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The author, Harper Lee, was writing about her small Southern hometown, where upper class white children had little to fear.
Those "woods" during the day were an easy shortcut home. At night things look very different.
When you think about it this is the kind of place people wearing MAGA hats want so badly.
Predictable, safe. Black/brown people over there and white people over here. Bad people easily identified. And yet look who the bad guys were in the book. Not who you think.
So it's been a while since I watched "To Kill A Mockingbird". But tonight when I watched it again something really hit me.
The two children are at a school pageant, and they're still at school at 10 p.m. Alone. "Scout" was in the pageant. Where is dad? He didn't go to see his daughter in a once a year pageant? Where is the Black lady that takes care of the family? She didn't go, either. No, the adults just stayed home and let the little children walk home through the woods alone after 10 p.m.
I know parents didn't used to be as over-protective of children as they are today, but this really seems bizarre now that I think of it.
Monroeville,AL is actually my home town. (AKA Macomb)
It was not uncommon even in my childhood years in the 80s to be out late in the spring/summer/fall without parents around. It was a quiet town where everyone knew everyone else and the community kept an eye on children. Times have definitely changed but I still occasionally see a kid or two walking down the street when we go home to visit later in the evening with no parents.
The author, Harper Lee, was writing about her small Southern hometown, where upper class white children had little to fear.
Those "woods" during the day were an easy shortcut home. At night things look very different.
When you think about it this is the kind of place people wearing MAGA hats want so badly.
Predictable, safe. Black/brown people over there and white people over here. Bad people easily identified. And yet look who the bad guys were in the book. Not who you think.
This is where you have it all wrong.......
No children had anything to fear. The town is not segregated at all. In all actuality it is about 80% black and 20% white now. Everyone co-exists and race just really isn't an issue despite people who have never been there desperately wanting it to be so that it fits a narrative. If you go visit Monroeville and the surrounding towns you'll quickly see that it's completely different in reality than the depiction in a book. I graduated as one of three white people in my class. None of us really dealt with race until we moved away from home. Before that people were just people (as silly as that sounds to race baiters). It's the way we were raised.
The book isn't completely factual by any stretch. Folks who live there have normally kept pretty quiet about what really happened and since a lot of the elderly people who were around during the time that the book supposedly happened have passed on there aren't many people left to tell the truth. The book was written to evoke emotion and it did just that.
Harper Lee and my grandmother used to quilt together during the weekdays. I've heard a lot of stories from her as a child. Her goal was to write a fictional book that depicted white people standing alongside blacks because it was the right thing to do in a time where that was uncommon practice in the South. She wanted to show that there were good people in the world regardless of what others thought. And as an FYI... she didn't write the entire book. She did contribute to it but the book was written in large by her "cousin" "Dill" who most know as Truman Capote. The characters were made up as was most of the content of the book.
But don't take my word for it. Take a visit there and run upon an elderly local and ask them yourself.
I know parents didn't used to be as over-protective of children as they are today, but this really seems bizarre now that I think of it.
Besides the fact that most of the locations in the town were only a couple of blocks apart and most everyone really did know each other, the logistical reasons for the adults not being there were explained in the novel:
Atticus had been working in the state legislature in Montgomery.
Calpurnia was an employee and had gone home.
They also had an aunt who was going to go but wasn't feeling well when it came time, so brother Jem went with Scout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nlambert
This is where you have it all wrong.......
Yeah, that poster missed the entire point of the book.
Besides the fact that most of the locations in the town were only a couple of blocks apart and most everyone really did know each other, the logistical reasons for the adults not being there were explained in the novel:
Atticus had been working in the state legislature in Montgomery.
Calpurnia was an employee and had gone home.
They also had an aunt who was going to go but wasn't feeling well when it came time, so brother Jem went with Scout.
Yeah, that poster missed the entire point of the book.
Absolutely correct.
The distance between Boo Radley's house and the courthouse for example is less than two blocks. (Look up the intersection of Oak Street and Hwy 21 on google maps) It is now a gas station. Truman Capote's house was two doors north of that gas station on Hwy 21. Harper Lee lived on South Mount Pleasant Avenue, one street to the west of Hwy 21 and about 2 blocks from the courthouse. Directly west of what is now the elementary school (and was the school in the book). All within a 5 minute walk.
No children had anything to fear. The town is not segregated at all. In all actuality it is about 80% black and 20% white now. Everyone co-exists and race just really isn't an issue despite people who have never been there desperately wanting it to be so that it fits a narrative. If you go visit Monroeville and the surrounding towns you'll quickly see that it's completely different in reality than the depiction in a book. I graduated as one of three white people in my class. None of us really dealt with race until we moved away from home. Before that people were just people (as silly as that sounds to race baiters). It's the way we were raised.
I should.... did you read the part where I said that I grew up there? I've heard a lifetime of stories and met many of the characters that were depicted in the book.
My grandparents were teenagers in the 30's and had a very vivid recollection of the events that took place in the town. The issues that people depict just weren't there. Monroeville is and always has been a poor community. Everyone worked together to survive. Racism just wasn't a huge problem there because no one could afford to have anything divide them. It took the entire community to get by.
I should.... did you read the part where I said that I grew up there? I've heard a lifetime of stories and met many of the characters that were depicted in the book.
My grandparents were teenagers in the 30's and had a very vivid recollection of the events that took place in the town. The issues that people depict just weren't there. Monroeville is and always has been a poor community. Everyone worked together to survive. Racism just wasn't a huge problem there because no one could afford to have anything divide them. It took the entire community to get by.
You gave us a description of what the town is like now.
There was a time, believe it or not, when parents didn't fetishize their childrens' "activities."
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