# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/21 "2010-02-10T03:54:28Z")
I just finished my very first reading of this book last weekend and I wanted to open a similar thread. The trial in the book is set in 1935 and the events of the book take place from 1933 to 1935. Were average Americans aware of Nazi camps in the early 1930’s? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/22 "2010-02-10T05:04:45Z")
They didn’t call sterilization “washing” though. Even in the USA and other democracies in the 30s, actually it lasted into the 60s they sterilized mentally ill people. A quick gander through the Chicago Tribune archives and they always used the word sterilization, to refer to keeping mentally ill people from reproducing. But you can also see “washing the institutionalized” also coming up, and in that context it means, clean the system up so it looks better than it was. Seeing that Lee wrote the book in the 50s and it takes place in the 30s, she could’ve used terms common in the 50s and placed those terms and events in the 30s, even though no one would’ve used them back then. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/23 "2010-02-10T05:22:03Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Seeing that Lee wrote the book in the 50s and it takes place in the 30s, she could’ve used terms common in the 50s and placed those terms and events in the 30s, even though no one would’ve used them back then. True. And for what it is worth, I think anachronisms are acceptable in the narration. The story is told in hindsight and the voice of the narrator combines the 6-9 year old girl with the adult woman she eventually grows up to be. It is this unique voicing that allows the narrator to tell a complete story and to not (always) be limited by a 6 year old’s understanding. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/24 "2010-02-10T05:28:48Z")
Ms. Lee may have made an error. However two terms which are similar to something being killed or ended are “scrub” and “that’s a wash.” Washed up? Washed out? ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/25 "2010-02-10T05:28:51Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > 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. Oh yeah, most definitely. > [@longhair75](#): > > Are you teaching this book? What age of students? They’re 6-7th graders, but they’re advanced ESL learners (most of them have lived abroad, all of them are extremely smart kids). The problem with teaching TKaM to ESL learners, no matter how advanced, is that so much of the book uses dated slang and allusions to Amercian events that the kids haven’t learned about yet. Sterilizing seems to make the most sense in context. The kid has obviously mistranslated something, and I can see a kid looking up the definition of the word sterlize and conclude that it’s just a fancy way of saying clean or wash. **Markxxx** , if you read the quote, “washing the feeble-minded” isn’t used as a legitimate phrase, but as something that the student has misunderstood - as is evident in the teacher’s WTF moment. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/26 "2010-02-10T05:42:03Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > I just finished my very first reading of this book last weekend and I wanted to open a similar thread. The trial in the book is set in 1935 and the events of the book take place from 1933 to 1935. > > Were average Americans aware of Nazi camps in the early 1930’s? According to wikipedia, the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring went into effect 1933, so it’s possible that it was in the news by 1935. Also, the quote in question is a boy doing a report on a current event. The students have to read a newspaper article and present it in their own words to the class. That’s why the kid makes mistakes like saying Hitler “prosecuted” the Jews instead of “persecuted.” To me it seems pretty obvious that when the kid says “washin’ the feeble-minded” he is again MIS-quoting something, so the expression per se doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a bungled up kid’s interpretation of what would have been in an actual newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/27 "2010-02-10T05:46:01Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > I just finished my very first reading of this book last weekend and I wanted to open a similar thread. The trial in the book is set in 1935 and the events of the book take place from 1933 to 1935. > > Were average Americans aware of Nazi camps in the early 1930’s? Probably. The Reichstag Fire in 1933 was what really gave birth to the concentration camps, though they weren’t used for all Jews yet so much as enemies of the state (though that was an extremely broad term- you were an enemy of the state if the state said you were and they did not have to formally charge you with anything specific or let you have access to counsel). The Nazis made absolutely no secret of their hatred of Jews and enough were already getting out of Germany while they still could that by 1934 Göring began clamp downs on transporting valuable property or transferring bank funds out of Germany. By the time the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935 it was very well known that Jews were being persecuted, so a well informed person (or even a kid doing a report with access to newspapers or a recent encyclopedia set) would have had access to the info. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/28 "2010-02-10T06:19:33Z")
There were genetic hygiene laws which required the sterilization of the mentally ill. The kid thinks or has heard that hygiene means being washed. Which it kind of does. This cannot possibly be as difficult as youse gize are maccin out. [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007057](http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007057) The idea was to eliminate these people from the gene pool. We did it in this country too. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was the guy who upheld it with the quaint quip: “Three generations of idiots should be enough.” ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/29 "2010-02-10T08:36:53Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > 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: What does this mean? ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/30 "2010-02-10T08:39:36Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > What does this mean? [Lane Cake.](http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1340) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/31 "2010-02-10T12:10:59Z")
Baby bottles and nipples were sterilized back then with boiling water. So, I can see how Cecil, hearing about sterilization of the feeble-minded, thought they were being washed. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/32 "2010-02-10T13:39:22Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > [Lane Cake.](http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1340) The linked article doesn’t specifically say, but shinny = moonshine. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/33 "2010-02-10T13:56:12Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > The linked article doesn’t specifically say, but shinny = moonshine. And, in case there’s any confusion on the last part of the quote, tight = drunk. ---
**Author:** ![smcewincarr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@smcewincarr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smcewincarr)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2020, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255/34 "2020-04-19T15:29:36Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > I don’t think that’s right. The kid is obviously misquoting something - even the teacher expresses confusion over the expression. “Grit” was a re-publisher of stories from other sources, hence as certain amount of confusion is to be expected. I have always thought that the writers had to look up “sterilization”, and from the several definitions garbled it as “washing”, as when a baby bottle is ‘sterilized’. This is parallel to the confusion between “persecuting” and “prosecuting” of the Jews, where the former is a commonly understood wrt the Jews, and the latter is now starting in 1930s Germany. Ms Lee IMO is having a bit of fun with the teacher, who perhaps does not know quite as much as she thinks she does. But, the suggestions here of “racial hygiene” as another term that could be confused with “washing” is interesting, as this would be available from US and Nazi discussions of Eugenics in the 1930s. Note that Wikipedia indicates that “ethnic cleansing” was not used in US media until 1992, so it doesn’t come from there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-to-kill-a-mockingbird/528255.md?page=1)