Instantia Crux

An essay on To Kill A Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee.

 

Instantia Crux

            American citizens pride themselves on their support of the creativity and uniqueness of individuals. Such approval emerged only recently in the average American society. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, the two main characters are children growing up in a town built on conformity and tradition, but are unique in that they retain a link to the outside world in the form of Dill Baker Harris. Dill’s role in the progression of Jem and Scouts’ lives deems crucial in their intricate journey to maturation. 

            Maycomb County clearly epitomizes a backward society in which progression is near nonexistent. With few exceptions, tradition in the town is upheld methodically and without question. Progress is erroneous and on occasion, sinful, as demonstrated when Miss Maudie discloses to Scout that the “Footwashers believe anything that’s pleasure is a sin . . . and told [Miss Maudie that her] flowers were going to hell” (44).  Scout and Jem are born unorthodox and rebellious from the town populace. If the Finch children are left to develop on their own, and without the influence of Dill, they will undoubtedly meld into the ideal Maycomb citizens, prone to living behind the County’s illusive curtains of tranquility and integrity.

Throughout the novel, Dill actively engages Scout and Jems’ curiosity, and catalyzes their exposures to withheld realities they would otherwise have not been witness to. Atticus demands that Jem and Scout avoid downtown Maycomb on the day of

                                  Bemanian 2

Tom Robinson’s trial in an attempt to shelter his children from the actualities of the event, and more generally, the town’s disposition. Jem and Scout, normally subservient of their fathers’ directions, could not have been expected to disobey Atticus by themselves. Jem and Scouts’ attendance at the court proceedings attests as extremely improbable without Harris. Dill’s preponderant, “Let’s go in,” is accountable for the great influx in the rate of the young Finches’ development (162). For Jem and Scout, the injustice of the trial serves as the most powerful indicator of the fraudulence of society and forces the children to consider the possibility that Maycomb is not the blissful haven they have always considered it.

Dill endows Jem and Scout with a figurative instantia crux, or crossroad, from which they must decide whether to pursue the path set for them by society, leading to a life of monotonous predictably and injustice as permanent residents of Maycomb, or the path less trodden, available only to them that may potentially direct them to reality. During the last night of Dill’s second visitation of Maycomb, Harris and Jem arrange to achieve a glimpse of Boo Radley before Dill’s departure. Their plan disregards Atticus’ wishes, and would not have been carried out were it not for Dill’s reassuring effect on Jem. Scout informs Dill that Jem is “always runnin’” by the Radley house (13). Upon learning of Jem’s precedent, Dill becomes enrolled in his attempts to show Jem the next step in approaching, and conquering, his fears, thus validating that Jems’ traversing of Boo’s land, without Dill’s support, remains highly unlikely, if not out of the question.

            In To Kill a Mockingbird, the developmental progression of Jem and Scout relies substantially on Dills actions and influence. The inclusion of Dill into Maycomb has

Bemanian 3

forever changed the town, and will continue through Jem and Scout. It is feasible that society and the bulk of its members will always function in their habitual way of thinking unless opportunity presents itself, or the resolve to accomplish change is summoned. The acceptance of that impeding convention must be universal, and the recognition of such, by individuals, is the first step.