one way, that’s the way they ought to be.
Well, I guess I better get going. I have to write a letter for Dill also, Atticus says he will send them both for me. I will check that tree stump tomorrow to see if I have anything back from you.
Sincerely,
The following is a conversation between Mayella Ewell and Tom Robinson in poetic form. In this poem the two characters in Harper Lee's epic work that were most made victim of circumstance come to understand one another and in so doing paint a clear picture of the true evil of the circumstances to which both became prisoners. The verses alternate speakers with each stanza alternately belonging to Tom or Mayella. The last stanza is recited together. Mayella Opens:
The dusky emanation of light of your flesh
Drew deeply on the desire of my loins
A woman is a woman no matter how battered
A man is a man until his life is shattered
You gripped my face and kissed me lightly
A paradox of being gripped me tightly
Flesh of body by nature desired
Flesh of my mind in fear perspired
I never knew what die I had cast
Is it so wrong to want to live outside for a moment?
I yearned for freedom, for only a moments breath
Instead I earned only blood spilt and your death
My will was consecrated and laid forfeit
The first by the Almighty and then by his children
Where can I run when there is no attic to hide me
Where can I hide when 17 shots will find me
The day should never have been born nor I to see it through
My breast is cursed that it could draw no love
I feared my protector that he took of my body
And my rotted rest searched –
For what now? That I could deliver reprieve?
That grabbed you and beat you and blasphemed to heaven
And now my life ends with my body unleavened
So did my blood break those shackles upon your wrist
Or was it in truth Boo Radley’s knife twist?
Instead I lay in pieces for my wife to claim
And children forced to carry on my colored name
Yet any anger that might conflagrate falls to embers, to ashes, to cinders
The bars of your prison hinder my hatred
Prisoners are we both, we struck at the bars
We looked right and left and above at the scars
But freedom shall be called for daughter and son
Wisdom shall be known that our souls may live, never alone
