Today, as I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the emotions of three pages hit me like an avalanche. The book, set in a Southern town in the 1930s, revolved around a girl named Jean Louise (but usually called Scout), her older brother Jem (Jeremy), and (sometimes) their friend Dill. The father of the two siblings, Atticus, was a lawyer who in the book fought a case where his client, an African American man, was accused of rape (Atticus is the defendant). Many things, emotional and surprising, unraveled as the case and depth of it all, revealed itself. The three pages I'm writing about today occur when Dill and Scout exit the courtroom due to Dill feeling sick, after watching a long period of the trial.
In those pages, Dill, who was crying, talks a lot about feeling sick when the (white) prosecutor talked in an incredibly disrespectful way to the African American man accused of rape, even though the one accused was very mannerly. What struck me so powerfully were the words spoken to Dill about him crying and being sick, by Mr. Raymond, a man from their town . As he talked about how Dill would no longer cry about specific things when he grew older, these were his words (mind the language) "Cry about the simple hell people give other people- without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too." I found these two sentences sadly true. Remembering that this book was published in the 1960s, I understood why Harper Lee's book included such a strong quote. One of the strongest I've ever heard in fact, and perhaps it was because she had written what the problem for over a hundred years was.
To be honest, it should be that she wrote the problem of a hundred years and counting.
In my opinion, that quote in the book applies to all. Before people start being rude (or worse) to whatever something may be, they should think. They should acknowledge that though that person, or plant, or animal, or any living thing, isn't us, may not be someone/something we know, may not be at all related to us, that they STILL deserve respect. They still have feelings, emotions, joy, anger...pain, just like each and every one of us. Scientists may not be able to prove it but do we really need proof to live? Can't we for once, access the world with not only our brains, but our hearts as well?
It is the utter most self conceited and ignorant thing to say that we are superior because we are humans. It is just as bad when people say they are superior for more specific categories such as race, colour, etc. Nothing is superior and everything deserves respect, whether its a person or tree or even a bug. You may ask why a bug would deserve as much respect as humans but the question from me is why not? Respect does not discriminate, it is not selfish, nor is it cruel but unfortunately, those who are capable of showing respect, are also capable of doing all those things. Maybe that's why Dill was sick and maybe that's why I feel like that too.
I feel sick, Dill feels sick, and really, shouldn't we all?
Please feel free to comment
Great post! I agree with you 100%. We have absolutely no reason to think ourselves superior to anyone/anything else! I think we do this instinctively; maybe it was a survival technique back when we actually needed survival skills. It's true that when you tell yourself "I'm better than him/her/that," you feel prouder of yourself. And though having high self-esteem is very good, it's also very important where you get it from! By acting conceited like the above example, you are gaining self-esteem in a despicable, greedy way. I think that respecting everything should be something we work into our subconscious; something that we can do naturally. I hope maybe someday we can all be that way! Awesome post, again! You're a really creative, articulate writer!
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