Essays on CLassicThis book review may have a key plot reveal
For a long time, I have wondered what education is. Is it more decent to wear an Armani than a Benelux? Then I realized that wearing Armani is indeed more decent than wearing Benelux, but I can’t say that it’s cultured. So what the hell is upbringing? After watching “To Kill a Bird with a Back Tongue,” I realized that upbringing is too complicated, but first of all, it should be justice, and justice is a kind of upbringing.
In the 1930s in the southern United States, a lawyer with a pair of children, they lived a dull life, the child’s childhood was nothing unfortunate, playful, and grow up. Once, they invited their poor classmate to their home for dinner, this classmate ate strangely, almost pouring a liter of syrup on the food, the little girl was puzzled and asked what he was doing. The servant took the girl to the kitchen and said, He is your guest, even if he wants to eat the tablecloth, you can’t say anything. One year, two children received two air rifles as a Christmas gift from a relative. Their father was not pleased with the gift, believing that the air rifles were an unfair advantage that God had given them over other animals.
The peaceful day is disrupted by an incident in which the father defends a black man accused of raping a white girl. The county thinks he’s gone mad, and trouble pours in. The children are verbally abused at school, believing that their father has disgraced himself by “helping the niggers. Her classmates’ insults enraged the little girl, and she punched and kicked her classmates. When she returned home, her father, who knew the reason for the fight, said to her, “Foolish, lowly people use it whenever they think someone cares more for the Negro than for them. …… If someone else thinks it’s a cheap expression and uses it to call you names, it’s never an insult to you. He can only show how pathetic that person is” What their father told them to do: hold their heads high, walk over to them, and be a gentleman.
In court, the lawyer does his best to defend the black man, and the truth of the matter is that the white girl seduced the black man, was run over by his father, the black man panicked and fled, and the white girl falsely claimed to have been raped. But the jury found him guilty, and his black skin was the sin. The daughter looked at her disappointed father as he walked out of the courtroom, and as all the blacks around her stood up, the man beside her gently reminded her, “Miss Joan Louise, stand up. Your father is coming through here.”
The story doesn’t end there, the disappointed family is chastised by those around them, but the pain stems more from the quest for justice: it’s not fair, when it comes to lawsuits, everyone knows the truth, but some will always win because of established ignorant prejudices and arbitrary power. The father said it was as if only children cried at this time. As they toyed with the two air rifles, the father said, “It doesn’t matter how many bluebirds you shoot, but remember that killing a mockingbird is a sin.” For they only sing for people to hear, and do nothing bad.
Seeing this added to my confidence in vain. If I am to be the mother of anyone in the future, I will tell him the same thing: Son, it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Many years ago there were uncles and aunts of my mother’s age who sang to this country with all their hearts, but they were forever stuck at my mother’s age. That was the most uneducated moment in this country.
And I would say to him, son, you have to stay in awe, that awe that a man has for a woman, that awe that civilization has for nature, that awe that people with power have for people without power. You don’t think that being brave with a gun in your hand is bravery; true bravery is when you know what is righteous and insist on not doing what is not righteous. Thinking about this I have one less fear of who I will become a mother to, I will walk through it with him with my head held high, as a gentleman.
