I find myself writing very frequently about To
Kill a Mockingbird, mainly because it tackles many social issues that are
relatable even in today’s world. Justice and power are major issues in the
book, and since I wrote about justice last week, the process of elimination
demanded that I choose to write about the critical thinking question about
power. To be a bit more specific, who holds the power in the book? The answer
is quite simple, and it sums up the way that modern civilization works. The one
that holds the power is the greater part of society. The ideas that are wildly
accepted as truth, and the people that spread these ideas, hold the majority of
the power. In this case, and many other cases, the ideas that are being spread
are not the best of ideas. The people of To Kill a Mockingbird’s society
accept the ideas of racism and inequality that have been spread since even
before this country’s existence. It is quite difficult to pin-point the exact
person who spread these ideas, but a man named Jim Crow comes to mind. Or perhaps
these ideas were the fault of our founding fathers, who had the power to stop
the terrible thoughts that all of society thought, yet they didn’t because they
thought that the rest of society would not accept their new way of thinking.
The people in To Kill a
Mockingbird know that Tom Robinson is not guilty of the crime that he is
being accused of, but they still call him guilty because his skin is a
different color than theirs, and they don’t like that. Men like Atticus Finch
try to loosen the grip that this way of thinking has on society, but even
Atticus knows he can’t convince the world that everyone is equal by himself. He
still attempts to make some progress in having his thoughts heard by everyone.
It takes good people who can see
through the heavy mist dark ideas and thoughts to break their hold on society. But
to break through that mist takes patience and persistence, and many people get
lost in this mist before they can make any real impact. It’s sad to think that
the good people are silenced simply because the bad people can shout out their
ideas louder, and they can spread them farther. Even now, the good people are
fighting for equality and fairness for every single person, and even though the
bad voices get quieter, the good still hasn’t broken through that mist of evil
that looms over society. It’s quite possible that all of us won’t be around
when the goodness finds its way into everyone’s heart, and I sincerely hope
that all of the voices that fought for the greater good in the past will be
remembered when the good ideas finally win.
