Harper Lee. The news of her passing was undoubtedly a very heartbreaking one, but felt like a personal loss as well. I was introduced to her masterpiece "To Kill A Mockingbird<" in middle school, and to this day, the book stands out as a one of a kind. Everything about the book had provoked such an emotional response within me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, since it not only sold more than 40 million copies but also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and was also adapted into an Academy Award-winning film.
For those who might not have read the book (please do!), and for those might need a little refresher: the book depicts the strivings of a small-town Alabama lawyer, Atticus Finch, on behalf of Tom Robinson, a black man charged with raping a white woman, and it casts the events through the lens of Finch's intelligent daughter, Scout. Despite its relative brevity, the book bears considerable weight, both in the gravity of its themes, and the care with which it treats them. It is now a novel that has become a staple of middle-school curriculums, and for several generations of readers, a coming-of-age story that spoke to their own losses of childhood innocence. Also, last year, she published her second book, "Go Set a Watchman," 55 years after the release of "To Kill a Mockingbird;" another wonderful, yet surprisingly controversial, read.
So, why and how is the book still so relevant and popular today?
How the book explains race relations:
Research suggests that the same racial prejudices that led to Robinson's conviction are thriving, if in more subtle ways, in courtrooms today. Numerous studies show that black defendants are more likely to be convicted of crimes than white defendants, and that those found guilty of murdering white victims are significantly more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murder blacks. In one study at Cornell, researchers also found that defendants with more stereotypically black features–a broad nose, thick lips and darker skin--were more likely to receive a death sentence in crimes against a white victim.
It explains to readers who don’t understand why minorities are afraid of the criminal justice system, because we have not gotten, historically, justice in that system. And Harper Lee was the first person to tell that to the largest group of Americans–40 million strong (and counting!), who’ve been her readers–in the most polite and quiet way that many of them were willing to listen to.
On students’ experiences with “To Kill a Mockingbird:"
Reading the novel can be quite a complex experience, depending on who you identify with. It has also helped open the eyes of many readers, and has further encouraged them to think from other perspectives both from a judicial and everyday viewpoint.
Whether or not the book still has lessons to teach:
I think that the question that Harper Lee raises in "TKAM" needs to be raised again, and that is, ‘how is white America raising their children?’ Scout is the example of the kind of moral insight a child should be raised to have. Because of how relevant the book is and has been in both her time and our current trying times as well, it will always be a significant read and will also educate those on the flaws of the justice system.
That being said, it’s clear that Lee's legacy will live on much longer, through her characters and the readers who have embraced them for decades.
"Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends." -- "Go Set a Watchman"
Harper Lee, you will be missed.
