Two weeks ago I shared at the beginning of a sermon that “To Kill a Mockingbird” was in my canon, that is it reflects the values that are dearest to me. After the sermon a number of people came up to me and shared how much they love the book and they love Atticus. One person even said they named their son, “Atticus.”
The experience made me realize that I needed to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” again. I read the book for the first time in college in a literature class where I learned how to write. I don't know how many times I've read it since, but the book has been close to me. Though the actual book I had was so worn out that I ordered another one. It didn’t take long to finish this time as I’ve challenged myself to read fifty pages of some book every day. And even though I do my reading at an ungodly early hour, I fell in love with Atticus again.
I kept coming across quotes from him that captured my imagination. Quotes like:
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
I put that one on my Facebook page and received many comments.
Other
meaningful quotes for me were:
You
never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of
view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.
“Simply
because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us
not to try to win.”
“The
one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any
color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right
into a jury box.”
“It’s
never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows
you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.”
Atticus lived in a different time. I’ve been wondering since I read this book again how he would respond to the culture that we all find ourselves. It’s much easier to criticize publicly via Social Media those with whom we have disagreements. The thoughts that we shared behind closed doors are now frequently shared in public.
I wonder how Atticus would have handled this. Would he have a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram account?
His task was to try to understand the person in front of him—and to understand that person in a non-judgmental way. He would try to live in that person’s shoes for a while in order to come to the conclusions about why that person acted as he or she did.
So thought he disagreed with Bob Ewell and the jury who unfairly sentenced Tom Robinson, he still wanted to understand both.
I’ve tried to embrace this line of thinking in the past two weeks. I have as strong opinions about what is happening in our culture as most. I’ve avoided sharing my opinions via Social Media or even in my sermons. I’m still in the “understanding” phase. I’m doing my best to walk in the other person’s shoes and look at the world from that person’s perspective.
And admittedly I can respond as a person of privilege, just as Atticus was. I don’t have to immediately take actions. I am personally not suffering from what is happening in the culture. Atticus thought he wouldn’t suffer by defending Tom Robinson. But he was wrong and was fortunate that Bob Ewell didn’t kill his children.
Some
have questioned whether Atticus did enough in the novel to earn the praise that
he has.
The Contested Legacy of Atticus Finch | The New Yorker
And
some have wondered if Atticus fit into the mold of a “White Savior” that
actually disempowers people of different races. Atticus
Finch, Abraham Lincoln, and the Imagination of White Educators - National
Council of Teachers of English
These questions are important.
However right now we need more people to act like Atticus. To respond with integrity, to put themselves in another person’s shoes for an extended period of time and try to imagine how that person came to their conclusions, to fight for justice even when the result will be loss.
I’ve made a commitment to myself to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” every year in the foreseeable future. And who knows maybe next year I’ll be captured by Scout or Jem or even Boo Radley. But for now I’m doing my best to look at the world through the eyes of Atticus. I believe we need his wisdom.
