# Questions about To Kill a Mockingbird **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 9, 2010, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255 "2010-02-09T08:17:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/1 "2010-02-09T08:17:56Z")
In chapter 26, when Cecil Jacobs is presenting on Hitler, he says the following: “. . .old Adolf Hitler has been after the Jews and he’s puttin’ 'em in prisons and he’s taking away all their porperty and he won’t let any of ‘em out of the country and he’s washin’ all the feeble-minded and --” What has he confused with “washin’ all the feeble-minded”? Perhaps the euphemism of ethnic cleansing? As an aside, re-reading this book as a teacher has been an eye-opener. There’s a lot of stuff I glossed over as a kid - Scout eating a Lane cake “loaded with shinny” that “made me tight” for instance. At first I thought it made her constipated. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/2 "2010-02-09T08:39:05Z")
I took it to mean making them look “respectable.” I have heard the term “washing the institutionalized” here all the time, when I was growing up, almost alway referring to the state mental hospitals but every so often our prisons too. In otherwords you not helping the mentally ill, you’re just cleaning them up to look decent but not doing anything else. Since the book was written in the 50s and published in 1960 it’s possible Lee used the term to mean “genocide” in sort of a way. The term wouldn’t have been used in the time frame of Hitler but an author writing about it 20 years later may use the term, not realizing it wasn’t really used at the time. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/3 "2010-02-09T08:49:17Z")
I don’t think that’s right. The kid is obviously misquoting something - even the teacher expresses confusion over the expression. > [@](#): > > “Old Adolf Hitler has been prosecutin’ the–” > “Persecuting, Cecil . . .” > “Nome, Miss Gates, it’s says here – well anyway, old Adolf Hitler has been after the Jews and he’s puttin’ 'em in prisons and he’s taking away all their property and he won’t let any of ‘em out of the country and he’s washin’ all the feeble-minded and --” > “Washing the feeble-minded?” > “Yes ma’am, Miss Gates, I reckon they don’t have sense enough to wash themselves, I don’t reckon an idiot could keep hisself clean.” ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/4 "2010-02-09T10:14:35Z")
Sterilization, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/5 "2010-02-09T10:18:20Z")
It seems to me that washing could be regarded as the same as showering. The feeble-minded would have been high on the list of people Hitler would have had exterminated. Many of the victims of cyanide gas poisoning at Auschwitz were told that they were being taken to clean themselves and were led into gas chambers that were disguised as shower facilities. It’s not hard for a kid of that age just learning world history to make the connection between showering and washing and to literally think the concentration camp victims were being taken into a shower. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/6 "2010-02-09T10:30:32Z")
Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/7 "2010-02-09T10:31:10Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > It seems to me that washing could be regarded as the same as showering. The feeble-minded would have been high on the list of people Hitler would have had exterminated. Many of the victims of cyanide gas poisoning at Auschwitz were told that they were being taken to clean themselves and were led into gas chambers that were disguised as shower facilities. It’s not hard for a kid of that age just learning world history to make the connection between showering and washing and to literally think the concentration camp victims were being taken into a shower. TKAMB takes place during the 1930s, prior to WWII. The Nazis were persecuting Jews, but not yet carrying out an extermination policy. Hitler did promote euthanasia of the mentally handicapped, but was met with strong resistance from the German clergy. I think they were sterilizing people in the 1930s though. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/8 "2010-02-09T10:42:00Z")
I would think “washing” means “getting rid of” as in homosexuals, who were considered feeble-minded perverts even in the US back then. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/9 "2010-02-09T12:30:04Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > TKAMB takes place during the 1930s, prior to WWII. The Nazis were persecuting Jews, but not yet carrying out an extermination policy. Hitler did promote euthanasia of the mentally handicapped, but was met with strong resistance from the German clergy. I think they were sterilizing people in the 1930s though. Thanks. I stand corrected. I haven’t read the book in about 40 years. I did see the movie recently, but didn’t really get a sense of what era it was. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/10 "2010-02-09T13:08:10Z")
The story is set in 1935. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/11 "2010-02-09T13:19:33Z")
Okay, so not showers. Oh well, I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. I was curious though, if only because as a teacher I know the feeling of confusion when your student says something ridiculous in a matter of fact tone. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/12 "2010-02-09T14:25:36Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > Okay, so not showers. > > Oh well, I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. I was curious though, if only because as a teacher I know the feeling of confusion when your student says something ridiculous in a matter of fact tone. Heh, the irony here is that what Hitler was _actually_ up to in real life was far more absurd than the mangled student report. The kid is wrongly attributing a sense of decency to Hitler’s Germany that was of course totally lacking. I thought, when reading that scene, that the dramatic point was to highlight the absurdity of the injustices taking place in the town - the racism. Also a dramatic forerunner of the culminating justice offered to the ‘feeble minded’ Boo Radley. ---
**Author:** ![sulamith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@sulamith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sulamith)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/13 "2010-02-09T17:53:20Z")
Real gen-u-wine Southerner here. I always took this passage to mean Cecil had misinterpreted “brainwashing” as literal and not figurative as it was intended. The symbolic meaning was lost on him, as were the meanings and proper usage of some other words with which he was not familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/14 "2010-02-09T18:41:11Z")
Hitler was “washing his hands” of them? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/15 "2010-02-09T18:54:30Z")
Probably long before the term “ethnic-cleansing” was used, but could “cleaning” be used somehow? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/16 "2010-02-09T19:51:57Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Sterilization, perhaps? I think this is it. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/17 "2010-02-09T20:32:20Z")
Friend HazelNutCoffee > [@](#): > > As an aside, re-reading this book as a teacher has been an eye-opener Are you teaching this book? What age of students? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/18 "2010-02-09T20:36:53Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I think this is it. Seconded. There were many sterilization programs in the Third Reich (there had been some in the [U.S. also](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics#United_States)) and it’s easy to assume somebody looking up the meaning of sterilize would come up with washing. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/19 "2010-02-10T03:26:33Z")
> [@sulamith](#): > > Real gen-u-wine Southerner here. > > I always took this passage to mean Cecil had misinterpreted “brainwashing” as literal and not figurative as it was intended. The symbolic meaning was lost on him, as were the meanings and proper usage of some other words with which he was not familiar. Except ‘brainwashing’ only entered the lexicon in the early 50s, coming out of the Korean War. See the wiki article: [The Korean War and the Origin of Brainwashing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control#The_Korean_War_and_the_origin_of_brainwashing): > [@](#): > > The Oxford English Dictionary records its earliest known English-language usage of “brainwashing” in an article by Edward Hunter in New Leader published on 7 October 1950. I doubt that Harper Lee would have an anachronistic reference in her novel. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/20 "2010-02-10T03:31:02Z")
I thought she meant sterilization as well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255.md?page=2)