Today we are going to discuss some topics related to "To Kill a Mockingbird" novel. Is there any of you guys who have read this novel?
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee and was published in 1960. This novel achieved a worldwide success, sold around 30 million copies around the world and became a second best-selling book after the Bible. This book won the Pulitzer Price and has become a classic modern American Literature. The story of this novel takes place between 1933 - 1935 during the great depression in Maycomb, Alabama.
The point of view of this novel is from a 6 years old girl named Scout who lives with her older brother (Jem) and her father (Atticus). Atticus is a lawyer and he agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused
of raping a white woman. Because of Atticus’s decision, Jem and
Scout are subjected to abuse from other children and even from their family.
Have you ever seen this bird before? :)
Below, we give all the answers related to "To Kill A Mockingbird" stories!
Q: How Can To Kill a mockingbird beneficial to Indonesian Readers?
A: Have you guys ever thought about how can a book or novel be beneficial to the readers? One book can actually change the way people usually think or behave. It can even change people's life!
Even though the story line of this novel is uncomplicated and easy to follow, there are actually a lot of deep messages and life lessons that we can learn from there. We, as Indonesian readers should realize that these lessons are very important and can make a huge impact to Indonesia if we care enough to apply it in our daily life as a part of Indonesian citizen. Now let's think and discuss those lessons.
For the first one, I am sure we are definitely familiar with the main situation appointed through out the novel, which is racism. After hearing the word "racism", what pops up in your mind? We often define racism as the hatred or prejudice towards different racial group for example between the black people and white people in America. But do you guys realize that racism is also pretty serious in Indonesia?
Cases like riot in 1998, conflict between different tribes, and all things which happened like just a flash. Of course, if we keep ignoring those main occurrences, our country will not have a better life ahead. Furthermore, the most important thing that must be regenerated until now is the government's work itself. They don't do much in helping and maintaining our country's life from crime, which has soared higher day by day. In other words, the government should give more protection by applying a social welfare to all citizens in Indonesia.
In this book, we learn that white people never respect black people. They treated them despicably because of their race and skin color. Meanwhile, the black people felt under pressure and cannot do anything about the racism because they were the minority. We can take one example from this novel. Even though Tom Robinson had strong evidence of him being innocent, at the end he's still accused for raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. Atticus said that "men sometimes don't behave rationally in some situation, and will always take a white man's word over a black man's". Thus, how can they mix automatically without looking down each other? And how can WE avoid those racism situation? It depends on our point of view. In fact, the story in this novel indirectly gives the perspective, especially for us (Indonesian people who involve in this case : mainly about racism) about how to act and behave well. Yes, To Kill A Mockingbird novel is beneficial to Indonesian readers because there are two main keys in this novel : Accept and Respect. By reading this novel, we can totally accept other people's way of lives, their cultures, beliefs, and respect sincerely. As it is written in the Pancasila symbol "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" means "Unity in Diversity". :)
For the second one, we can learn from this novel that we cannot judge someone only by rumors or the way they look. There are two concrete example in this novel, they are Atticus and Boo Radley. Everyone including Scout and Jem is afraid of Boo because there are many bad rumors about him being scary and harmful. But in the end of the novel, we found out that actually Boo was a very nice person, he even saved Jem's life. Aside from Boo, we can also learn from Atticus. Scout and Jem used to be embarrassed with his father's age, they assumed his father cannot do anything like their friend's father can. But when they saw their father shot a mad dog, their whole perspective changed. From these two examples, we can also apply it as an Indonesian citizen. When someone is elected as the new president or any position in the government, we often judge them merely based on how they look, how high their education are, or how many experiences they have. And if we consider that they "don't have the look" or lack in experiences to be in the government, we just turn our back and don't support them. Now after reading this novel, I really hope we can open our mind and change the way we used to think towards someone. Just remember that people are not always what they seem to be and don't assume someone can't do something just because we haven't seen it yet!
Q : What is the difference between the movie and the novel?
A: The movie and the novel are ideally compliment to each other. However a movie can accomplish thing that a novel can't, vice versa. The thing that movie can't accomplish is that the movie has limit in time factor, and it is hard to find the actor or actress that has the same chemistry as the character in the novel based on the expectation of the writer. While the good thing about the movie is that we, as the viewers don't need to imagine and think hard about the story because we can just sit and watch the movie. On the other hand, the novel has unlimited time factor and usually has more complete and detailed story than the movie But reading the novel will consume a lot of time and need good concentration, otherwise you won't be able to understand the next chapter of the story. Here, I will explain to you guys about the difference between the movie and the novel based on several aspect :
Narration
Usually movie has a visual medium. What is a visual medium? Visual medium is something that is viewed in order to get its intended effect. Let me simplify it, it means that while watching a movie usually we, as the third person, can understand not only just from one specific perspective but also from general perspective. As a result of the general point of view, viewers cannot experience Scout's first person narration as they do in the book. The film also seems to shift to Jem's experiences, it expands more to Scout brother's role.
Character
A movie has limited time. So it just concentrated to the main event of the story. And as the result, some of the characters in the novel wasn't at the movie. The movie just combined the characters in the novel and the actions into several characters in the movie. The movie also introduced some new characters to help the story line of the movie.
Focus
Again, because of the time limitation, of course many events are missing. For example the event in the classroom with Miss Caroline and Miss Gates, the children have virtually no contact with Mrs. Dubose, and some other minor characters that create Maycomb's textures and layers. The implied incest between Bob and Mayella Ewell is never discussed during the course of the trial, because movies in 1962 weren't allowed to cover such controversial matter. So the movie had to find another way to explain to the viewers about the taboo objects implicitly. By doing that, the movie has less information than the novel. The viewers must be sensitive about the value of the movie so they know the true meaning of the scene.
Both, the movie and the novel are very good for the viewers. We know that the novel is still useful for students and still popular until now. The fact that the movie also very powerful until now is based on a testament to a fine adaption classic story. Because as a film ages, audiences need more information to fully grasp the story.
"People in their right minds never take pride in their talents."
- Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
"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 mockingbird."
- Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
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