To Kill a Mockingbird - Confronting complexity
Harper Lee offers the antidote to hyper-polarization
Welcome to By the Books, a newsletter dedicated to capturing and distributing wisdom from works of classic literature.
Each post will take less than 5 minutes to read, and will feature one great book, including:
A brief summary
A distillation of relevant themes
One actionable insight
Live by the best books, one day at a time.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, "To Kill a Mockingbird" follows the story of a young girl named Scout, her brother Jem, and their father, the upright lawyer Atticus Finch. From Scout’s perspective, we watch Atticus defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. The story also follows Scout and Jem's interactions with their reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley, as their relationship progresses from fear to friendship.
Empathy is the driving force of this book. Atticus encourages his kids to see the world from other people's perspectives, and models uncompromising courage while defending Tom Robinson against a lynch mob. As does any great novel, it demonstrates both the good and evil that people are capable of, and that moral growth requires acknowledging and confronting this complexity.
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...
Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."
- Atticus Finch
Actionable Insight*
In a world of hyper-polarization, the idea that we ought to work to actually understand the people we disagree with could not be more pertinent. While it’s easy for us now to decry the racism and social prejudice on display in Lee’s story, it is equally important for us to see that even the guiltiest characters were less than complete villains. Atticus was a good lawyer not just because he wasn’t racist, but because he sought to fully understand the dynamics that had led to Tom Robinson’s horrible plight.
If we fail to truly understand the people we disagree with, we will fail to meaningfully improve the very things upon which those disagreements are rooted.
Try this: Pick a perspective that makes you angry, and experiment with defending it.
You might be surprised to discover that mentally advocating for an opposing viewpoint not only strengthens your own, it also helps build bridges with those who hold it.
In other words, be more like Atticus Finch.
*As a lover of literature, I must emphasize that the best way to truly absorb the wisdom of any work of literature is to actually read it, from start to finish, the way the author intended. I hope By the Books will occasionally inspire you to do just that.
If we all reasoned likeAtticus, the world would be a better place; humanity and empathy is what the world needs.
And if parents instilled values to their children when young, we would have a peaceful world.
I remember being let down as a kid that this wan’t the guide I was looking for.
Then being pleasantly surprised disirregardless