# To Kill a Mockingbird: Discuss the book with me! (unboxed spoilers, FWIW) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 22, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295 "2008-03-22T00:14:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/41 "2008-03-22T16:06:38Z")
[QUOTE=Sigmagirl] I went to a book fair yesterday and saw an advance reader’s copy of TKAM. The cover had a blurb from Truman Capote in which he praised the book’s humor. If I’d known this thread was going to be in here, I’d have copied it down (it was several sentences) but it made it out to be damn near a farce. I think there were at least four references to how funny the book was. [/QUOTE] Was it this? > [@](#): > > Someone rare has written this very fine first novel: a writer with the liveliest sense of life, and the warmest, most authentic sense of humor. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable. > [@elbows](#): > > Also, there has always been talk that the character Dill is actually a young Truman Capote. Capote did publicly state that Dill was based on him. Also, Capote based a character, Idabel in _Other Voices, Other Rooms_, on Lee. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/42 "2008-03-22T16:31:47Z")
[QUOTE=elbows] As an aside; She took the non gender specific name Harper Lee because she felt it was unlikely that she could get it published as a female author. [/QUOTE] Do you have a cite for this? I never heard she decided to use her middle name to get _To Kill a Mockingbird_ published. It seems like an odd thing to do. Her agent and publishers knew she was a woman and so did her editor, Tay Hohoff, whom she worked with before the novel set to be published. Who was she trying to fool? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/43 "2008-03-22T16:35:37Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] Was it this? Someone rare has written this very fine first novel: a writer with the liveliest sense of life, and the warmest, most authentic sense of humor. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable. Capote did publicly state that Dill was based on him. Also, Capote based a character, Idabel in _Other Voices, Other Rooms_, on Lee. [/QUOTE] I have a first edition of TKaM - got lucky a long time ago and knew what it was. That quote is on the insight front cover of the dj (dustjacket). I am surprised the ARC was priced at $19k - that seems a bit high. As a rule, true firsts are worth more vs. ARC’s and TKaM follows this - there were only about 5,000 published in the first edition, with most going to libraries. Add to that the fact that the dj has a lot of black on it which shows wear if you look at it funny and you have a very few number of collectible copies of one of the most beloved books of the 2nd half of the 20th century…there is a big market for restored first editions - folks paint in the crackled black dj, etc. - caveat emptor. Capote and Nelle Harper Lee were childhood friends and TKaM and Other Voices, Other Rooms do represent their respective views of what growing up in the South was like. The fact that Capote was “left” in Lee’s town by dysfunctional parents no doubt shaded his view. As the two Capote movies showed, Lee was Capote’s amanuensis for In Cold Blood - when Lee came out with TKaM, there were assertions that Capote had written or at least heavily edited it - something he denied and is now generally dismissed given the difference in writing styles. It is truly a wonderful book. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/44 "2008-03-22T16:37:48Z")
[QUOTE=elbows] As an aside; She took the non gender specific name Harper Lee because she felt it was unlikely that she could get it published as a female author. [/QUOTE] I’d need to see a cite for this, too. I have a signed bookplate from her that I slipped into my first and it is merely signed “Harper Lee” so I assumed that she simply preferred to go by that name… ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/45 "2008-03-22T16:50:48Z")
My take on why Ewell was so angry was that Atticus exposed him for what he was in court; even though there was no way actual justice could be done, in the court of public opinion, he was convicted. He was humiliated because his relationship with his daughter and his vicious nature were revealed. I think it was that humiliation that drove him to try and avenge himself on Atticus. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/46 "2008-03-22T17:01:28Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] My take on why Ewell was so angry was that Atticus exposed him for what he was in court; even though there was no way actual justice could be done, in the court of public opinion, he was convicted. He was humiliated because his relationship with his daughter and his vicious nature were revealed. I think it was that humiliation that drove him to try and avenge himself on Atticus. [/QUOTE] Well said. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/47 "2008-03-22T17:03:25Z")
I love the movie, but I would like to see a remake, preferably a HBO miniseries, as the movie’s main “fault” was having to ditch certain characters and sideplots due to time. Aunt Alexandra and her grandson do not appear at all nor do [his name eludes me, but] the character with the biracial family who pretends to be a drunk or the teachers or other townsfolks, Calpurnia is just a cipher [the scene where she takes the kids to her church, for example, is gone], and (due I’m sure to the standards of the time in film) the line “she said those things her daddy made her do don’t count” (or whatever the line is) is stricken from the courtroom scene. I’d love to see a remake that has the time to include everything. My fantasy is that one day Harper Lee will go into her agent’s office and dump a sequel on her agent’s desk in which a middle aged (or even elderly) Scout, now a lawyer herself, is the main character once again and we learn whatever happened to all of these characters as well as having another great trial, but I doubt it will happen. I have my own “whatever happened to” with Scout/Jem/Mayella et crew, but would love to hear the “official” version. I met Harper Lee a couple of times when I worked at the U. of Alabama library and had no idea who she was. I just knew her as a nice, obviously intelligent, somewhat doudy [and, not to be cruel, slightly butch] older lady who did research at the library using 1930s/1940s/1950s small town Alabama newspapers, but not knowing what she looked like I didn’t recognize her and just assumed she was a professor emeritus or genealogist. Once she was spotted/recognized the bongo drums sounded forth and professors and deans spilled forth to worship and she accepted the tribute and slain antelopes gracefully but, not surprisingly, stopped coming to the library. I would LOVE to know what she was researching. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/48 "2008-03-22T17:12:08Z")
PS- I completely discount the oft heard rumor that Capote wrote or edited large parts of TKAM based on what is known of the man. He was a great writer (on those occcasions when he wrote), but anybody who’s ever read a biography of him or known anybody who knew him can tell you that there’s no chance in hell he’d have _ever_ written or co-written a bestselling/iconic/Pulitzer winning/internationally beloved classic and kept quiet about it. OTOH, I think Harper Lee probably contributed a lot more to _In Cold Blood_ than she’s credited for, not necessarily in actual writing but in obtaining info and the observations she made. (While Toby Jones in _Infamous_ is the incomparably better Capote than PSH in _Capote_ (I honestly thought PSH’s Oscar winning performance was overrated), both Catherine Keener and Sandra Bullock gave great performances as Harper Lee.) ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/49 "2008-03-22T17:18:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] PS- I completely discount the oft heard rumor that Capote wrote or edited large parts of TKAM based on what is known of the man. He was a great writer (on those occcasions when he wrote), but anybody who’s ever read a biography of him or known anybody who knew him can tell you that there’s no chance in hell he’d have _ever_ written or co-written a bestselling/iconic/Pulitzer winning/internationally beloved classic and kept quiet about it. OTOH, I think Harper Lee probably contributed a lot more to _In Cold Blood_ than she’s credited for, not necessarily in actual writing but in obtaining info and the observations she made. (While Toby Jones in _Infamous_ is the incomparably better Capote than PSH in _Capote_ (I honestly thought PSH’s Oscar winning performance was overrated), both Catherine Keener and Sandra Bullock gave great performances as Harper Lee.) [/QUOTE] I agree with you. Also, to my knowledge, that is the “conventional wisdom” about In Cold Blood. The thinking was that Lee was the anchor to Capote, providing structure and discipline to his writing process…I don’t have a cite; I think I read a scholar’s breakdown of this in _Firsts_ magazine… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/50 "2008-03-22T17:25:33Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] My fantasy is that one day Harper Lee will go into her agent’s office and dump a sequel on her agent’s desk in which a middle aged (or even elderly) Scout, now a lawyer herself, is the main character once again and we learn whatever happened to all of these characters as well as having another great trial, but I doubt it will happen. I have my own “whatever happened to” with Scout/Jem/Mayella et crew, but would love to hear the “official” version. [/SIZE] [/QUOTE] I like to think that Dennis Finch of “Just Shoot Me” was Jem’s grandson or even son. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/51 "2008-03-22T17:59:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] I met Harper Lee a couple of times when I worked at the U. of Alabama library and had no idea who she was. I just knew her as a nice, obviously intelligent, somewhat doudy [and, not to be cruel, slightly butch] older lady who did research at the library using 1930s/1940s/1950s small town Alabama newspapers, but not knowing what she looked like I didn’t recognize her and just assumed she was a professor emeritus or genealogist. Once she was spotted/recognized the bongo drums sounded forth and professors and deans spilled forth to worship and she accepted the tribute and slain antelopes gracefully but, not surprisingly, stopped coming to the library. I would LOVE to know what she was researching. [/QUOTE] :eek: \* Swoon\*. ---
**Author:** ![Thorium\_Indium\_Potassium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@Thorium\_Indium\_Potassium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thorium_Indium_Potassium)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/52 "2008-03-22T18:18:49Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] Do you have a cite for this? I never heard she decided to use her middle name to get _To Kill a Mockingbird_ published. It seems like an odd thing to do. Her agent and publishers knew she was a woman and so did her editor, Tay Hohoff, whom she worked with before the novel set to be published. Who was she trying to fool? [/QUOTE] I’m not a very good cite, but I remember hearing about this as well. It might just be the lore told by high school English teachers to hook kids. As for being assigned to read the book, I know at one point we read it in a class, but I honestly can’t remember if I read it first because I was told to or if I picked it up first on my own. Either way, it’s still among my top 5 favorite books. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/53 "2008-03-22T19:31:23Z")
Yeah, I’m sorry I can’t find a cite for it either. I happily retract and hope it is, in fact, not the truth. I was certain in was in the forward to my first copy of this book, but I’m up to about my third copy now and no longer have that one. Perhaps in the intervening 20yrs that piece of misinformation was corrected. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/54 "2008-03-22T19:53:07Z")
I live in an historic neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama, and I was informed by one of my very elderly neighbors that Mary Badham had relatives who owned this very house, and she spent a lot of time over here. That’s right, folks, Scout herself used to spend time in my house! :eek: (A tangential claim to fame, I know, but I think it’s pretty neat.) Also, I remember watching one of those “AFI’s Top 100 Movie Heroes” a couple years ago, and was impressed that, out of all the big Hollywood action heroes, etc., they voted that Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch was the greatest movie hero of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/55 "2008-03-22T22:09:01Z")
Was it this? Quote: Someone rare has written this very fine first novel: a writer with the liveliest sense of life, and the warmest, most authentic sense of humor. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable. Yes, that’s the quote on the book I saw yesterday. Yes, there is of course a great deal of humor in the book, but I don’t consider it a dark comedy. I wonder if reviewers picked it up and expected one based on Capote’s blurb. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/56 "2008-03-22T23:50:16Z")
I can’t add much except to say I read the book a few years ago as part of the One Community One Book project going on a few years ago and I loved it. Everyone raves about Atticus Finch, but Scout’s one of my favorite literary characters, too. She’s got just the right mix of innocence, fun, and wisdom. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/57 "2008-03-23T01:35:29Z")
I liked Scout a lot. The scene where she’s confronting the mob outside the jail and chatting up Mr. Cunningham is quite charming…she’s disarming the mob, and she doesn’t even realize it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/58 "2008-03-23T01:36:25Z")
[QUOTE=Snarky\_Kong] How did Atticus neglect them? I thought he sounded like pretty much the ideal parent. He’d patiently explain things to them, would read to them every day, never got angry with them, etc. Atticus Finch is the man. [/QUOTE] They have no mother, which given the time period is not great. They do have Atticus, who is the man, and Calpurnia. But Atticus is not an involved father. He doesn’t play catch with Jem. He doesn’t take a lot of steps - other than in his Atticus way - to keep Scout from fighting or get her into dresses. In some ways, he doesn’t really know a lot about his kids lives - which is part of the era. And there are times where he probably SHOULD have gotten angry with them. I’m not saying most of us as grown ups wouldn’t have loved to have Atticus as a father, he is an admirable man - and a good father who loves his kids and is doing “the best he can” - but even he knows the best he can is not ideal. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/59 "2008-03-23T01:37:49Z")
[QUOTE=elbows] As an aside; She took the non gender specific name Harper Lee because she felt it was unlikely that she could get it published as a female author. She never published another book and became a great recluse. Also, there has always been talk that the character Dill is actually a young Truman Capote. [/QUOTE] Idabell in Capotes “Other Rooms, Other Voices” is based on Nelle Harper Lee in the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295/60 "2008-03-23T02:41:32Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] I’m not quite sure what Ewell’s problem was…it was strongly intimated that he was molesting his daughter, but he “succeeded” in getting Tom Robinson convicted, so why was he gunning for Judge Taylor and Atticus? [/QUOTE] From the novel: > [@Atticus Finch](#): > > Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird-discuss-the-book-with-me-unboxed-spoilers-fwiw/442295.md?page=4)