The Theme of Knowledge in Lee's Novel
Good, Evil, and Ignorance in To Kill a Mockingbird
Apr 9, 2009
The first mention of knowledge in To Kill a Mockingbird is found at the beginning of chapter 2, where the reader discovers that Scout yearns to go to school with her brother. From that point forward, the themes of knowledge and ignorance become increasingly more complex.
School House Knowledge
While personally teaching his children was never an explicit intention of Atticus Finch, his approach to raising his children clearly indicated that he believed them to be intelligent human beings. He never spoke down to them by reading silly or juvenile literature. He shared whatever he happened to be reading with them no matter how complex. Through her father’s example but not through his direct teaching, Scout learns to read before entering school.
During her first day of school, Scout quickly learns that the knowledge that one obtains at school is contradictory at best. Her first grade teacher, Miss Caroline, reads a fanciful story about cats and mice to a class of children who know enough about real life not to care. However, she discovers that Scout can read quite well and begins to interrogate her about her precocious knowledge. Scout’s fanciful explanation, includes a play on the last name of Finch linking it with the great fable collector Bullfinch. As a result, Miss Caroline sternly reprimands for her excessive imagination.
Miss Caroline then tells Scout to quit learning to read from her father because it is best to begin reading with a fresh mind and that she will try to “undo the damage” that Atticus had already done. Lee places a harsh criticism of the school system in Scout’s mouth when Scout reflects that “I could not help receiving the impression that I was being cheated out of something. Out of what I know not, yet I did not believe that twelve years of unrelieved boredom was exactly what the state had in mind for me.” (33)
Later, Atticus reinforces this statement when he discusses the phrase “All men are created equal.” He argues that the school system blindly promotes the stupid and idle using the argument of equality. “Educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are not create equal in the sense that some people are smarter than others…some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.” (205)
Calpurnia explains to Scout that people can’t be taught, “they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.” (126) Calpurnia’s assessment of knowledge applies to both kinds of knowledge, the kind that can be learned from a book and the kind that is commonly referred to as wisdom.
The Knowledge of Good
Harper Lee’s treatment of Scout and Jem suggests that she believes that children are born with an innate understanding of right and wrong. Children are born with a well-developed sense of understanding and tolerance, which the examples of the adults contradict. Lee appears to believe that the ultimate result of a child’s exposure to adults is the unlearning of their inborn knowledge.
During the trial of Tom Robinson, Dill becomes ill when he sees the prosecuting attorney belittling Tom. Scout leads him outside, where with the help of Dolphus Raymond she revives Dill. During their time with Dolphus, he reveals to the children that his lifestyle is a fraud that he perpetrates on the world. Scout wonders why he does it. Raymond explains “Because you’re children and you can understand it…Things haven't caught up with that one's [Dill] instinct yet. Let him get a little older and he won't get sick and cry.” (201)
The implication of Raymond’s statement is that children learn to be prejudiced and learn to choose ignorance from the adults around them. Both Raymond’s statement and Calpurnia’s statement suggest that learning comes through a willing interaction with life and people and not through the forced system of schooling.
The Knowledge of Evil
In his closing arguments, Atticus Finch acknowledges evil when he says “"the witnesses for the state…have presented themselves to you gentlemen…in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on —the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women." (217)
Atticus goes on to reveal that this belief is a deliberately chosen ignorance. Atticus suggests that evil is more encompassing than race or skin color “This is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.” (217)
Good, Evil, and Knowledge
The words that Harper Lee puts in the mouths of her main characters in To Kill a Mockingbird, reveal a belief that children have an inborn knowledge of good and have pure insight based on understanding and tolerance. In addition, Lee admits to the universality of evil. Evil cannot be avoided since it is learned from previous generations. As children grow, the adults in their lives corrupt their purity.
Some critics suggest that Lee uses Atticus to promote knowledge and this is true. However, it is incorrect to assume that knowledge is equated with education. Three main characters, Scout, Atticus, and Calpurnia all testify to the fact that people can’t be forced to learn and that state education is a hollow system. Yet all three, prove that the seeking after knowledge is necessary.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Warner Books, Inc. 1982. ISBN 0-446-31078-6
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