I was saddened today by the reality of the world we live in. My classes have just recently finished To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's classic coming-of-age story. For the last few years, I haven't shown the Academy Award winning movie in its entirety because I've had a hard time getting the students to actually watch it. They spend more time complaining about how much they "hate old movies" and gasping, "Oh, you mean it's in black and white?" that I haven't bothered (with how often they beg to see movies in class, and how I haven't shown one all year, you'd think they'd just be excited regardless of what it was!). I could only manage to show the trial scene of Tom Robinson and keep their attention.Well, with some of my classes, I decided I would show the whole thing because of scheduling issues elsewhere. After the initial complaining, the kids actually started to get into it. I was very pleased. As the movie starts to wrap up, there is a pivotal scene right at the end of the movie (and book) where the neighborhood "phantom" Arther "Boo" Radley, who nobody has scene in over 15 years and has a suburban full of rumors in tow, saves children Scout and Jem from the murderous attack of the villain of the story. Scout, the main character and narrator, is finally face to face with the person who has filled her young head with so many wild imaginings, only to learn that Boo is not at all the scary and twisted character she and so many others imagined, and in fact has saved her and her brother's lives. She spends a few moments alone with him, they stare quietly and with concern at Jem, and she even encourages him to "pet" her unconscious older brother on the head while he is still asleep; she can tell that that is what he wants to do.
The problem? Enter the interpretations of students growing up in our modern world. A world where leaving a child alone with a strange man is dangerous. A world where a man who follows children, as Boo Radley did, is a pedophile. A world where a strange man staring at and petting on the head a child is not to be trusted. A world where a father who leaves his kids alone with a person who is rumored to peek in windows at night and lurks in shadows is irresponsible because of the dangers and what-if's that are rampant. And in this present that exists, my students snickered, gasped, and gaped at the wholly innocent and touching scene that closes the movie.
I hope and pray that To Kill A Mockingbird, arguably one of the best known and loved of American novels, stays relevant but more so that we never get to the point where kindness and tenderness are so unrecognizable that they disappear forever.
5 comments:
Well said, I couldn't agree with you more!! p.s. I LOVE that book and movie!!
I love the scene where the segregated section of the court stands for Atticus when he leaves the court room. Gives me the goose-pimples every time.
This very reason is why I love books such as TKAM, as well as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (which I need to get out in the mail to you ASAP): I felt such a sense of nostalgia when I read them, despite not living in the time period of either novel. Were there issues in society that were less than ideal then? Of course. But I sometimes long for a time when implications of simple acts weren't so serious, when one could feel relatively safe in their own homes and communities, and when innocence was still a reality for most until they became adults. It's sad that in a seemingly small (dare I say isolated?) sleepy community like Cedar doesn't even provide those luxuries any more.
We were just talking about this in my institue class tonight. Our teacher told us about someone who saw a crying child and wanted to hug them in comfort but because the child was not theirs they knew that it wouldn't look good. It is too bad that kind acts are so hard to do now days.
My students watch this every year and adore it. Perhaps the freshmen aren't mature enough to handle the content, I show it to juniors.
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