Log #9

Finally, I have finished this book. At the beginning, I was not so interest in this book because I thought the plot is not attractive to me and is making nonsense. After reading continually, the plot has developed in a magic way that changed my perspective.

Jean Louise was informed that Calpurnia's grandson Frank had hit and killed a white man while driving his father Zeebo's car. Atticus said he would take care of this case, and he would try his best to keep the NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ) from getting involved. I was shocked when I read about this. I thought Atticus is a man who would fight for Negroes' right perseveringly. According to this, Jean went to Calpurnia in order to seek for answer. However, she felt that the relationship between Cal and her has greatly changed. She was treated as a "white person," no longer someone who is as close as a family to Cal. This is indeed a sad news,  when you trust someone and you want to get advice from that person; however, you are perceived as a stranger, not a close friend anymore.

After that, Jean went to attend a women's social event, Coffee. During the event, she heard a lot of repellent speech toward the issue of Negroes. Since then, she found out that her community was far more racist than originally realized. Sadly, she went to visit Uncle Jack, who told her that she has to understand the history in the South that has caused the racial tension around her. This part is worth pondering. What if the environment we lived and the whole education system, the policy, and everything we used to believe were all a lie? I used to have this kind of concern when I was little. If it comes true, I do not know how am I going to face this, and I might collapse. For all the things were so different, so familiar and so strange. I was afraid that maybe one day when I wake up, all the things I used to recognize would turn into something I never know. There is a movie called The Truman Show, although the themes of these two works have no connection, the complexity of the main characters' mind were easy to sense. They were living in a world full of lies.

In the next part, Jean Louise confronted Henry and Atticus, and both of them reveal that each of them have their own reason to tolerate the Citizens' Council. They did not agree with the racist to Negroes, but take Atticus as an instance, he thought that the black people would drag white people down for progressing, even though they are harmless. Jean was pissed off and rushed back home to pack her belongings, ready to escape those illusion she did not want to admit in Maycomb. Misunderstanding is not a big deal in every issue. The point is how to solve it. Of course they have their own point of view on this Negro issue. I am neutral on this point since I can understand Jean's mind, but Atticus did make sense as well. Perhaps he should say it in another way. For example, our government has set a system that some of the students could be recommended for admission to high school and college as well. In my opinion, I consider this as a wrong policy. It is not because I despise those who are not so capable of the position they are applying for, it is for the students enroll schools in this way may have difficulties catching up with their peers. As a result, most of them would give up eventually. Nonetheless, if the government let them develop their own skill instead of stepping in their way, they might have a brighter future. I know fate is not fair to everyone, but it has to be like this, otherwise the world would not be able to operate smoothly until now.

For the ending, Uncle Jack arrived before she got away, and gave her a great punch right in her face. She was nearly passing out. Nonetheless, this blow had calmed her down, and Uncle Jack told her that it was not a matter of right or wrong. She used to rely on her father to judge things, and now she begun to develop her own value so that she was confused. In the end, she forgave Atticus and made peace with him. She realized not all the things were what she knew from their surfaces. In fact, they always contained a deeper meaning than it seemed to be. Uncle Jack is no doubt the savior to Jean. He used a wise way to persuade Jean and to explain to her that it all had its reason. Perhaps we need someone like Uncle Jack to take us out from the situation that we are drowning in, and only through this way can we see the true color in things. I am a skeptical person, and I like to imagine things before I get the certain answer. Usually, I am right about these things, but I am not God so sometimes I have misunderstood others. They may do things in a way that can hold on to the both sides, whereas giving me a feeling that I am deceived. Now, I am facing a situation that I have tried every means to explain my situation, but the one I tried to explain to seemed not getting my point.

Actually, this book is more than discussing the racial issue, value discrepancy between different generations, and discrimination. It also contains the complexity of human nature, the dilemma one may encounter. I was wrong about this book. It definitely is a masterpiece that one should savor it again and again, and I believe each time when I finish this book, I would get a different taste of it. From this point, it indicates the moral I learnt from the plot, "Never judge a book by its cover."w