Finally I get a moment where I'm not cleaning up or dealing with the mucus of my children. Yes, the house of Plague and Woe is on the decline. My children are happier, my wife has returned from her self imposed exile, and while they are out enjoying the day I can at long last make a post.
Last time we covered all of the southernisms from Scuppernongs to Lane cake. Today we get into the meat of the book where everything shifts away from idyllic (aside from school and forgetful pre-teen fiance's) childhood to real world grown up problems. The problems have been there lurking in the dark and making themselves known about as much as Boo Radley. The hard shift comes pretty quickly.
At the start of this second third of the book we are introduced to Mrs. Dubose who appears initially as a terrible woman. Scout tries to say "hey" and is accused of being an ugly girl and how dare she say "hey" when she should be saying "good afternoon". We've all known and disliked someone like Mrs. Dubose. Nothing is ever good enough, their beliefs and understandings are from two or three generations ago enough to be alien or anathema entirely to our own conceptions, and they feel it is their duty to tell everyone how best to live. They seem angry at the world for changing at all. I've disregarded them numerous times before as just old people who are just mean, crazy, or both. When Jem gets furious at her Atticus reminds me "Easy does it, son...She's an old lady and she's ill. You just hold your head high and be a gentleman. Whatever she says to you, it's your job not to let her make you mad." Advice I wish I would have taken on a number of occasions.
Jem has a fit at Mrs. Dubose insulting his father and thrashes the her flowers to bits. He's punished for this by having to go read to her for an hour or two every day. During this time Scout and Jem notice that she goes into these queer little fits, and they suspect that she keeps adding time to their reading making it even longer. Within the past few years I've become well acquainted with the maxim "Be kind because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle". It is very easy to simplify everyone's behaviors into "they're just dumb" or "they're just mean" and caring very very little for that third dimension. There's always another dimension to people. Everyone has a secret struggle or a secret pain that informs their behavior. We all have them and we tend to act like other people shouldn't.
My greatest struggle tends to be with self doubt. Any time someone gives me a compliment I deflect it a bit with humor because if it actually gets to me core I start examining every word of what they are saying, the thirty possible meanings, then I try to gauge the sincerity based on how related to me they are because the closer you are the more likely you are to say it just to not hurt my feelings, and the final stage is how accurate your perception of me may or may not be...ARG! It's all automatic. And why? Cause of a wound left over from my childhood. When others react to pain from their childhood I tend to come across as "Ugh..please, get over it" ignoring their third dimension.
When Mrs. Dubose dies and all is revealed about her addiction to morphine and the fact that she was trying to die free of it then Jem becomes sensitive to that third dimension. Sometimes I wonder if we humans are even capable of being sensitive to that third dimension without knowledge. Maybe that's what being kind and being a gentleman is all about...allowing for another's pain, grief, and to be treated humanely without knowledge of exactly why we should.
I loved the point at which Jem turns twelve and he becomes "difficult to live with". Scout simplifies the situation with her best guess of, "All he needs is somebody to beat him up and I ain't big enough." Summer comes and Dill, Scouts only hope and solace, doesn't end up joining them because he has a new dad. Scout, of course is distraught. ...without him, life was unbearable. I stayed miserable for two whole days." If only Bella from Twilight had the same temperament. It would have been a totally different book.
With Atticus out of town and no Sunday school teacher for the kids at the "white church" Calpurnia takes them to her church. Here is what I am beginning to understand about the great books so far: the "evil" or the "bad" is not exclusive to one side or the other. Each side, blacks and whites, has bigots. When Lula gets all pissed off at Calpurnia for bringing them I was happy to see the balanced approach. The first time I ever realized there was a difference between black and white was because of someone much like Lula. I didn't learn about racism from a white bigot and that has influenced my view ever since. Hatred and bigotry aren't exclusive to any color or gender, though people may wish it was otherwise.
I was delighted to have a small peek into the southern black church culture as a whole. I loved that the song leader was the city garbage man, something real about that, and I felt a bit of wonder reading about "linin'". Other cultures, even within the borders of the US, fascinate me quite a bit. You don't have to go very far to have your paradigms challenged.
After that experience, in comes Aunt Alexandra to live with them. Good...Lord.
"How'd you like for her to come live with us?"
"I said I would like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them."
Everything about them starts to change, including how Atticus relates to them. One night he tries to relate about how their Aunt wants them to understand that they "aren't from run-of-the-mill people, that you are the product of several generations' gentle breeding..."There's this quiet, understated moment when Atticus realizes what's come over him, that he doesn't talk to his children that way and he drops the subject telling them to forget about it completely. It's a moment of real strength for a father let alone a single father. I often complain that I'm not the father I want to be and berate myself. My wife tells me, among other things, no body ever is the parent they think they should be, but I recognize when I've done something wrong, ask forgiveness of my children, and attempt change. This quiet moment seems replete with that kind of strength.
After Dill is discovered, having run away from his mom and new dad, the book takes the hard shift to focusing on the trial. I love the moment when Scout unknowingly "shames" Mr. Cunningham. (an aside: all three of these novels have had something to do with an entail. weird.) Atticus' observation that sometimes mobs need to be reminded they are made up of men was spot on. Nothing scares me more than mob mentality. The psychology of it is truly frightening when you research it. We forget who we are and can immediately justify all sorts of terrible things as a part of a mob. There's no logic, just emotion.
It's easy to see where the case is headed, possibly because I've seen too many legal thrillers, and where the holes are. I suspect the case won't go as Atticus wishes it would. Often, to a man of principle, it doesn't actually matter if the rest of the world agrees or if they succeed.
I'm really fascinated to see how this book ends, and to see Boo Radley finally come out, which I assume he does. I'm very close to the end so, only a few more days are left of this book and then it's on to Wuthering Heights by that other Bronte sister, Emily. That is unless I decide to read the whole Bible again. ;)
Pax,
W
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