The Power Of One

A con­ver­sa­tion between a small girl (Scout) and her father (Atti­cus) from To Kill A Mock­ing­bird:

“Do you defend nig­gers, Atti­cus?” I asked him that evening.

“Of course I do. Don’t say nig­ger, Scout. That’s common.”

“ ‘s what every­body at school says.”

“From now on it’ll be every­body less one.”

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July 10, 2009 – 10:39 AM | By Mahendra | Posted in books, children, culture, parenting | Tagged , , , | Comments (13)

13 Comments

  • mystic_life wrote:
    Jul 10, 2009 at 11:07 AM

    I love that book. It made me cry so many times, it’s just so moving.

  • Gaizabonts wrote:
    Jul 10, 2009 at 3:32 PM

    Sigh. Such sim­plic­ity of expres­sion, intent and authority.

  • Gauri wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 12:05 AM

    my favourite is when he says ‘they do noth­ing but sing their hearts out for us to enjoy. kill as many blue jays as you want, but remem­ber, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’

    and this

    “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of get­ting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. 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.”

    i cud go on…

  • Amit wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 1:50 AM

    This book was a beauty. I have heard that the movie was good too.

  • Final_Transit wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 9:33 AM

    Oh wow, I read this book dur­ing a phase when I was sud­denly read­ing strange books… One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Catcher in the Rye, usw. You’ll love it!

  • V wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 6:10 PM

    Oh the nuances of this book..

    I first read it when i was in school and at the time, it read more like “Adven­tures of Scout”.
    I then read it when I was in col­lege and it was all about jus­tice and equal­ity.
    I later read it when I was preg­nant and it was all about good parenting..

    A truly great book.

  • Mahendra wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 5:24 AM

    Gauri, please don’t spoil it for me…I’m still read­ing it! :)

  • Mahendra wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 5:26 AM

    Hi Amit, I feel like I’m catch­ing up…everyone seems to have read it. Re the movie, we did talk about it back when we did ‘T’.

  • Mahendra wrote:
    Jul 11, 2009 at 5:30 AM

    Havah, the style and per­spec­tive are unlike any­thing I’ve read before. I am less than half-way through the book. I sense a storm approach­ing. It has been a long time since I’ve cried read­ing a book…

  • Mahendra wrote:
    Jul 13, 2009 at 6:19 AM

    Thanks, V. All great works of art teach us dif­fer­ent things in each dif­fer­ent stage of life we expe­ri­ence them. In fact, some­times the great­est works tell us more about our­selves than any­thing else!

    I didn’t read this ear­lier, so I’ve filed it under par­ent­ing in my first read­ing itself. :)

  • Gauri wrote:
    Jul 13, 2009 at 9:53 PM

    I assumed you had fin­ished read­ing :( but i take solace tht i haven’t given out much

  • Mahendra wrote:
    Jul 14, 2009 at 8:01 AM

    Cov­ered your next quote last night! :)

    Any­way, noth­ing about giv­ing out, since I’ve seen the movie.