Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (43 page)

11. When Scout and Jem are struggling with the animosity of the community following the trial, she explains that “there are some men in the world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them,” she adds, and despite the current climate she goes on to say that there are many people in Maycomb who value his presence, including the judge, the sheriff, and many colored folks too (
TKAM
245–246).

12. A view reinforced by an unsolicited testimonial from Dolphus Raymond during the trial when he says to Scout, “You're pa's not a run-of the-mill man” (
TKAM
229).

13. Robert Browning,
Pippa Passes
, part 1, line 221.

14. The polarization is such that Scout wonders whether they ever grew up in the same family and even speculates that perhaps Alexandra had been swapped with someone else at birth (
TKAM
88, 149).

15. Sometimes described as the “parking lot” theory, based on the idea that when you see a car parked very oddly in a car park, you don't have to assume that the driver was either an idiot or an incompetent driver; the chances are that was the only available spot when he arrived. Similarly, a second child in a family may well turn out different from the expected because the first has claimed her territory.

16. An approach shared with brother Jack, who takes Atticus to task for his leniency in dealing with her (
TKAM
99–101). Jack chides Scout for bad language whereas Atticus sees it as little more than a stage in growing up (
TKAM
89–90). Jem's assessment (to Scout) is that Alexandra's “not used to girls, leastways, not girls like you” (
TKAM
257).

17. Toward the end, when normality is being restored, “Alexandra and her Missionary Circle” were still “fighting the good fight all over the house” (
TKAM
260 ff).

18. All we have is Scout's judgment, after watching him closely during the trial, that he is “a respectable Negro” (
TKAM
219).

19. “White people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes wouldn't have anything to do with her because she was white” (
TKAM
218). See Jem's other remark that “they're just in-betweens, don't belong anywhere” (
TKAM
183).

20. “As Dill explained,” she says, “I found myself wondering what life would be if Jem were different . . . what I would do if Atticus did not feel the need of my presence, help and advice. . . . Even Calpurnia couldn't get along unless I was there. They needed me” (
TKAM
162).

21. Otherness is not unlike greatness, of which Shakespeare wrote, “Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them (
Twelfth Night
, act 2, scene 5).

22. Most recently, on the international front, some would cite the cold war, weapons of mass destruction, or the war on terror. Others would strongly disagree and that, in part, is what makes the corporate other so potentially dangerous.

23. Rather than pass the Radley Place, “a negro would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked” (
TKAM
9), and Cecil Jacobs would walk “a total of one mile per school day going by the back street an' all the way around by town to get home” rather than pass close by (
TKAM
39).

24. In a predominantly white British community in the 1960s, when race and color were still only coming over the horizon, a child went home and told his parents he had found a new friend. “Is he black or white,” says mum. “I don't know,” replies the child, “I'll go and ask him.”

25. “A pocket Merlin whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies” (
TKAM
9).

26. For example, observe the belief that the nuts that fall in the school playground from a tree in the Radley's garden are poisonous.

27. According to “neighborhood legend,” Boo in his teens had got involved in some high-spirited activity with a gang of others and been brought before the local judge charged with “disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, assault and battery, and using abusive and profane language in the presence and hearing of a female.” Thanks to his father's reputation and relationship with the judge, Boo had escaped the worst of punishments on the grounds that his father “would see to it that Arthur gave no more trouble.” After this he was not seen again for fifteen years. Subsequently, at the age of thirty-three it was alleged that he had driven a pair of scissors into his father's leg and shown no sign of remorse, though there seemed to be little evidence to substantiate the story (
TKAM
10–13).

28. Miss Stephanie claims that one night she woke up and found him looking in her window (
TKAM
13–14, 51).

29. There are three exceptions. Bob Ewell was somewhat chastened, Judge Taylor had been shot at, and Link Deas (Tom Robinson's employer) had offered a job to Helen, Tom's widow, and was providing strong support against the innuendoes of Bob Ewell.

30. These gifts range from “chewing gum minus their outer wrappers” (
TKAM
37–38) to “a ball of gray twine” (
TKAM
66) and included a medal and “two small images carved in soap” (
TKAM
67–68).

31. Isaiah 53, especially verses 2–3 and 7.

32. Especially the chorus, “He was despised.”

33. Exodus 33:23,
Good News Bible
(GNB).

34. Isaiah 52:13–53:12. This passage is often thought to be a foretaste of the crucifixion. Notice the detailed description of Boo. He has his back to the wall, a “thin frame” with a “torn shirt”, white hands and face, cheeks “thin to hollowness,” “grey eyes so colorless [Scout] thought he was blind,” hair “dead and thin”—but as tension slowly drained from his face, he managed a timid smile that moved an onlooker to tears (
TKAM
310).

35. Luke 23:28.

36. Acts 4:11, GNB.

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