Who disturbs the nightingale

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The Mockingbird is a state bird in some southern states of the USA

Who disturbs the nightingale (original title To Kill a Mockingbird ) is a novel published in 1960 by the American Harper Lee . The work is about childhood, adolescence and racism in the southern United States . Harper Lee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 for her work . In the meantime, Who disturbs the Nightingale has become a modern classic in American literature, with over 40 million sales worldwide.

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Who disturbs the nightingale is set in the fictional town of Maycomb in the state of Alabama , in the middle of the American Great Depression, from 1933 to 1935 . It describes a childhood from the point of view of the bright little girl Jean Louise, known as "Scout". The world scouts and their older brother Jem are held together by their single father, the MP and lawyer Atticus Finch ( Fink in the older German translation ). Atticus is a friend, confidante, teacher and authority for children. During his summer vacation, Dill, the neighbour's nephew who otherwise lives in the big city, also takes part in the siblings' activities. The children's world of thought is enriched by the mysterious neighbor Arthur Boo Radley, about whom all kinds of creepy stories circulate and whom Jem and Scout have never seen because he does not leave his house. Despite their best efforts, the children do not see Boo, but he leaves them small gifts of appreciation in a tree in the neighborhood.

The intolerant world of racism , which can be felt everywhere in the southern states , is slowly penetrating this childhood idyll . Atticus Finch, upright and impartial, is appointed by Judge Taylor - knowing that Atticus is an excellent lawyer - to be the public defender of the black farm worker Tom Robinson. He is accused of raping the young white woman Mayella. Atticus accepts the defense of the black man, because otherwise he would never be able to look his children in the eyes again, he says. For taking over the case, Atticus is soon attacked by many residents of Maycomb as a "negro friend". His children also feel this rejection, for example through derogatory comments in the schoolyard. In this environment of prejudice and intolerance, reality and appearance and contradictions, Atticus tries to support his children on their way to adulthood. When a group of men tries to lynch Tom in prison, Atticus gets in their way, but he endangers himself. When Scout, Jem and Dill suddenly appear in front of the prison, the men are ashamed to the extent that they refrain from their plans.

The trial against Tom Robinson is going on like a folk festival, the courtroom is filled to the last seat. Since there is no longer any room among the whites downstairs in the courtroom, Jem, Scout and Dill - who take part in the trial against Atticus's express request - sit down with the black Reverend Sykes in the gallery with the Afro-Americans. Atticus argues in the process that Mayella and her father - the city-famous drinker Bob Ewell - are lying to the jury. On the basis of several circumstantial evidence, Atticus suggests a different course of events: that Mayella herself made Tom her advances, but the married Tom refused them. When Mayella kissed the black guy anyway, her father, of all people, saw it. He then beat Mayella in anger, whose injuries he portrayed as traces of the alleged rape by Tom. Although Atticus' convincing defense would normally result in an acquittal, the white jury bowed to the unwritten law that the testimony of a black against one Whites is not to be believed, and Tom finds him guilty. Jem, in particular, has been shaken by the events in the courtroom and shaken in his view of the world. But where the verdict against blacks was otherwise passed by the jury in just a few minutes, in Tom's case this took several hours for the first time.

Atticus thinks Tom has a good chance of appealing to a higher court, but the convict is shot and killed shortly after the trial while trying to escape. Meanwhile, the Ewells' already bad reputation in Maycomb has declined further after Atticus exposed him to be a liar in the courtroom. Ewell longs for revenge, spits in Atticus' face and breaks into Judge Taylor's house, who conducted the trial. He finally attacks Jem and Scout when they return home from a Halloween party at their school in the dark. Jem's arm is broken by Ewell, but then a mysterious stranger appears who saves the children and carries the injured Jem to Atticus. Bob Ewell is stabbed to death in a fight with the stranger. At the Finch house, Scout notices that it is her neighbor, Boo Radley.

In order not to expose the shy Boo Radley to the collective curiosity of the small town, the death of the perpetrator is portrayed in the police report as a fall into his own knife. Scout comments on this silence with the remark that Boo , like a nightingale, must not be disturbed. This late reference to the title of the novel comes from Atticus' prohibition of his children to hunt the nightingale (in the original, however, a "mockingbird", a mockingbird ) because "it only sings beautifully and does not harm anyone". At the end of the novel, Scout accompanies her neighbor Boo back to his house.

characters

  • Scout (Jean Louise Finch) : The adult Scout acts as a first-person narrator and reports from her childhood. Scout is six at the beginning of the novel and nine at the end. Contrary to the other girls in her village, the lively Scout is a real tomboy , who occasionally hits her with her fists. In the course of Who Disturbs the Nightingale, this always brings her into conflict, but thanks to the help of her father, she keeps learning new things.
  • Atticus Finch : Coming from a respected southern family, Atticus practices as a lawyer in Maycomb. Since the sudden death of his wife a few years ago, he has had to raise his two children alone. In contrast to the fathers of other children, Atticus is already older at 50, does not drink or smoke, instead he limits himself to reading the newspaper. Atticus, portrayed as a positive father figure, believes in the innocence of his black client Tom, which brings him some enemies in Maycomb.
  • Jem (Jeremy Atticus Finch) : Scout's older brother, ten years old at the beginning of the novel. He is a scout's protector and takes many pranks on her. Towards the end of the novel, Jem at the onset of puberty loses faith in the justice of the world and thus also his childlike innocence through the trial of Tom.
  • Charles Baker Harris (Dill) : A short, intelligent boy who lives with his aunt Rachel in the Finch family neighborhood every summer. His mother and stepfather neglect him, and he does not know his birth father. Endowed with a wild imagination, Dill drives the children's attempts to lure neighbor Boo Radley out of his home.
  • Calpurnia : The Finch family's African American housekeeper, a confident and clever woman.
  • Miss Maudie Atkinson : The Finch family neighbor and a childhood friend of Atticus. The nice, open-hearted widow is an important caregiver for the children of Atticus and has their respect. Miss Maudie spends her free time gardening and baking cakes, among other things. When her house burns down in the course of the novel, she shows herself brave and takes it calmly.
  • Arthur "Boo" Radley : The Finch family's mysterious neighbor that all Maycomb children fear even though they have never seen him. He has hardly stepped outside the front door since an incident in his youth in which he had to go to court. He seems to be a lonely man who wants to win Jem and Scout as friends with gifts. At the crucial moment of the novel, Arthur is there and can save the children from Bob Ewell's attack.
  • Robert E. Lee "Bob" Ewell : The novel's main antagonist , a racist drunkard and thug. The widower lives on welfare payments; no one in Maycomb really knows the exact number of his children.
  • Mayella Ewell : The 19-year-old daughter of Bob Ewell, who leads such a bleak life with her cruel father and countless little siblings that she has to look after that she finally wants to seduce a black man. In court, however, she claims, like her father, that Tom raped her. During the trial, Mayella is both surprised and angry that Atticus approaches her in a friendly and respectful manner.
  • Tom Robinson : The defendant, a strong young African American. His left arm has been injured since an accident during his childhood, which is why he can hardly have caused Mayella's injuries - which were left-handed. His sentence that he, as a black man, had pity on the white Mayella brings the white jury against him. Although Atticus requests an appeal, Tom is so desperate that he tries to escape from prison and is shot.
  • Aunt Alexandra Hancock : Atticus' sister who lives with her husband on Finch Landing , the family estate. Around the middle of the novel, she leaves Finch Landing to move to Maycomb to live with her brother and support him with the upcoming court hearing. Aunt Alexandra then devotes herself intensively to the upbringing of Scout, whose boyish nature she rejects and whom she prefers to transform into a feminine Southern Belle . This regularly causes conflicts between Scout and Aunt Alexandra.
  • Uncle Jack Finch : The younger brother of Atticus, who practices as a doctor in the American north. The childless Jack is funny and friendly, which is why Jem and Scout appreciate him very much.
  • Francis Hancock : Aunt Alexandra's spoiled grandson, who is about the same age as Scout and Jem. Francis speaks derogatory about Atticus' defense of Tom, whereupon Scout beats him up and receives a punishment.
  • Nathan Radley : The Finch's strictly religious neighbor and the brother of Arthur Radley. In contrast to Arthur, who lives in his house, Nathan can be found regularly in the village, but his behavior is just as mysterious. When Boo leaves small gifts in the tree stump for the neighbors' children, Nathan Radley quickly cements them up.
  • Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose : The elderly neighbor of the Finch family, a bad-tempered racist. She insults Atticus for his defense of Tom, whereupon Jem partially tramples her garden. As a punishment, he has to read to the dying Mrs. Dubose every evening for several weeks. After her death, Jem learns from Atticus that she had become addicted to morphine because of her pain, but that the distraction of Jem's reading was able to break her addiction to morphine. Atticus describes Mrs. Dubose as a courageous person because she endured her terminal illness with dignity.
  • Stephanie Crawford : An unmarried neighbor of the Finch family who is especially enthusiastic about gossip and rumors.
  • Rachel Haverford : A Finch neighbor and Dill's aunt who looks after him during his summer vacation.
  • Mrs. Grace Merriweather : A respected missionary lady in Maycomb who considers her behavior towards blacks to be that of an exemplary Christian. In fact, she unconsciously expresses herself in a paternalistic , condescending way about African Americans, thereby showing her bigotry.
  • Mr. Heck Tate : The Maycomb Sheriff and a friend of Atticus who is also against Maycomb's racism. Sheriff Tate is present at several key points in the novel: when Bob Ewell assaulted the children, during the trial, and when Atticus shoots a rabid dog.
  • Judge Taylor : Maycomb's judge leading Tom's trial. Taylor suspects Tom's innocence and therefore uses Atticus as a capable lawyer for the defense; He has no influence on the final judgment of the jury.
  • Mr. Horace Gilmer : A lawyer from the neighboring town of Abbottsville who appears as a prosecutor in the Robinson case.
  • Mr. Braxton Underwood : The owner and editor of the local Maycomb Tribune and another friend of Atticus. Although he also has racist attitudes, he still wants Tom to have a fair trial.
  • Dr. Reynolds : Maycomb's village doctor who is present with the sickness cases throughout the novel.
  • Dolphus Raymond : A wealthy white man who lives with blacks outside of Maycomb and has several multiracial children. The repulsed citizens of Maycomb blame his scandalous lifestyle on the fact that Dolphus is an alcoholic - because every time he comes to Maycomb, Dolphus walks around seemingly drunk with a bottle. In a conversation with Dolphus, however, Scout finds out that the bottle only contains Coca-Cola - Dolphus plays his role as a drunk so that the whites of Maycomb can explain his behavior and leave him alone.
  • Link Deas : Tom Robinson's employer, a white landowner. During the trial he is one of the few whites on Tom's side, and even after Tom's death he supports Tom's widow financially.
  • Walter Cunningham Jr. and Sr .: The Cunninghams are a poor, uneducated, hillbilly family, but their reputation is above the Ewells. Walter Cunningham Jr. goes to a class with Scout and clashes with her on the first day of school, whereupon Jem invites him to lunch with the Finchs as an excuse. Walter Cunningham Sr. is a client of Atticus, who initially also wants to lynch Tom, but then changes his mind ashamed. A member of the Cunninghams later sits on the jury and blocks a conviction of Tom for several hours.
  • Cecil Jacobs : A classmate of Scout who speaks derogatory about Scout and her family over the trial, whereupon Scout attacks him. Overall, however, his relationship with Scout and Jem appears to be friendly.
  • Burris Ewell : Bob Ewell's son who has been sitting down several times and who is in a class with Scout during the first year of school. The Ewell children only go to school on the first day of the year, after which they just stay at home.
  • Miss Caroline Fisher : A young teacher with new teaching methods who moved from town to Maycomb village. She is a Scouts first grade teacher and has no knowledge of Maycomb's culture, which causes her some problems and misunderstandings.
  • Reverend Sykes : The pastor of the Black Ward of Maycomb. During the trial he sits next to Jem and Scout in the stands of the colored people. He treats the children respectfully and kindly, also out of deep gratitude to Atticus for taking over the case.
  • Lula : A black woman in Maycomb who is outraged when the housekeeper Calpurinia takes Jem and Scout to the black church.
  • Helen Robinson : The wife and future widow of Tom Robinson.

Dedication / motto

The book is preceded by a thanks to Mr. Lee and Alice. Its motto is a quote from Charles Lamb : I believe lawyers were once children too .

Formal structure

The novel is divided into two parts, the second part from chapter twelve, and into 31 consecutively numbered chapters that have no further headings.

reception

The novel was published on July 11, 1960 in the United States and received the Pulitzer Prize the following year . The novel has now been translated into over 40 languages ​​and has a worldwide circulation of over 40 million copies. Anyone who disturbs the nightingale is assigned to the literary trend of Southern Gothic . The first German translation was by Claire Malignon , first published in 1962 by Rowohlt Verlag and was number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for nine weeks in 1962 and 1963 . It was revised for a new edition in 2015 by Nikolaus Stingl .

In 1962, the novel by Robert Mulligan with Gregory Peck in the lead role was filmed under the same original title To Kill a Mockingbird .

According to the Tagesspiegel , the book is "condemned by conservative and progressive circles in the US to this day." Some are disturbed by the negative image of US society, others are struck by the "politically incorrect" language, for example the word " nigger " . "From 1990 to 1999, the work was regularly among the top ten books that were banned most often from the classroom in public schools." In contrast, the city of Chicago made the novel in 2001 as the theme of its campaign " A city reads a book " , bought additional copies for $ 40,000 and loaned them to their 78 public libraries free for several weeks.

In 2016, the English version was one of the top 10 best-selling books in the United States according to Publishers Weekly's annual list.

Autobiographical and references to Truman Capote

Harper Lee brought a number of autobiographical elements into the novel: the character of Atticus Finch is modeled on her own father, the neighborhood corresponds to that of her childhood, and the mysterious Boo Radley was also at home there. The friend of the author and American writer Truman Capote was probably a model for the neighbor boy Dill in the novel. The author herself denied that it was an autobiography.

The fact that Truman Capote grew up at the same time as Harper Lee in the same town of Monroeville and the two were friends as children led to rumors that continue to this day. Accordingly, in truth, Capote wrote or at least heavily edited the novel, which was then published under Lee's name. As evidence, it was cited, among other things, that Harper Lee published no other works apart from a few short essays after the success of Who disturbs the nightingale . In 2006 this rumor was brought down with the discovery of a private letter from Capote to a relative: Lee is the author of the book.

Harper Lee's work on the novel Who Disturbs the Nightingale , its publication and the success of the subsequent film adaptation are also the subject of the feature film Capote . Harper Lee is portrayed here by Catherine Keener .

original version

The book Go Set a Watchman is a previous version of To Kill a Mockingbird . This text was written back in the mid-1950s, before Who disturbs the nightingale . The manuscript was rediscovered by Lee's friend and lawyer Tonja Carter in autumn 2014 and published on July 14, 2015 by HarperCollins (USA) and Heinemann (UK) with a circulation of two million copies. It is about the adult scout in New York who visits her father Atticus in the fictional city of Maycomb, Alabama 20 years after the events of Who Bother the Nightingale . On July 17, 2015, the German translation by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann was published under the title Gehe hin, stelle ein Wächter at the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt .

expenditure

Title of the first edition 1960

Audio books

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To Kill a Mockingbird - About the Author. Arts Midwest, accessed July 11, 2010 .
  2. ↑ eb / AP: Predecessor of "Who disturbs the nightingale": Harper Lee's debut appears 60 years late . Spiegel Online, February 3, 2015
  3. ↑ a b Malte Lehming: American reading. Der Tagesspiegel , March 4, 2002, accessed June 29, 2013 .
  4. ↑ Publishers Weekly, January 20, 2017
  5. ↑ Harper Lee . In: American Decades . Gale Research, 1998.
  6. ↑ http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/readers-guide/about-the-author/ ; How Truman Capote got jealous of Harper Lee . Die Welt , July 10, 2010 (both accessed June 14, 2015)
  7. ↑ Letter Puts End to Persistent 'Mockingbird' Rumor . NPR March 3, 2006 - Wayne Flynt interview by Melissa Block (accessed June 14, 2015)
  8. ↑ The Guardian - Harper Lee to publish new novel, 55 years after To Kill a Mockingbird (February 3, 2015)
  9. ↑ The New York Times - Harper Lee, Author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Is to Publish a Second Novel (February 3, 2015)
  10. ↑ Felicitas von Lovenberg : Harper Lee's debut appears. Mockingbird's second hit , faz.net, July 16, 2015, accessed July 28, 2015
  11. ↑ Produce further reading aids for the book: Ernst Klett Verlag , with vocabulary supplement; Cornelsen Verlag , text volume with annotations as a supplement; the Stark publishing house ; as well as several English or US publishers. The book is the Abitur topic in the federal states of Hesse and Lower Saxony in 2018.