Racial Injustice in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird文献综述

 2022-08-15 10:10:49

Literature Review

1.1 The Critical Review Abroad

Scholars abroad have studied To Kill A Mockingbird from multiple angles such as the gothic elements, racial injustice, character analysis, class differences, gender roles, loss of innocence, narrative voices and compassion in the story.

The “double” narrative voice of the novel has attracted a great deal of scholars and critics. Scholar Phoebe Adams asserts the narration of the story as “frankly and completely impossible, being told in the first person by a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult”. The black cook Calpurnia in the Finch family is conspicuous as well. Rezazade, Zohdi
and Faghfori center on the dual life and merged identity of the character Calpurnia to investigate both the inner and outer truth of African Americansrsquo; life and their merged identity under the impact of racism in her article. Besides, Laurie Champion studies the novel in a new facet that she focuses on the connotation of “right” and “left” on a subtler level.

Additionally, some scholars view To Kill A Mockingbird as Bildungsroman that covers the moral and psychological growth of children. Yet, who is the protagonist of this Bildungsroman is still the subject of much controversy. Seidel firmly argues “the novel is a Bildungsroman in which “Scout must grow from innocence to maturity” in her “Growing Up Southern”. However, Jennifer Murray considers Scout as an ostensible center of the story. Jem, instead, is the actual protagonist from the perspective of Bildungsroman. Murray contends that both the first and second part of the novel open with “Jem”. Lee describes Jemrsquo;s growth in various ways such as the adventure to the Radley house, physical transformation, reading to Mrs. Dubose, and especially his inability to accept the injustice of Tomrsquo;s verdict that the world of justice he believed in falls apart. These movements into adolescence confirm that Jem is the central character in the children growth.

As for the character Atticus Finch, many researches focus on his identity as lawyer. To cite an example, the article “Being Atticus Finch: The Professional Role of Empathy in To Kill a Mockingbird” centers on the treatment of empathy and its relation to the opposing principle of professional detachment in the novel by analyzing Maycomb lawyer. Amanda C. Osheim views Atticus in a disparate way that she examines Atticus through virtue ethics to reveal a figure of moral integrity and moral incoherence.

The subject of racial injustice and prejudice lies at the heart of the story and this theme has been explored in various aspects as well. Felty considers the reading as a protest against prejudice and racism. Iulia Andreea Milică
studies the white identity and supremacy that constitute the foundation of racial violence and prejudice in the American South by comparing the racial violence in William Faulknerrsquo;s Dry September and Harper Leersquo;s To Kill A Mockingbird.

1.2 The Critical Review at Home

Despite of the tremendous impact and of this novel, researches on To Kill A Mockingbird at home are relatively rare. Sparse discussions about this novel can be found in some journals, master and PhD thesis.

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