To Kill a Mockingbird

Francine Prose argues that the popular novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a simple novel that does not require much thought process to analyze and is too quick in its separation of good and evil. She believes that the characters are too defined by their traits; that Atticus and Scout Finch are the good characters because they are the ones defined by American ideals like democracy and freedom, while Bob Ewell is a bad guy because he is a drunkard and he beats his kids. These certainly can make someone a good or bad person, but Prose claims that these traits are too black and white, that every day, real people would never act like this because real people are far more complex.

I disagree completely with Prose's thoughts about this novel. I was certainly perplexed by the writing the first time I read it. Prose says that To Kill a Mockingbird is "a chance to consider thorny issues of race and prejudice from a safe distance and with the comfortable certainty that the reader would never harbor racist attitudes espoused by the lowlifes in this novel." This statement is, in my own opinion, false. The novel provides for great discussions on the issues of racism, stereotyping, and growing up in general. Prose focuses too much on the outward appearance of the book, of what the main issue appears to be. She is missing a key element, though, and that is that Scout is not a "good guy" in this novel, but a student.

Scout knows nothing of racism and is extremely ignorant when it comes to this topic. Why? Because she's so young. She learns to treat others how her father does throughout the novel, because at first she is most likely just as racist as all of the other children in her neighborhood. When she defends her father in the beginning from the other kids, she is not defending his work in Tom Robinson's case but him. Her character is not so black and white, as she learns to grow up and be more like her father throughout the novel. Atticus, however, is pretty much the embodiment of everything that is good in the world.

Atticus has the power to harm people (his crack-shooting) but he chooses not to. Prose says that he and Bob Ewell are much too simply written characters and that people in real life would never be this far on either end of the spectrum. What Prose is forgetting here is that real people can be like this. We are not all so complex and have inner dilemmas with our good and evil natures. Atticus knew what he believed and knew what the right thing to do was and he did it despite what others thought. The other characters in this novel are not so inherently good or evil either, as many of them believe that what Atticus is doing is dangerous whether they approve or not. Boo Radley is a good example of this. He takes no stance on the issue of racism and is only defending Scout from Bob Ewell. Boo does this despite being locked up for years. He could have done anything or nothing during this time, as Harper Lee leaves it open to gossip and speculation, and he still chose to come to the childrens' aid. Boo is thought less of, thought to be crazy and evil, but he overcomes this for one spectacular moment, and then returns to being alone in his house.

Prose was much too quick to judge and her assumptions are wrong about To Kill a Mockingbird. She based her assumptions on what seemed to be true on the outside without facing the inner conflicts of the novel and its characters. They were not as simple as they seemed. In fact, they were very intricate. Prose's critical analysis of it was poorly executed and way too judgmental.