With the passing of Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird," the world says goodbye to one of the most influential American authors of the 20th century.
Members of both MSU’s faculty and student body somberly reflected on To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel exploring race relations in the deep south during the Great Depression.
“'To Kill a Mockingbird' is a landmark book, it’s practically required reading for becoming an American,” English professor Ellen McCallum said.
English professor Gary Hoppenstand said Lee’s novel has stood the test of time because of its content and depth.
“Something stands the test of time when the characters still live and breathe,” Hoppenstand said. “That is when you have a real work of art and that is what (Lee) created.”
“(To Kill a Mockingbird) really captured the sensibilities of the south at the time, this and the richness of the characters underscore the simplicity of the novel,” Hoppenstand added.
He said the novel's simplicity is one of its greatest strengths.
“The story wouldn’t be as powerful if it were complicated,” Hoppenstand said.
This simplicity also stood out to some students.
“It’s written from the perspective of a child, and a fairly young one,” comparative cultures and politics and international relations sophomore Cassidy Connolly said. “A child who has not reached the complexity that comes with being a teenager, so there is still a very basic, black and white emotionality in the novel.”
Connolly said the novel’s first-person perspective also adds to the simplicity.
“We are forced to experience a child’s awakening to a big bad scary world that doesn’t treat everybody fairly,” Connolly said. “I think if it were told from the third person or from the perspective of a mature protagonist we would miss out on that dawning realization, that completely helpless impotent rage against all the injustice in the world.”
For Connolly, "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the first novel that challenged her perception of life by showing her a perspective radically different than her own.
“I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for the first time when I was 10,” Connolly said. “Even still there are parts of that book that make me very, very emotional.”
Connolly said she read the book again for a high school freshman English class.
“I think it’s a good time to have people read that book for the first time,” Connolly said. “It’s a time when you're learning to observe the world through perspectives that are not your own."
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