March 21: To Kill a Mockingbird

I just finished rereading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To be honest, "rereading" is not quite accurate. I don't think that I ever actually read the entirety of this book. I'm pretty sure I read the sparknotes for this book when I was first assigned to read it in high school. I barely remember any of the plot points, so it felt like I was reading it for the first time (...because I probably was.). Some of the book is absolutely shocking, like the repeated use of the n-word and the blasé attitudes and descriptions of Black people (I couldn't believe that I was assigned to read this in high school!) but I could also see how the shockingness of it was also an incredible teachable lesson about how people really were treated (...or in some cases, still are treated) versus how they should be treated. 

I continue to delight in reading on my kindle because I can highlight passages and take notes while I read, and I'd like to share some delightfully meaningful and powerful statements I highlighted:

"There are just some kind of men who--who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one." [I used to preach on this theme all-the-time. It continues to bother me that many Christians are so concerned about the afterlife that they totally neglect the real live world they are living in.]

"Cry about the simple hell people give other people--without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too." [We are all people. I still don't understand why people don't get this. And more than this, we are all creatures (animals and plants too). How do we get people to realize this? How can we get people to stop and think before they say or do things?]

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." - Scout. "If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other?" - Jem [If we were able to finally get people to realize that we are all members of the human race (or the creatures on Earth race), maybe we could all just get along?]

I also loved the symbolism of the mockingbird, which I'm sure I had once learned about, but had totally forgotten. After Atticus buys his kids air rifles, he warns them that they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", but they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" because mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. They simply provide pleasure with their songs and don't deserve to die. 'To kill a mockingbird' is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson, the Black man in the book who is on trial for raping a white woman, which he very obviously didn't do. Interestingly, I couldn't help but connect the mockingbird to the mockingjay in the Hunger Games, which I also just reread. Mockingbirds represent innocent victims, while blue jays are strong, aggressive birds (the genetically engineered jabberjay is even more so). Combine the two and you get mockingjays...victims who are forced to rise up in resistance against oppressive authority.

Totally fun, random, delightful, and coincidental fact: Thomas Jefferson had a pet mockingbird named "Dick". 

With delight,

♥Jamie