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TEST-1

Q. Explain and compare the social and racial tensions in relation with the concept of 'otherness

of the other' in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Ghosts of Mississippi”.

Both the movies are set in the era of racism in the southern America in the 20 th century.

The central theme of these movies was racism and several more such as, otherness that can been

seen through the narratives of the movies. The protagonists in both the movies travel through a

journey in which they are indulged in unconsciously furthering the othering that is already

prevalent in that time of the society. They slowly discover that the deep-rooted notions of racial

discrimination are embedded in the society and are inherently unjust when they try to sympathize

with the others.

In the movie the Ghosts of Mississippi, Delaughtee experiences a turmoil of a journey

while re-opening case of Late. Medgar Ever after meeting his widow. In his journey he

discovered that not all “other” are evil. In this case the otherness of the other was the blacks, who

came from a different place where it was believed that they are inferior to the whites. It is

evident from two juries, after the murder of Medgar Ever in 1964 when they held in favor of

Byron De Beckwith despite evidence pointing towards the other direction. The supremacy of the

whites can be evidenced by the body language, demeanor and attitude of Beckwith in court, in

front of the media as well as in a confrontation with Delaughter wherein with utmost confidence

he claimed that no jury in the entire Mississippi would never hold him guilty for murdering a

black man. Delaughter is only able to sympathize with the widow Ms. Myrlie Evers as he puts
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himself in the shoes of Medgar Evers. And when confronted by Myrlie regarding why he decided

to take up the case, Delaughter replies that no deserves to be shot in the back and killed in front

of his children and moreover, no one has the right to take him away from his children. Hence,

Delaughter discovered the problems with the otherring through the lens of the children the fact

that he had two children of the same age as Medgar’s.

Another interesting aspect in the movie is ‘reluctance’, the reluctance of people to ignore

and not acknowledge the atrocities committed in Mississippi and south against the blacks even

after 2 decades of Medgar’s death.

The movie has various important facets that can be seen through analysis of conversation

of the characters in the movie. One such facet can be seen in the conversation between

Delaughter and his first wife, in the scene she is shown to disagree with DeLaughter’s decision

of taking Medgar’s case and warns against the repercussion of the same. The wife’s father was a

retired judge renowned to be a blatant racist. In response to his wife, Delaughter claims “People

change, you didn’t”, through this he points to the beliefs and opinions of racist nature instilled in

his wife. One can also put it this way, that this was an important turning point in DeLaughter’s

discovery that the other is not evil.

Albeit even after emerging victorious and ensuring conviction for Beckwith, Delaughter

realizes that the battle may have been won but not the war. Also, the conversation between

Delaughter and his second wife when he confesses that they never had any black friend or

acquaintances, they never invited blacks over for parties or dinner or ever went to church with

the blacks can have a chilling effect on one’s spine. As it makes so clear that the hatred for

blacks was deeply embedded in the society to an unimaginable degree and no one was
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courageous enough to raise their voices on behalf of the black fearing the repercussion they

would face from the society to save the otherring.

In “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD” the main characters of the movie are Atticus Finch

including his daughter Scout. Scout and Jem(Atticus’s son) go through their own journey of

furthering the othering od Boo Radley who lived down the same street as them, as children they

are surprising both curious and scared of Boo because of his monstrous depiction by the society

and the fact that he never used to live his house. Their curiousness led to their discovery slowly

that Boo was rather a gentle man and not a monster. As the main theme being racism, also a form

of othering, the otherring of Boo as monster and reverse discrimination against Atticus could

also be seen as a consequence of him deciding to stand up for a black man accused of raping a

white woman.

To Kill a Mockingbird as the title of the movie very little literal connection to the plot,

but it carries a great deal of symbolic weight in the book written by Harper Lee. In this story of

innocents destroyed by evil, the “mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus,

to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, a number of characters (Jem,

Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as mockingbirds—innocents

who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil. This connection between the

novel’s title and its main theme is made explicit several times in the novel: after Tom Robinson

is shot, Mr. Underwood compares his death to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds,”

In the movie Atticus also tells Scout that one can only know properly about the suffering

of the otherring when one will place oneself in the other’s shoes. In the courtroom Atticus

presented a solid defense and evidence clearly showcasing that Mayella Ewell was the one who

initially contacted Tom and seduce him but when she failed, she fabricated a story and accused
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Tom of raping her. In cross-examination by Ewells lawyer Tom acclaimed that he would

Mayella as he felt “sorry for her” was also met with contempt. It was shocking as well as

astonishing for the jury to hear that a black would feel pity for white woman. While closing his

arguments Atticus begged the jury to act dispassionately in the interest of justice and reach the

verdict without any bias as the presumption at that time always was that the black is a liar and

was not to near a white woman. He pleads the jury to understand Tom’s circumstances and his

plea and side with due to all the evidence clearly pointing in that direction, but all this effort bore

no fruit. However, Atticus and his family did pay the price of this decision to help Tom as they

faced discrimination, social exclusion and the murder of Tom Robinson someone Atticus

sympathized with.

Another aspect of otherring that was portrayed was the bandwagon, wherein people just

joined other supporting racism, the scene where Mr. Cunningham incited a mob with the

intentions to lynch Tom outside his prison because of the mob mentality. Atticus is present at the

situation however, it is Atticus’s daughter Scout, who diffuses the situation with the mob as she

shames them and shows them a mirror metaphorically speaking and made them retreat. The

interesting turn of events in both movies portray that even though in the first movie the black

person gets justice and in second things go south. Delaughter and Atticus both realize and

discover that this parasite of racism was far deep instilled in the society and was just not

confined to the boundaries of the courtroom, every day to day practice against the blacks

preached racism the concept of Otherness of the other is far more huge and adversely impacting

than it seems

To end, a quote from Ghost of Mississippi by the victim to his wife

- “I don’t know if I am going to heaven or hell, but I’m going from Jackson”.

- Medgar Evers.