Tag Archives: To Kill a Mockingbird

My Life in Lit – Segregation

By Robin Bates | Published: September 25, 2025

In which I recount growing up in segregated Tennessee and recount the books that helped me cope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, integration, Mark Twain, May Justus, New Boy in School, racism, segregation | Comments closed

Kingsolver on Life-Changing Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: August 18, 2025

Kingsolver answering questions about the lit that shaped her can get us all reflecting on the importance of books in our lives.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Albert Camus, Barbara Kingsolver, Bean Trees, Cannery Row, Charles Dickens, Children of Violence, Demon Copperhead, Doris Lessing, Harper Lee, Homer, Huckleberry Finn, Iliad, John Steinbeck, Les Misérables, Mark Twain, Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare sonnets, Victor Hugo, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Thoughts on Book Bans

By Robin Bates | Published: August 25, 2024

Books are unsettling, which is why they are often banned. But we need to be unsettled to get a handle on the chaos that confronts us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hill We Climb", Allison Bechdel, Amanda Gorman, Beloved, Better Living through Literature, Book banning, Circle, David Eggers, Forever, Fun Home, Judy Blume, Lord of the Flies, Robin Bates, Romeo and Juliet, Stephen Chbosky, Toni Morrison, William Golding, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

They Shoot Puppies, Don’t They?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 30, 2024

Gov. Kristi Noem boasting of shooting her puppy brings to mind the tragic dog killing by Gabriel Oak in Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Adam Serwer, animal cruelty, Charlotte's Web, E. B. White, Far from the Madding Crowd, Fred Gipson, George Orwell, Harper Lee, Kristi Noem, Old Yeller, Shooting an Elephant, Thomas Hardy | Comments closed

Soliloquies Changed Us Fundamentally

By Robin Bates | Published: December 10, 2023

Hamlet’s soliloquies changed the way we see ourselves and others and led the way to the novel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Angus Fletcher, Charlotte Bronte, Hamlet, Harold Bloom, Harper Lee, Huckleberry Finn, humanism, Jane Eyre, Le Cid, Pierre Corneille, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare, soliloquies, Sorrows of Young Werther, transcendentalism, Wonderworks | Comments closed

Lit that Features the N-Word: What to Do

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2023

Now to teach White literature that employs the n-word? Balance with Black literature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Absalom Absalom!, Beloved, Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, n-word, racism, Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner | Comments closed

Atticus: Future Racist or NeverTrumper?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2022

To see how gun violence and white supremacy are linked, look at “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged banned books, Go Set a Watchman, gun violence, Harper Lee | Comments closed

Pushing Back against the Purity Police

By Robin Bates | Published: February 21, 2022

While not as bad as fascists for censoring reading materials, leftwing purists present their own problems.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged cancel culture, censorship, Harper Lee, Kate Clanchy, Robert Hayden, virtue police | Comments closed

Are Liberal, Conservative Bans Equal?

By Robin Bates | Published: February 6, 2022

Are liberal and conservative banning practices equal. Despite some similarities, no.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Book banning, censorship, Flannery O'Connor, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison | Comments closed