{"id":90,"date":"2023-09-10T21:22:06","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T21:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zeldasdaughters.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2023-09-10T21:23:30","modified_gmt":"2023-09-10T21:23:30","slug":"what-ive-learned-from-reading-to-kill-a-mockingbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeldasdaughters.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/10\/what-ive-learned-from-reading-to-kill-a-mockingbird\/","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019ve Learned from Reading To Kill a Mockingbird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last March, my nephew and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby girl and named her Harper Lee, not because they\u2019re huge fans of the author or her famous novel, but just because they love the name. I must confess that until this past summer I\u2019d never read To Kill a Mockingbird,<\/em> was never assigned it in high school or college, and though it was high on my reading bucket list, I\u2019d frankly never had the impetus I needed to trot down to the local library or bookstore and acquire it. There was always a more current bestseller to contend with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter little Harper Lee. Her exquisite face and namesake shot that novel\u2019s place from the middle of my bucket list to the top, so late one night last August I ordered the book off Amazon and was excited when it arrived. I saw the sweet-faced girl on the cover, knew she was the Scout I\u2019d long heard about, and started reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I must also confess that about 60 pages in, I found Scout\u2019s voice and her many character references, both direct and indirect, charming, compelling\u2014and confusing. Though it wasn\u2019t entirely foreign, I couldn\u2019t quite \u201cget\u201d the rhythm and syntax of Scout\u2019s voice, which I heard as simultaneously child- and adult-like. This is one of the most engaging aspects of Lee\u2019s novel (there are many, of course). Like an intricate dance step, I had to practice the auditory one-two-three, one-two-three; in my first reading, the muscle memory wasn\u2019t indelible. I also had to figure out the nature of this Boo Radley (what a great name!) fellow Scout, Jem, and Dill are so bent on harassing throughout most of the book\u2019s first half. Their preoccupation with the phantom-like Boo caught me entirely off-guard, as I\u2019d long heard the crux of Mockingbird<\/em> centers on the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman. Naturally, I had expected to bear witness to the actual or fabricated crime, the characters involved, the courtroom scene, but those don\u2019t spring to life until the second half of the novel. My first lesson, as in life: never assume!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I still have questions about the book\u2019s opening because it seems to contradict the edict we fiction writers hear on the first day of creative writing class: \u201cShow, Don\u2019t Tell.\u201d From the first sentence to the top of page seven, we are told about Jem\u2019s broken arm, the Ewells, Simon Finch, Atticus, John Hale Finch, Maycomb, Montgomery, the Haverfords, the aforementioned Boo Radley, and other names and places, and that\u2019s just up to page five. No wonder I couldn\u2019t keep it all straight! Not that the writing isn\u2019t stellar, but it\u2019s a lot of information to take in so quickly. I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts on why the author begins with so much backstory. True, some of it alludes to the trial, and our narrator is now grown and looking back on this meaningful event, so the opening serves to frame that. I wonder, though, if Lee\u2019s manuscript came across an agent\u2019s or editor\u2019s desk today, would they advise the author to begin on page 7, when Scout and Jem first encounter Dill in Rachel Haverford\u2019s collard patch? Hmmm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I love most about this book is the childhood depiction of these three. On my second reading, Scout\u2019s voice and vernacular coalesced, and I realized that Dill is Capote to Scout\u2019s Lee. How amazing is it that these two eminent authors were childhood friends. What were they drinking in the hickory-infused water and smelling in the eucalyptus-scented air? If they could package and send it to Long Island, I\u2019d rattle the grill on the post office door to be the first to try it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, Lee\u2019s writing is impeccable. She\u2019s a master of simile, as in the following examples: \u201cLadies bathed before noon, after their three-o\u2019clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum,\u201d and how Boo Radley\u2019s house affects Dill: \u201c\u2026it drew him as the moon draws water.\u201d Aside from Lee\u2019s gift for simile, the narrative is so richly detailed, it\u2019s as though Scout knows every blade of grass that grows in Maycomb County. And much of that detail has a great dash of humor, as in the following: \u201cBoo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that\u2019s why his hands were blood-stained\u2014if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from Mockingbird\u2019s<\/em> timeless message about the evils of racism, the injustice of betrayal and hypocrisy, there\u2019s a trove of writing lessons to learn if you have the time and inclination to read or reread the text as one who luxuriates during a sultry Alabama summer afternoon. Take each sentence slowly; savor its richness. Notice how from page seven to 323, the scenes are primarily shown, not told; that is, they are carefully depicted, as though Lee has sketched Radley\u2019s sagging house, the cootie crawling out of Burris Ewell\u2019s scalp, and all the narrative details that follow. Underline the specifics in both description and dialogue, how carefully they define each character. Then emulate with exercises. Carefully depict a home in your story or novel. What quirk or habit does your main character have? What sets his or her face apart from the seven billion others on the planet? As I write this, I\u2019m learning and doing, and I plan to go through the entire novel again, hoping that by careful study and osmosis, I\u2019ll acquire even a fraction more craftmanship. No writer, I imagine, was ever harmed by this, or by Lee\u2019s inherent reminder of the lightning that strikes when we state things simply, directly. Let each specific word and detail capture time, space, and character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally important is to find joy in this endeavor. To remember why we love sitting down with a pen, a laptop, setting down word after word, page after page. The process is the journey. Approaching Mockingbird<\/em> with the intent of author-as-teacher I\u2019m sure will unveil a rich field of discovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last March, my nephew and his wife welcomed a beautiful baby girl and named her Harper Lee, not because they\u2019re huge fans of the author or her famous novel, but just because they love the name. I must confess that until this past summer I\u2019d never read To Kill a Mockingbird, was never assigned it … <\/p>\n

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