Book's detractors miss the point

by Peter Epp, Sun Media

Harper Lee's classic 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is the not best book I've read, but sure ranks up there with my all -time favourites-John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath', and Ken Follett's 'Pillars of the Earth'.

With that said, that trustees with the Toronto District School Board would consider banning Mockingbird because of Lee's use of the N word shows just how little we've learned since her novel was published almost 50 years ago.

For those who haven't had the pleasure of reading the novel, Mockingbird is the semi-fictional tale of a small town in the American South, circa 1936. One of the town's lawyers, Atticus Finch, is asked to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, against charges of raping a white woman.

Finch provides an extraordinary case, not only proving Robinson's innocence but also exposing the deep-seated bigotry that exists in the Amercan South. Yet Robinson is found guilty by an all -white jury. While being transported to prison, he escapes and is shot dead.

The novel became a literary sensation when first published and won a Pulitzer Prize, along with numerous prizes and honours. Mockingbird is thought to be one the best known and most widely read novels that deal with racism and intolerance. In 1999, it was voted Best Novel of the Century in a poll by Library Journal.

Most people would be moved to tears reading its pages. The fictional Finch is shown to hold the best of human qualities, particularly as a defender of justice and human rights. Harper's use of the language, filtered through the eyes of a six-year -old girl, exhibits the kind of raw ugliness of racism that children often recognize before adults do.

And yet Lee's use of that awful perjorative for the American South's most visible minority continues to offend. She uses the N word 48 times. And the word IS offensive, perhaps more so today than in 1960 when Mockingbird was published, and far more so than in 1936, when the fictional Atticus Finch is asked to defend a black man and is vilified for exposing a deep-seated injustice that haunts the South.

But to ban this book would also be an injustice...to literature, education, to the cause of racial tolerance.

What could the Toronto District School Board possibly gain by banning an Amercan classic that attemps to uphold the virtues of civil rights and universal brotherhood?

The school board earlier this month received a complaint from a parent about the Lee novel, and if the complaint proceeds under the board's policy for learning resource complaints, a review committe would issue a written report recommending whether the book is appropriate.

Let's hope that the controversy over Mockingbird will be enough to pique the natural interest of those Toronto students who might be denied access to this fine piec of modern literature through their schools.

After all, Lee's novel (she only wrote one) continues to sell well and can be found in most public libraries.