That famous scene in To Kill A Mockingbird. How should we approach it? By theme, by character, by tone, by timing, by its drawing of space, by it relation to Harper Lee’s novel?
In this portion of the film, one action stands out: the act of standing up, which is a metaphor for courage in the face of fear and defeat.
We want people to stand up and face their fears. We want people to stand in the face of adversity. We want people to stand for what they believe in (if what they believe in is reasonable). We want people to stand for what they think is right, not for what’s wrong, evil, or unreasonable. We want people to stand and face the music, music being a metaphor for the consequences of things. We want Boo Radley to reveal himself but he must do so in a moment heavy with irony (a moment in the novel and in the film which is not shown in the clip) as standing up always comes with a cost.
We also stand up to show respect, respect for those who do stand up, for example, which is why the camera moves onto the standing child, who doesn’t know what Tom Robinson’s loss means. Or to show respect for ideas, traditions, and past events. In this, to remain sitting is a demonstration of disrespect, as to remain silent (Mayella Ewell’s silence, for example) is a metaphor for cowardice or evil.
Metaphor, however, is situational, as often to remain seated is a means of showing respect, as when you want to show courtesy for a speaker or respect the work of all those actors or musicians on stage. Moreover, to remain silent can be an act of courage, as one would remain quiet when speaking would either promote a falsehood or provide your interrogators any means with which to pin the lie on you. What does an apple mean, just to draw this out, in a village where there are no apple trees?
You and I, we don’t always stand for our fathers and mothers. We don’t always stand for what we believe in or for what we think is right. How many people have stood, like all those Whos on Horton’s clover flower, and shouted for United States involvement in Afghanistan to end? Many would stand and shout the opposite, but at least then the metaphor would do its magic. It’s up for grabs to know what is the more difficult position.
We also don’t always keep quiet when we should stay quiet. We, you and I, often speak when we should be thinking instead. And we often listen to people who’d do better keeping quiet themselves rather than gracing the world with nonsense, illogic, and venom for us to invent clever methods to ignore.
There are times, you and I, when we should stay seated, make like an igneous shape, close our eyes, and consider whether standing up or removing our hats is the right or wrong thing to do. But we mustn’t sit for too long, as there’s a person creeping up on you, and I think I see a knife, which is a metaphor for hate and madness and has nothing to do with what to do with a cooked chicken.
