Maycomb is quite old, and in my first memory it was a tired old town. When it rains, the streets become red mud puddles; the sidewalks are overgrown with weeds, and the county government building in the center of the square crumbles. For some reason, the weather then seemed warmer than it is now: a black dog was tormented under the summer sun; a bony mule on a cart stood in the shade of the hot oak trees in the square, wagging its tail to drive away fly. The stiff collars of the men became limp before nine o'clock in the morning; the women took a bath before noon, and again after a nap at three o'clock in the afternoon, and when night fell, the women who threw themselves on talcum powder. One by one, they were sweaty and sweet, like a soft cake with frosting
This is my first impression of the town of Maycomb in this book. The women there are very delicate and ladylike. The scenery there is like a deserted beach. Everything seems to exist in my distant memory. Sparkling, blurry.
I remember the only two mentions of the robin in the book, one of which explained why killing it was a crime:
"Robins just hum nice music for people to enjoy, and they don't do anything bad. They don't eat the flowers and vegetables grown in people's yards, and they don't build nests in barns, they just sing to our heart's content. So To say that killing a robin is a crime."
This appeared earlier in the novel, because it was related to the title of the book, so I paid special attention to it. I didn't expect it to be an ambush for the absurd events that followed. The first half mainly tells that Scooter, Jem and Dill, who came from afar, are playing together in the block. By the way, they explain the characters of the neighbors in the block. They will live in the world they imagined and will demonize the neighbor Radley. , will construct their own plot performances, and will easily say "love" and "marry you" when they are ignorant, and they live carefree. But the author wants to express more than this. These children will also have their own worries and entanglements, which may not be worth mentioning in the eyes of adults, or they have long known that these problems are unsolvable, so they ignore things. The essence of it, let yourself go around it. They won't distort the facts because of their skin color, they won't care about the neighbors saying "how are you wearing your overalls today, you're not a lady at all", they won't become enemies forever just because of a disagreement . They are the people who are best able to see the essence of the problem clearly.
"Oh, she told us today how bad Hitler was and how bad he treated the Jews. Jem, it's not right to persecute anybody, is it? I mean, there should be no vicious thoughts about anybody, is not it?"
"Oh, we came out of the courtroom that night, Miss Gates... she was walking in front of us on the way down the steps, you sure didn't see her... she was talking to Miss Stephanie. I heard her say, yes Time to teach them a lesson, those niggas are getting more and more ignorant, the next step they have to think they can marry us white people. Jem, you say, how can a man who hates Hitler so much turn his face The people in my hometown are so vicious..."
Of course, this is inseparable from the education of their father. This gentle, patient, literate, wise, and principled father really impresses me. Whenever I read what he said to the children, I feel that this must be a gentleman. Excellent Educator:
"Oh, most people seem to think they're right and you're wrong..." "They certainly have a right to think that way, and their views have a right to be fully respected," Atticus said, "but, I am Before you accept others, you must first accept yourself. There is one thing that cannot follow the principle of conformity, and that is the human conscience.”
"How could they do this? How could they do this?" "I don't know, but they did. They did it before, they did it tonight, they will do it again in the future, and, when they did... ...only children seem to cry. Good night."
"Son, if you were on that jury and the eleven other guys were boys like you, Tom would be a free man now," Atticus said. "So far, your life has Nothing interferes with your reasoning process yet. Tom's jury members are twelve reasonable people, but you can see a layer between them and reason. That night, at the gate of the prison You saw the same thing before. Those people left not because reason prevailed, but because we stayed there. In the world we live in, there is always something to lose Reason - even when they try to be fair, it backfires. In our courts, white people always win when it's a white person and a black person. These things are ugly, but that's how real life is."
Although the case of the black man in charge of his father still lost in the end, but he won his dignity, he followed his own heart, and set a good example for the children. Cases like this should have been common at the time, and it could not have been more normal. But he was just unwilling that the black people were framed like this, and he did his best to fight for it with all his strength. The interrogation session between the two sides in court was also very interesting. Every sentence was carefully considered, and an inadvertent remark might be caught by the other side. Now it seems that the words of the plaintiff woman and his father are so funny and illogical. Anyone with a discerning eye will know that they are lying, but at that time, because the defendant was black, everyone could turn a blind eye and directly Convicted black people. Our civilization is truly progressing, saving fewer and fewer robins from being killed.
In the end, the plaintiff's father actually wanted to take revenge on Atticus in a maddening manner, and fought with Jem and Scooter. What they never expected was that the weirdo they had been afraid of actually saved them, the one who stayed in the house all his life and would Radley, the weird guy who puts some chewing gum in the tree hole, is rarely mentioned by people, and only the children are worried about. The plot is really very clever. The person who looks bad on the surface may be a good person; The guy who seems to be honest, maybe because he's black, he must be guilty.
I miss all kinds of people in this town, the gentle and kind Miss Modi, the cook Carpurney who takes care of me like a mother, the gossip aunt Stephanie of the neighborhood committee, the vicious and lonely old lady Dubos, who was finally killed by Scu In one sentence, Mr. Cunningham, a countryman who is ashamed, the dirty Ewell family, Mr. Raymond, who doesn't care about worldly vision and married a black man, who lives freely and freely, handed the gun to Adick when he beat the dog Mr. Tate, the sheriff of Sri Lanka, Aunt Alexandra, who has always been very "concerned" about his father's teaching to Scooter, Underwood, a newspaper dealer who collects news from all sides, and Uncle Radley, whose daily life is the same, Miss Gates, who talks about rejecting prejudice in school lectures and curses black people...
We read it in unison. Miss Gates went on to say, "That's the difference between America and Germany. We are a democracy, and Germany is a dictatorship, a dictatorship." She went on to explain, "In our country, we oppose the persecution of any People. Persecution comes from those who have prejudices. It's a mystery."
"Oh, she told us today how bad Hitler was and how bad he treated the Jews. Jem, it's not right to persecute anybody, is it? I mean, there should be no vicious thoughts about anybody, Didn't you?" "Oh, we came out of the courtroom that night, Miss Gates . . . she was walking ahead of us on the way down the steps, and you must not have seen her . . . she was talking to Miss Stephanie. I heard She said, it's time to teach them a lesson, those niggas are getting more and more ignorant, the next step they have to think they can marry us white people. Jem, you say, how can a person who hates Hitler so much? Come over and be so vicious to the people in your hometown..."
There are also a lot of fragments discussing the classification and level of "people" in the novel:
There are four kinds of people in this world: ordinary people like us and our neighbors, people who live in the woods like the Cunninghams, and people who live by the dump like the Ewells One is black. "
"I mean in Maycomb County. It's this: People like us don't like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don't like the Ewells, the Ewells hate the Ewells and despise black people."
"There are still a few people in our town who believe the principle of equality doesn't just apply to white people; there are still a few people who think a fair trial should apply to everyone, not just ourselves; Humility, when I see black people, I think that without the mercy of God, there is no themselves." Miss Maudie resumed her crisp and straightforward tone, "They are people with background in this town. They are the people. "
In fact, children think more thoroughly about many problems, because they look at the problem very simply and only look at the essence. For adults, many very complex problems are just that we have given them many things beyond their essence, such as public perception, other people's vision, their own status, etc. These things will also be bound for a lifetime. Our things, we yearn for freedom, but on the road to freedom, we created too many things that hamper us out of thin air. May we still look at things with the purest eyes, may we not kill any robin, may we always keep our childlike innocence and not be prejudiced because of anything.
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