Content area
Full Text
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (New York: Arrow Books, Random House, 1997).
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been a very important factor in shaping my philosophy of life and to date remains an integral part of my moral conscience. Its global appeal lies in its depiction of childhood innocence, its scathing moral condemnation of racial prejudices, and its affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil. The book's important sub-themes involve the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the innocent, and how one can deal with it - having faith in the basic goodness of human nature or to retreat into a state of disillusionment.
My desire to write in the context of this novel emanates from the dynamics of the current forces that are shaping the societies and politics of our country and the United States, and even the rest of the world, and how long-held principles of honor, tolerance and justice have been inversed. While reading the novel, and understanding it in various phases of my life and evolving with it, I saw through it the country and people of the United States. I related to its heroes, their unwavering courage in the face of adversity, the challenges they faced and their relentless pursuit of justice. I saw the essence of humanity. I rejected the prejudices, hatred and ugliness of those who propounded such notions. This is the America that I came to love and admire. Atticus Finch was my hero; to date Gregory Peck's depiction of him in the movie is an indelible imprint on my memory, blurring the world of reality and fiction. When I was reading for the law, his following words were my inspiration:
But there is one way in which all men are created equal - there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and an ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court. It can be the Supreme Court of the United States, or the humblest J. P. Court in the land, or this honorable court which you serve. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution,...