The only thing I remember from the school scenes is some mention of the Dewey Decimal system, but then I haven’t read the book since I was in school myself, and that’s over thirty years ago.
I remember the other bits though. How could you forget the ham costume? It’s part of the big dramatic scene at the end of the book, isn’t it? And in the film?
After cutting the tops off Mrs Dubois’ flowers in a fit of pique, Jem is sent by Atticus (as a form of punishment) to read to Mrs Dubois every afternoon. The first day, the session lasts for 1/2 hour or so. The next day it lasts longer, and the days after longer again, but the reading sessions are always ended by Mrs Dubois lapsing into a slumber…Jem can then make his getaway!
Mrs Dubois is a morphine addict, and uses Jem and his reading as a way to help her get through the withdrawal process. On the last day of his reading program, the clock-alarm rings and Mrs Dubois (or her maid Jessie, I can’t recall now) tells Jem he is no longer needed. Atticus later tells Jem (after Mrs Dubois has died) that she had requested that she be beholden to no person or no thing when she passed…getting through her morphine addiction allowed her to die a free woman.
I can’t remember the name of the little boy who comes to visit a relative nearby during the summers. (Was it Dill?) He was based on a real child in Harper Lee’s life. The real child was Truman Capote.
Atticus was based on Harper Lee’s father. She gave his watch to Gregory Peck. Gregory Peck’s grandchild is named Harper.
I seriously doubt if the Holocaust is mentioned in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee isn’t that sloppy a writer. The story takes place during the 1930s. The extermination camps were not begun until 1942. Persecution - yes, concentration camps - OK, sterilization of the mentally handicapped - well known, but the mass killing of the Jews would not be publicized until the death camps were overrun at war’s end.
Dill it is. I have a granddaughter named Harper for her middle name. I keep campaigning to call her Scout but haven’t had much luck yet.
there was a recent thread on this subject, with a quotation of the relevant passage: Questions about To Kill a Mockingbird.
Consensus in that thread was that was that the student making the report was referring to the persecution of Jews, mixed up with some reference to sterilization/eugenics.
Since this has become mainly a discussion of the book, rather than about the origin of the phrase, I am moving this to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
As long as we’re imparting trivia (e.g. Robert Duvall), the woman doing the voiceover in the film as adult Scout is Kim Stanley.
I too am astonished that anyone would forget the ham costume. It’s the climax of the novel (and adds a grimly funny note to it), and visualized adorably on screen by Mary Badham and her bare legs sticking out of that outfit, which appears to be made of plaster of paris and chicken-wire.
Yep. The ham costume saved her life. After the school play, she couldn’t find her dress and had to wear the costume home, or else walk home in her underthings. Looking for the dress made Jem and Scout among the last to leave, so there were no others on the path back home. Bob Ewell tried to cut Scout’s throat with his knife but it only scraped against the wire in the ham costume. If she hadn’t been wearing it she’d have died.
Scout and Jem were the last to leave, with Scout remaining in her costume because Scout had humiliated herself in the patent. She fell asleep and missed her cue.
Sorry, I was being sloppy with the term. The presentation mentions persecution of the Jews but the term Holocaust isn’t used - I was just using the term (erronously) as shorthand for general persecution of the Jews.
“Hey Boo.”
Indeed there was a Reader’s Digest condensed version, which is where I first read the novel.
Fun thread full of fond memories.
A comment on Tom Robinson being a secondary mockingbird figure. This seems a reasonable idea to me considering that he was deemed to be helpful and not a harmful man.
Yet, considering that Boo left little gifts for the children in the hollow tree, he seems to more completely fill the role of providing enjoyment to the protagonist(s.)