The Simple Truth One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was an uneventful childhood, and that is why I can remember that June 1968 was hot. In my neighborhood few of the families had air-conditioning or color TVs, let alone the money for such unnecessary and modern luxuries. Each day after a morning of outside play, following an exactly-at-noon lunch, my mom, my brother, and we four girls rested on the living room floor hoping to catch a breeze from the water cooler, surrendering to the heat of the day. Our bedding was hidden under the sofa because it was too hot to sleep upstairs even at night. Perched on her chair above us, Mama would lift her feet to the footstool and read her most recent Readers’ Digest Condensed Novel. Mama’s rule was you could nap, …show more content…
Miss Maudie, a neighbor lady, continually frames for Scout the aching truth in Atticus’ choice to face persecution, betrayal, and humiliation. After the heartbreaking verdict is read, Miss Maudie saves Scout and her brother Jem from the sidewalk gossip, inviting them in for a piece of cake. Once indoors, sitting around the kitchen table, Miss Maudie speaks a few of the novels’ most weighty words, “I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them” (Lee *). Countless times in my adult life, I have wondered if this man, or that woman, so totally misunderstood and harshly judged is another person born to do the thing the rest of us cannot do. To Kill a Mockingbird planted this question in me. In most all books that were to follow, I knew I was looking for the simple truth, the big idea that gave me something to embrace and carry away. I think this is what my mother had in mind; it is what I most hoped for my own children...even if the simple truth is still too much to fully