First published in Eureka Street on 9 July 2010.
In July 1960, Harper Lee had her first book published: To Kill a Mockingbird. It won the Pulitzer prize. The movie version in 1962 won an Academy Award for Gregory Peck. Lee did not write another book and maintains a low profile, unlike her book which has not been out of print in 50 years and features in many school English classes.
I first read To Kill a Mockingbird over 30 years ago at school. I remember enjoying a book about young children learning about life from their father, a lawyer. I could feel some affinity with Jem and Scout, as I also had a father who was a lawyer. I also remember the courtroom drama of the trial of Tom Robinson.
These days when I reread this great book I find myself more interested in the character of Atticus, the lawyer. When I was a young law graduate, I saw Atticus as a noble lawyer. Now, I see him more as a 'contemporary', as I am approaching 50 years as he was in the book.
The book is set in 1935, in Alabama, during the Depression. It was published in 1960 at a time when the civil rights movement was building. Fifty years later its themes of justice, growing up and respecting the 'other' are as fresh as ever. While I remember seeing Atticus as a 'model' for good lawyers many years ago, I now see him as a man who does his best to work for justice in a society that is against him.
He is not a great human rights advocate. He does not go out championing the rights of oppressed minorities or taking the case to the media. His approach is to do the best for his client, despite popular opposition to respecting the rule of law for Black Americans as for White Americans. Atticus works to win the case within the system, and hopes that thereby the system would gradually reform.
The appeal of Atticus is that he is realistic. At one point he talks of his motivation: 'Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro come up, is something I don't pretend to understand.'
Many lawyers will understand the challenges he faces in working for the unpopular 'other'. Just replace 'Negro' with asylum seeker, boat person, Muslim women