Killing a Mockingbird in the Town and Country

Gordimer’s “Town and Country Lovers” and Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

            As I read Nadine Gordimer’s short stories, “Town and Country Lovers,” images of the ever-so-noble Atticus Finch and the mysteriously elusive Boo Radley, of Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, kept appearing in my mind. Who knew that all of that reading we did in high school would actually ever come in handy again?

            I’ll admit; there are some very obvious structural differences between these two works. For example, Gordimer’s short stories take place throughout South Africa, whereas Lee’s novel is set in Alabama in the United States. However, even two places that are so geographically distinct from one another – separated by a large body of water and 8,000 some-odd miles – share surprising similarities in terms of sociocultural and historical context.

            In “Town and Country Lovers,” both stories focus on the interracial relationships between white men, von Leinsdorf and Paulus Eysendyck, and black or “coloured” women, an unnamed “girl” and Thebedi. There is a significant emphasis on the illegal nature of these relationships, as both stories incorporate some legal involvement or court preceding. For example, in the first story, policemen raid von Leinsdorf’s apartment and take the pair to jail, where an extensive and intrusive medical examination is performed on the “girl” to determine an exact date of the alleged illegal act. In the second story, the plot concludes with a court preceding, which is held for the murder of Thebedi’s (and Eysendyck’s) baby, although Eysendyck is conveniently found to be “not guilty.”

Similarly, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the story centers around a court trial in which Atticus Finch, the narrator’s father and a white lawyer, chooses to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is (wrongly) accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Atticus, in heroic style, not only disproves the accusation and ousts Mayella and her father as liars, but even goes the extra mile by establishing that Mayella actually advanced onto Tom – not the other way around. However, despite the painfully-obvious evidence of Tom’s innocence, the jury somehow convicts him as guilty, and he is later shot and killed when trying to escape the unjustly confines of prison.

…Excuse me? Let me see if I understand this correctly. Paulus brutally murders his own newborn baby and gets away with it – scot-free, I might add – and Tom, completely innocent, is irrefutably proven just that and gets a bullet – wait, 17 bullets – in his back? Well, so much for “justice” and “equality” and whatnot in the courts. How am I, as a reader, supposed to be not completely and utterly depressed by these outcomes? The apathy and injustice of it all just kills me. Albeit, these narratives aren’t written about present-day happenings and current conditions, but even so, the harsh realities of racism in the Deep South and apartheid in South Africa have a similarly chilling and sobering effect.

Despite differences in geographical location, racism in the South and apartheid in South Africa are actually quite conceptually similar. These policies pervaded society and had roots in both law and culture.

For example, Jim Crow laws and apartheid legislation (largely the Immorality Act) legally separated whites from blacks and “coloreds.” Such legal encroachment on people’s personal lives echoed the somewhat mechanical and apathetic treatment of people’s intimate relationships, private lives, and especially multiracial individuals.

However, maybe even just as powerful and dangerous as legislation, these ideas were inescapably pervasive in the widespread, everyday attitudes of Southern and South African culture. For example, despite the in-your-face, inarguable evidence that was presented to the juries in both “Town and Country Lovers” and To Kill a Mockingbird, the courts consistently, unapologetically, and apathetically went against the obvious and instead ruled in favor of the white man or woman. And to what outcomes? No sympathy for a mother who has lost her baby to a selfishly murderous ex-lover and an unjust but unrecognized death; and an innocent man sentenced to prison, and 17 bullets in his back when he can’t stand to be denied his rightful freedom. I found this to be gut-wrenchingly miserable, as I would assume that any human being with a soul would agree. I just can’t even fathom having to live amidst such blatant injustice – what are we supposed to rely on if we can’t even rely on our legal systems to be fair and just? Might as well just give up.

            In both “Town and Country Lovers” and To Kill a Mockingbird, the interesting interface and constant combination of law and culture are examined with respect to interracial relationships during times of racism and apartheid in two very different but very similar areas. Both narratives demonstrate recurring themes of law and culture, apathy, violence and justice, and racism and apartheid through the lens and context of a time period (thankfully) much different than our own.