"When you've been licked before you begin..."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I suppose this one can't rightly be called a book I didn't understand in high school because I actually read it in eighth grade, but you get the point. (I'm going to again be assuming you've read the book though I don't reveal any key plot details, I don't think.)

Maybe I should explain this series in more detail before I get into this particular book. We've all read (or at least read the SparkNotes of) many many highly-regarded novels in school that, for the most part, we didn't "get" or appreciate so much. Sometimes this might be a function of rebellion against school, so we don't give it the full attention it deserves. Sometimes this might be the fault of the teacher not being talented enough to make us understand what made it so special.

But my theory is that the main reason is that, as 13-16 even 17 or 18 year olds, our minds just haven't developed sufficiently or encountered enough for us to grasp the greatness of these books. This is probably still true and will continue to be for the rest of my life--I'll probably read Gatsby again in five years and see fifteen things I didn't notice this time. But hopefully, at least I now have a better understanding of just how much I'm missing.

My experience with Plato has been a perfect example of this that's only taken about 7 or 8 months to happen. When I began reading things like the Apology and the Meno and other dialogues, I didn't think I was getting everything, but I did think I was getting most things. But after spending so much more time with him, and now trying to write a paper on Apology and reading Meno slowly in the original Greek, I now know a lot more about the dialogues, but even more, I can see that I haven't even scratched the surface of the levels Plato is working on*. It takes time, effort, and a lot of experience to understand great writers, things which we are not afforded as high school students. I am now trying to remedy the things I've missed because of this.

*I still haven't decided if I think Plato or Shakespeare is the most talented writer that ever lived--you'll have to wait 'til next year for that--but Plato is truly awe-inspiring when you spend a lot of time with him, even when you disagree with a lot of his premises. I guess all you regular-school-non-philosophy-majors will just have to trust me on this.

Okay, back to the book. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most famous and most loved American novels ever. I don't know that a lot of people consider it to be the proverbial "Great American Novel,"* but it's one of six or seven that are at least in the discussion.

When I read this many years ago, I didn't even begin to understand how this could be true. I thought the first half was merely a bunch of collected children stories and the second half a pretty simple look at racism with a nice sappy-sweet, don't-judge-a-book-by-its cover-conclusion.** While this isn't totally false, it's a vast oversimplification.

*What's the deal with this "Great American Novel" stuff, anyway? Does anyone ever ask what the "Great Russian Novel" is, or the "Great English Novel?" To tell you the truth though, I kind of like it. It's as if we're saying that American life is so unique, so individual that it demands a perfect representation of itself (and, well, I kind of believe this. I love America). Because "Great American Novel" does not mean best novel by an American. It means the novel that capture the American experience. For the record, the ones I think that people consider to be in the discussion are: Huckleberry Finn, TKaM, Gatsby, Catch-22, On the Road, Moby Dick (haven't read), The Sound and the Fury (haven't read) and maybe The Grapes of Wrath (also haven't read). My vote would obviously be for Gatsby.

**Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think I read the second half of TKaM at all and just came to that conclusion based on class discussion. Hmmmm....

So on my second reading, I think this book is a wonderfully charming representation of America. This is why TKaM is one of those books that is in the GAN discussion: it synthesizes the American experience--a people demanding freedom while having the face their own contradictions, wide-eyed innocence in the face of profound injustice--into an easy-to-read, sweet story that eventually has a very hopeful view of our country's potential.

No, TKaM is not a towering work of art the way Gatsby or Huckleberry Finn is, but it does capture a people in a way only those two books really have. You have Atticus, the American ideal, the man who believes in freedom, in God, in courage*, and above all, in justice no matter the consequences. Then there's Scout, a rebellious freedom-loving innocent who seems to make the same "Screw it, then I'll go to hell" decision that Huck Finn makes. Bob Ewell, the dark, ignorant heart of America. And of course, Boo Radley, the basic goodness hiding and lurking in the principles of this country.

*"Courage is [...] when u know you've been licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through not matter what."** Just wonderful. That's Atticus in a sentence.

**Oh, so I couldn't find this quote at first, so I searched for it on a Google. The first hit for it is this. It's an essay from a site called "eCheat," so I'm assuming you're supposed to use this to cheat on papers. Well, let me just say that if you're stupid enough to think that's any good, then, well, no matter how much you cheat, you're going to have a little bit of trouble in school...Even beyond how stupid and poorly written it is, you would have to be from New York AND be a highly-ranked tennis player for it to work. I mean, Jesus.

Am I making too much of the connection to America as a country? Probably, and TKaM certainly works almost as well as a simple story of justice and the human spirit, but I think it's more than that. I don't think you can separate TKaM from the context of America and the civil rights movement that was in its infancy when Harper Lee penned her one and only novel, nor would I want to. It may not be the "Great American Novel," but it is one of the definitive statements of what it means to be an American.

*Edited for clarity*

Pictures from Marshall.edu and IMDB