The following are several blog posts about a book
you read in 9th grade, To Kill
A Mockingbird. They are not offered
as perfect models. Instead, let’s look
at the strengths and weaknesses of each one as we consider what makes an
effective blog entry.
1. This blog post was taken from a blog for an
English class entitled Literature and Disability:
Jem was sprawled on the sofa reading
Popular Mechanics. He looked up. “It ain’t right. He didn’t kill anybody even
if he was guilty. He didn’t take anybody’s life.”
“You know rape’s a capital offense
in Alabama,” said Atticus.
“Yessir, but the jury didn’t have to
give him death—if they wanted to they could’ve gave him twenty years.”
“Given,” said Atticus. “Tom
Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to
say, ‘We think you’re guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that. It was
either a straight acquittal or nothing.” Chapter 23 Page 362
Harper Lee’s To Kill a
Mockingbird is full of different forms of disability. The forms that we
have looked at so far primarily deal with the physical and mental. In this
passage, however, there is another form of disability that takes place. Tom
Robinson’s life is essentially over when a white girl accuses him of rape.
Through the public eye, his race automatically makes him guilty. As Atticus
claims, “Tom Robinson’s a colored man.” (362). Including race as a form of
disability is extremely necessary because of how much of an influence race did
have on how society viewed groups of people; especially in the early 1900s. In
this story, the town of Maycomb in the 1930s was full of racial discrimination
and proves that race is, indeed, a form of disability. Although Tom Robinson
has a physical disability with his left hand, which cannot be ignored due to
the nature of the course, his true disability lies elsewhere. Tom Robinson is
depicted as disabled more prominently by his racial status as a black man in a
predominantly white community and the crime that he is accused of committing.
Race, in this instance, determines the fate of Tom Robinson and defines him as
a person, regardless of whether or not he committed the crime.
This passage specifically focuses on
the true disability not only in this text, but in this time period as well.
Since disability is considered such an umbrella term, seeing disability in as
many ways as possible is pivotal to our own understanding of the term. Atticus’
statement, “No jury in this part of the world’s going to say, ‘We think you’re
guilty, but not very,’ on a charge like that” (362) proves that race is the
sole factor in determining Tom Robinson’s fate. Lee provides enough racial
tension to make sure that race is not only considered under the umbrella term
of disability, but that race is the most important category under the term as
well. Viewing race as a disability allows for not only a broader understanding
of the term as a whole, but also a more clear and concise understanding of the
text. Jem’s statement, “He didn’t take anybody’s life” (362) is a clear
understanding that Tom Robinson is an innocent man but the fact that his skin
is a specific color makes him a guilty man. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee
captures the essence of what disability truly is through Tom Robinson’s racial
discrimination. More specifically, Atticus hits the nail on the head with his
statement of Tom Robinson being a colored man. This line in the text is one of
the most important when analyzing this text as racial disability.
2. This blog post was taken from a 9th
grade English class’s blog called Boxer’s Blog:
The
book it seems to me shows how deep racism and stereotypical beliefs were rooted
into southern culture and how it could have affected families and maybe divided
them. I also see how atticus is teaching his kids how to deal with racism head
on and not to care how anyone else felt about it. I find that To Kill A Mocking
Bird states many personal opinions on may different subjects some hit home
personally stereotyping people to a different class either rich or poor. That
is why I like the book because most people don’t like to talk about issues like
that because they don’t want to be thought of a racist or stereotypes.
3.
This blog post was taken from the author’s
personal blog on the Empower Network.
“It’s a sin to
kill a mockingbird…” September 24, 2012
“…Mockingbirds
don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… but sing their hearts out
for us. That’s why it’s a sin to
kill a mockingbird.” So said Atticus Finch
in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird.
I
have thought about these words many times over the past few days.
To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Pize winning novel by Harper Lee, was published in 1960. It
was immediately successful, and has become a classic of modern American literature.
The
reason these words have come to me over and over recently is this: last week I
spent my first ever day in court as a witness.
You
see, it all started a few months ago I needed to accompany my boss on a meeting
to see our local government councillor. While we were there, a heavily pregnant
young staffer had cause to walk into the meeting room. I remarked on her
pregnancy and expressed my delight for her, upon which time councillor
interrupted forcefully, glaring at the young lady, and saying, “I am NEVER
going to employ any woman of child bearing age EVER again…she’s LEAVING me to
have the baby right before the election!”
It
you could have seen the frightened young face of this slight, thin young lady,
so heavy with child, you probably would have piped up to defend her, like I
did…but sadly, it seems, to no avail.
The
lady was fired for being pregnant shortly after this event.. Yep, as archaic as
that sounds in this day and age, that is the ugly truth.
Intractable
and utterly unwilling to cooperate, the councillor and her team of lawyers
refused to answer to her calls of injustice. The lady’s mediation efforts
failed and the unfair dismissal proceeded to court, some months later. I was
asked to be a witness.
The
way I see it, that young lady was a mockingbird. Sweet, vulnerable, unpolished
and not slick in the slightest.
She
could not afford a lawyer, and was accompanied by two good hearted Industrial
Relations advocates to court that day. From the witness stand, I looked out at
these three ladies on one side of the room, and then over the the army of
lawyers filling the benches on the councillor’s side, and suddenly I was very,
very glad that I was there to tell the truth.
So
glad. I had waited in the hall (waiting to be called in) for about four hours.
In that time, I had grown a little grouchy. I had grown a little self-involved.
“Ah, what’s the use?” I had thought. They have taken up my whole day, I will
get in there and be ripped to shreds by the other side…to what end?”
Yes,
they played dirty. Yes, it was hard to stick to my guns when the lawyer was
ridiculing me, and trying to catch me up by asking the same questions ten
different ways. All I know is that I tried to be strong and tell the truth. It
was no fun, but the need to do right by this lady eclipsed everything so I
held, I held.
Somewhere
during my grilling I glanced at the vulnerable young woman, remembered her tiny
baby (which was probably being minded by her worried parents, and no doubt
constantly on her mind), and remembered why I HAD to be there. She was my
mockingbird.
And
it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
Let
me know…have you ever tried to save a mockingbird? I can’t wait to hear.
