TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD OR NOT TO KILL

TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD OR NOT TO KILL

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mocking bird."(A Quote from the book by Harper Lee).

Like some of the best books of the World, I had enjoyed reading To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee more than 40 years back. A month ago , I saw the film made on the book  in which Gregory Peck got an Oscar for best Actor playing the role of Atticus, the lawyer and the father of the little girl Scout  who has narrated the book in her words. Atticus, a white lawyer in White South of US was defending a black Tim Robinson who was falsely implicated. The all white jury had given the verdict convicting Tim who was unfair despite Atticus proving that Tim was innocent. Tim was killed while escaping the prison. Atticus and his motherless children (Jem and Scout) were the point of attack of the racist white. Finally, the law and the society stood for him and his family. The Dignity was restored.

In United States of America and in the entire World, this book was a best seller and so also the film was a great hit.  It had created tremendous sensation and went into several editions. Harper Lee, the Pulitzer Award Winning author of the book had indicated that the novel had been autobiographical to some extent.  However whether   there been was any dent on the discrimination in terms of the class and colour, race and religion, is a big question. Recent legal debate on the killing of black boy Trayvon Martin in US   and suicide/murder on Dalit youth Illavarasan in Tamil Nadu do indicate that the society has hardly changed.  

For a few nights, I could not sleep after seeing the film as I thought more and more of our society which has been rife with discrimination and hatred. One who stands for the poor and marginalised, is insulted and humiliated. One who stands for the rights of the underprivileged gets implicated. However, we all have to fight the ravages of the Society collectively and like Atticus should firmly believe that the mocking birds are not to be killed. Never.