“To Kill a Mockingbird” as Reflection of Liberal Mentality

The fact that “To Kill a Mockingbird” is being written as child’s account of living in America’s South, during thirties, often prevents many readers from realizing that in her novel, Harper Lee was promoting a left-wing agenda, as its foremost goal. This is the reason why even in his dialogues with Scout, Atticus strives to instil his daughter with the spirit of tolerance and universal love to mankind, without realising that by doing it, he causes her more harm then good: “’Scout,’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything—like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favouring Negroes over and above themselves… “I certainly am (nigger-lover). I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes – baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name” (Lee 112). According to Atticus, only “ignorant” and “trashy” people are capable of utilising racial slang, without the thought that referring to them in such way is not something utterly tolerant either, ever occurring to him. During the course of this particular dialogue with Scout, Atticus reveals his existential essence as individual who is being even less tolerant then those that he considers as uneducated “red-necks”. Just as any typical “leftie”, Atticus appears to be someone who is afraid of admitting the possession of politically incorrect thoughts even to himself: “Do you defend niggers, Atticus?’ I asked him that evening. ‘Of course I do. Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common” (Lee 115). Despite Atticus’ apparent professionalism, he does not seem to understand that ignoring defendant’s racial affiliation, within a context of conducting legal procedures, can hardly add to the effectiveness of a legal process. Even before having gotten to know Tom Robinson personally, Atticus convinces himself in his client’s complete innocence, which raises certain doubts as to Atticus’ professional adequacy. Moreover, he intends to utilize Robinson’s case as the tool of making a political stance: “Every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one’s mine, I guess” (Lee 78). These Atticus’ words provide us with the insight on metaphysical essence of Liberal “idealism”. Despite his claims that he only wanted to “help poor Negro” out of the kindness of his soul, Atticus does have a personal interest in seeing Robinson acquitted, simply because it would strengthen his reputation as a lawyer. In its turn, this points out at one of the most important conceptual inconsistencies of Lee’s novel – a lawyer can hardly be considered as someone capable of understanding of what the notion of intellectual integrity stands for, simply because of the very nature of his job. However, given the fact that without the help of Manhattan’s shysters, “civil rights movement” would not be able to acquire a political significance, the very profession of a lawyer had to be “nobilized” in citizens’ eyes. In fact, even lawyers’ legal mumbo-jumbo had to be presented as such that makes perfect sense, which is why Atticus never seem to get tired of explaining to his seven years old daughter of what such highly abstract categories as “compromise” stand for: “When Atticus looked down at me I saw the expression on his face that always made me expect something. ‘Do you know what a compromise is?’ he asked. ‘Bending the law?’ ‘No, an agreement reached by mutual concessions. It works this way’” (Lee 31). Despite author’s willingness to represent Atticus Finch as a “hero”, it is quite impossible for the readers to imagine him being able to actively defend his beliefs, as even by the time Bob Ewell spits in his face, Atticus prefers not to notice it. This incident provides us with better understanding of metaphysical essence of Liberalism as ideological descendant of Communism, which in its turn, had derived out of spirit of Christianity. It also explains a close historical affiliation between Commies, Liberals, and the members of Christian clergy – after all, they all promote the concept of equality, while actively striving to adjust the surrounding reality to their obscure ideological dogmas. Given the fact that it were people like Atticus, who had initiated the process of America turning into a Third World slum, as a result of more and more citizens in this country being preoccupied with “celebration of diversity”, the character of Atticus needs to be reassessed. There can be no doubt as to the fact that many Atticus’ psychological qualities should be admired. It is the existential idealism and not some malicious intent, on his part, which prompts Atticus to defend Robison in the court of law. Idealistic White people have always strived to see representatives of other races being equal to themselves, without realising that the concept of racial equality is utterly unscientific, since the laws of thermo-dynamics point out at it as nice-sounding euphemism for “death”, as equality implies the absence of flow of energy. Atticus lives in artificially created world of legal notions, which is why it appears to be particularly hard for him to understand that these notions are the product of Western mentality, meant to be utilized within a context of social interaction between Whites. As practice shows, people’s legal equality does not necessarily correspond to their factual equality. Or, as George Orwell once said – all people are equal, but some of them are more equal then others. Therefore, Atticus’ “open mindedness” has simply been exploited by hook-nosed “experts on everything”, within a context of their active strive to undermine America’s national integrity. Once they had done their job, people like Atticus were no longer needed. In fact, they are now being increasingly referred to as “subtle racists”, because their willingness to help Blacks appears to be affected by their patronising attitude towards “underprivileged”. In his article “The Strange Career of Atticus Finch”, Joseph Crespino suggests that Atticus cannot be thought of as hero any longer, because he was actually patronising Blacks: “The secondary school teachers who assign “To Kill a Mockingbird” in their classes year after year should let Atticus come down from his perch as an emblem of American racial heroism… Atticus Finch is a paternalistic white man with a superiority complex who does good things for his black client not because he thinks his black client is his equal, but because he believes only a white man can save blacks” (Crespino 10). It does not matter whether the person is Black or White – once he is being deprived of his sense of racial solidarity, it is only the matter of time, before people will lose a respect towards such individual, which is exactly what happened to the character of Atticus nowadays. Blacks view him as ignorant White paternalist and Whites view him as a traitor of his race, not because he wanted to help a wrongly accused Robinson, but because he strived to turn Robinson’s trial into the matter of political significance: “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men.” (Lee 207). In other words – race does not matter. This is the ultimate message Harper Lee wanted to spread among people, by publishing her book. However, the realities of living in “multicultural” America suggest otherwise – race does matter. During the course of O.J. Simpson’s trial, not a single Black person of social significance would even consider criticising him publicly, despite the fact that it was obvious to everyone that Simpson did murder his wife. This is because, unlike White people, Blacks are being united by their acute sense of racial solidarity. As a result, their socio-political weight in this country continues to grow. The objective reality of our time shows that there can be no racial equality in multicultural society – when dominant race grows weaker, the underprivileged race grow stronger and eventually gains the status of dominant one. Despite Atticus’ “existential sophistication”, he had proven himself as an individual incapable of realizing this simple fact.