(Harper Lee and Gregory Peck on the set of To Kill a Mockingbird)

The Happiest of Birthdays, Harper Lee!

I was hardly older than Scout when my inquisitive, imaginative 11-year old self borrowed To Kill a Mockingbird from the school library and opened it to its first page. Perhaps that was you, too.

Having had just moved to America from France, I finished the last page in a funny daze, wondering if my small grasp of this new language had allowed me to understand everything. Soon, I was overcome by a strange feeling—one I could not find the right word for, and that would linger long after.

The feeling perhaps forever nameless, Harper Lee, through her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, helped define numerous other feelings and ideas for me (below).

Thank you, Harper Lee, and happy birthday.

5 Words Harper Lee Taught Me

1. Integrity means being the same person inside & outside the home.
Atticus was known as a man who was “the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” He carried the same principles and code of conduct with him everywhere and every time.

2. Empathy means climbing into someone else’s skin.
Fatherly advice from Atticus: “If you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

3. Having a conscience asks you to be able to live with yourself.
Scout and Atticus discuss people’s opinions of his decision: “They’re certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions, said Atticus, but before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.”

4. Respect comes when you do what needs to be done.
Miss Maudie affirms her respect for Atticus to Jem: “I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.” Despite being threatened for defending Tom Robinson, Atticus is unanimously re-elected to the state legislature.

5. Finally, courage means doing something whether you win or not.
Atticus exemplifies its meaning by taking on the most difficult case of his life: “I wanted you to see what real courage is… It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

These words, and what they meant to the characters of the brilliantly observant Harper Lee, have challenged me through the years. Perhaps you have gathered your own words from this classic treasure, as will this generation of 11-year olds.

Thank you for everything, Ms. Lee.

(Getty Images)

To Kill a Mockingbird
(50th Anniversary Edition)
by Harper Lee
Available to buy on TAB

—

—

—

Tags: Authors, Chapter Book, Tab