To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been the source of much controversy recently as to whether or not it should continue to be taught in schools. Although To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t the best book to teach about racism because the black characters are not fully developed and it can easily be misinterpreted on how to deal with racism, it has strong themes of empathy and teaches many great and important morals through Atticus.
Teaching about racism and how to deal with it is an extremely difficult topic, and the novel doesn’t get it quite right. There are many black characters in the novel, but none of them are fully developed characters and are more off to the side. For example, theater critics say that Calpurnia is a much more dynamic character in the Broadway Production of To Kill a Mockingbird compared to the actual book. In the book, she isn’t a very prominent character, but in the play, her opinion is more often heard; she has more scenes and a dynamic relationship with Atticus where she often gives him advice and is the voice of reason when he is conflicted with indecision (Source L). In addition, the book can be easily misinterpreted that the way
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To get a true understanding of racism, you need to see all perspectives, but To Kill a Mockingbird doesn’t have this. It had opportunities to show more perspectives, such as when Scout wanted to go to Calpurnia’s house, but this did not happen when Scout was denied by Aunt Alexandra (Source K). The time period and racism were being used to teach lessons instead, such as moral integrity. Atticus’ decision to try to legitimately defend Tom Robinson despite the fact that he knew the case was lost to begin with shows his moral integrity. Atticus’ decision would not have nearly as much weight under different circumstances, and the lesson would not be as effectively