To Kill a Mocking Bird
Harper Lee
April 14th 2010
“Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.” This quote is from Atticus, explaining how the inequality of African Americans is not right. The people that Atticus described can even be called immoral and irrational by some. This is why I believe the theme in this book is about the morality and the rationality of humans.
The hatred of Boo Radley among the citizens of Maycomb clearly proves how morality and rationality are the fundamental ideas of this book. The irrational part of this point was that the children were quick to assume about Boo Radley. A good example of this was how they thought Boo was a monster. Validating your assumptions with biased rumours is irrational, since an opinion or assumption should be based on credible references. This leads to prejudice, ignorance, and even hatred upon poor Boo. In addition to that, the morality aspect of Boo’s victimization is that Jem, Scout, and Dill should not have judged or ridiculed Boo, by thinking he was a monster, since no human deserves that. If I were in the story, I would ask “How would you feel if you were criticized, like Boo?” to Jem, Scout, and Dill. In conclusion, I feel that people have ridiculed Boo irrationally, and have immorally shunned him, even to the point where people were afraid to mention him.
Another similar case is evident in the story, which relates to how Boo Radley was criticized, and this individual’s name in this book was Tom Robinson. This piece of evidence leads to my point, on how rationality and morality are a vital idea in this novel. The townspeople in this story were again, prejudiced and assumed without any evidence of Tom raping Mrs. Ewell in the first place, just like how they blatantly accused Boo Radley. This is a great example of the failure of reasoning and the ability to rationalize among the non-African American population of Maycomb. Morality also comes into play in this event. From a Christian point of view, the bible depicts that pride is wrong. I am not a Christian; however, I know that most people during that time period in the States practised Christianity. Because of this, I can safely hypothesize that those people, being Christians, were being proud of their race since they think of themselves highly compared to the blacks, and that is presumably wrong. (This also technically makes them hypocritical.) For example, in the book, many characters have looked down upon Tom Robinson’s case, even though he was clearly innocent. Another good example is how people shunned Atticus and his children because Atticus was defending a black man. In a more universal, ethical perspective, it is morally wrong to make a hierarchy of races in a species, and criticizing them just because of the color, or any other feature of their physical appearance. From the modern democratic view, physical characteristics are clearly insubstantial to judge a person. It is what’s underneath the skin that determines the nature of that person. That is why the popular phrase, “It’s not what’s on the outside. It’s what’s inside” is so used. It gives good ethical and even rational points upon this subject. Therefore, the case of Tom Robinson also proves how rationality and morality of humans is a reoccurring theme in this book.
Tom was being criticized for being black; however, he was not the only one since racism is a controversial matter inside this book. Because of Tom’s case, Atticus, and even his children, Scout and Jem, have been ridiculed by the others because they are defending a black man. Another example of racism is when Jem and Scout entered the African church. The author described the church as if it were literally going to fall apart, since it was that old. The reason why the black people were in this church was because that was all they could afford. The racism towards them closed their door of freedom, and made them less wealthy compared to the white people. I think of racism as a term used to discriminate against another person because of their color of their skin. As we see in the incident of Tom Robinson, it is the inside of a person, which counts. From a more rational or logical view, an individual’s mind or intelligence is not affected by their skin color. The genetics, the opinion, the personality, and everything else inside of the person, are what makes them, them. From the biological view and Darwin’s theory of evolution, it is a fact that all humans evolved from a common ancestor. Because of these biological facts, we can presume that all humans are equal. This means, having hierarchal levels of humans is illogical and morally incorrect. Clearly, only by analyzing the novel from a moral and rational perspective, can we understand the workings of discrimination evident in the novel.
At the surface level, the novel seems to revolve around the good and evil within people. Yet, at a deeper level, the whole idea of good and evil originated from peoples’ rationalities. All of this criticism, ostracism, and racism have one thing in common – people simply do not reason and make rational opinions. They unrightfully assume without credible information, and thus, “judge a book, by its cover”. And because of this ignorance, people have immorally judged, and punished others who were innocent. Because of all of these facts, including; the case of Boo Radley, the case of Tom Robinson, and the racism towards the general black people in this novel, I conclude that the main theme is about the morality and the rationality of humans.
No comments:
Post a Comment