"To Kill A Mockingbird"--Houses As Characters (Book To Art)

It's Spring again, which means it's time for another "Book to Art" project!  As you may remember, "Book to Art" is a global club that encourages individual readers and library clubs to take literature that they have found to be meaningful or inspiring and to reinterpret those books or exerpts as creative art pieces.  Feel free to check out my previous "Book to Art" project on Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" here.

In honor of Harper Lee's recent passing, I decided to do a "Book to Art" project on "To Kill A Mockingbird," a book that has been a pivotal school text for many people around my age (**Major Spoilers Below!**).  If you have read the book, you know that nearly every character and situation that we are introduced to by siblings Scout and Jem Finch has to be re-evaluated as new information comes to light over the course of the novel.  The children (and we as readers) are frequently reminded, through the experiences of various citizens of Maycomb, Alabama, and through talks with their father, the lawyer Atticus Finch, of how important it is to reserve judgment instead of jumping to passionate conclusions, to walk in someone else's shoes and examine the other sides of every situation, rather than just choosing the easy or self-serving explanation, and to pick fights we know we can't win if we deem the cause or injustice important enough (and to control our tempers and refrain from boasting while acting like intelligent and courteous ladies and gentlemen whenever possible).

I went about this project backwards.  I drew the homes of 3 of the characters in the novel, before I went back and re-read the passages that described their neighborhoods and actual houses. As a result of this reversed process, I did make a few small mistakes (the Radley place is surrounded by oak trees that keep out the sun, and Mrs. Dubose actually sits in a wheelchair, not a rocking chair), but I am overall very pleased with how closely the images in my memory paralleled the houses described in the book.

In my mind, each "abandoned" homestead serves as a visual symbol of a family and its status and level of (non-)integration into the tightly-knit community of Maycomb County.  The Radley family keeps themselves apart, and basically pretends that their son Arthur Radley, whom they have hidden away in their house, has never existed. Mrs. Dubose is a house-bound elderly lady, due to her illness and drug addiction, but retains a tenuous connection with the community by sitting on her porch and observing and calling out to her neighbors until her death.  The black members of the community work in Maycomb proper, but live out beyond the dump and nurture their own smaller community.  Tom and Helen Robinson are a part of and supporeted by this sub-community, but are each further ostracized and isolated from a large portion of the white community when Tom is arrested and falsely accused of having raped neighbor Mayella Ewell.

Below, I present each sketched homestead, paired with passages from the novel that describe the house and its setting.

"The Radley Place" (Arthur "Boo" Radley & family)

"The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-grey yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard--a "swept" yard that was never swept--where johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance...The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb...Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight...My memory came alive to see Mrs. Radley occasionally open the front door, walk to the edge of the porch, and pour water on her cannas. But every day Jem and I would see Mr. Radley walking to and from town."

"The neighborhood thought when Mr. Radley went under Boo would come out, but it had another think coming: Boo's elder brother returned from Pensacola and took Mr. Radley's place. The only difference between him and his father was their ages...Mr. Nathan would speak to us, however, when we said good morning, and sometimes we saw him coming from town with a magazine in his hand." --Chapter 1

Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose
"Cecil Jacobs, who lived at the far end of our street next door to the post office, walked a total of one mile per school day to avoid the Radley Place and old Mrs. Heny Lafayette Dubose. Mrs. Dubose lived two doors up the street from us; neighborhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived. Jem wouldn't go by her place without Atticus beside him." --Chapter 4

"Mrs. Dubose lived alone except for a Negro girl in constant attendance, two doors up the street from us in a house with steep front steps and a dog-trot hall. She was very old; she spent most of each day in bed and the rest of it in a wheelchair. It was rumored that she kept a CSA pistol concealed among her numerous shawls and wraps."

"If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing. We had long given up the idea of walking past her house on the opposite side of the street; that only made her raise her voice and let the whole neighborhood in on it." --Chapter 11

"The Negro Cabins" (Tom & Helen Robinson)
"A dirt road ran from the highway past the dump, down to a small Negro settlement some five hundred yards beyond the Ewells'. It was necessary either to back out to the highway or go the full length of the road and turn around; most people turned around in the Negroes' front yards. In the frosty December dusk, their cabins looked neat and snug with pale blue smoke rising from the chimneys and doorways glowing amber from the fires inside. There were delicious smells about: chicken, bacon frying crisp as twilight air. Jem and I detected squirrel cooking, but it took a real country man like Atticus to identify possum and rabbit, aromas that vanished when we rode back past the Ewell residence." --Chapter 17

"They turned off the highway, rode slowly by the dump and past the Ewell residence, down the narrow lane to the Negro cabins." --Chapter 25

It was only after I had sketched the above 3 "abandoned" houses that I realized that I had been drawn to 3 characters that I felt were incompletely integrated into Maycomb's small town life.  I felt that it was important to add a fourth sketch for the Ewell family, the "lowest" status white family in Maycomb, and the source of a lot of the drama and unrest that takes place in the book.

The Ewells (& Mayella Ewell)

"Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin. The cabin’s plank walls were supplemented with sheets of corrugated iron, its roof shingled with tin cans hammered flat, so only its general shape suggested its original design: square, with four tiny rooms opening onto a shotgun hall, the cabin rested uneasily upon four irregular lumps of limestone. Its windows were merely open spaces in the walls, which in the summertime were covered with greasy strips of cheesecloth to keep out the varmints that feasted on Maycomb’s refuse."

"The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a thorough gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry (those that were not eaten) made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the playhouse of an insane child: what passed for a fence was bits of tree-limbs, broomsticks and tool shafts, all tipped with rusty hammer-heads, snaggle-toothed rake heads, shovels, axes and grubbing hoes, held on with pieces of barbed wire. Enclosed by this barricade was a dirty yard containing the remains of a Model-T Ford (on blocks), a discarded dentist's chair, an ancient icebox, plus lesser items: old shoes, worn-out table radios, picture frames, and fruit jars, under which scrawny orange chickens pecked hopefully. "

"One corner of the yard, though, bewildered Maycomb. Against the fence, in a line, were six chipped-enamel slop jars holding brilliant red geraniums, cared for as tenderly as if they belonged to Miss Maudie Atkinson, had Miss Maudie deigned to permit a geranium on her premises. People said they were Mayella Ewell's." 

"Nobody had occasion to pass by except at Christmas, when the mayor of Maycomb asked us to please help the garbage collector by dumping our own trees and trash." --Chapter 17

This project became a lot more symbolic and layered as I worked on it. In the beginning, I was only drawing interesting houses that belonged to colorful supporting characters! I highly recommend trying an art project like this with a book you enjoy.

Miss Matty's Turban (Book to Art Project: Cranford)

A "Book to Art" club is exactly what it sounds like: a group whose members adapt the themes from books they have read into art projects.  These clubs can be as casual or as organized as its members prefer.  You can find more information about the umbrella Book to Art organization here.

For my winter project, I based my piece on a passage from Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford.  This is a lovely, funny, and at times melancholy book that is made up of small stories and letters that give you a well-rounded understanding of the town of Cranford and the people who live there.  The stories were first published in serial form in 1851, and were then republished as a complete novel in 1853.

*WARNING: Many Spoilers Below!*

Miss Matilda Jenkyns, A Lady of Cranford

Through the eyes of the novel's narrator, Mary Smith, we meet two of the most respected ladies in Cranford: Deborah Jenkyns (known as "Miss Jenkyns," as she is the elder sister) and Matilda Jenkyns (known as "Miss Matilda" in front of her dignified sister, but called "Miss Matty" at all other times).  Miss Jenkyns and Miss Matty host Miss Smith on her visits, and are featured to some degree in most of the stories about Cranford.  The sisters are the children of the former rector, and Miss Jenkyns is seen as a moral compass for the town.  She has studied (some) theology and literature, and considers herself an expert on religion, morality, and frugality.  Her opinion is given a great deal of weight, in both her home and in Cranford at large. A woman of strong personality, Miss Jenkyns is often seen laying down the law in her household and shaping the moral landscape of the town itself.  When Deborah suddenly gets sick and dies, her sister, the softer, more pliable lady, attempts to fill Miss Jenkyns' shoes and uphold the same standards.  When encouraged to bend one of the late Miss Jenkyns' rules in favor of her own preferences, her reply is usually something to the effect of, "Deborah wouldn't like it."

Matilda Jenkyns is shown throughout the novel to be a sweet person whose ideas are constantly ignored or over-ruled.  As an example: Matilda loves to suck the juice out of oranges, a practice that her sister considers vulgar.  Even after Deborah Jenkyns has passed, the new Miss Jenkyns continues to eat her oranges in the shuttered privacy of her bedroom.  And when Matilda Jenkyns explains to Mary Smith that she wishes to be more dignified and called "Miss Matilda" after her sister has died, as a tribute to her sister's preferences and her own new position, the narrator and the entire town continue to call her and think of her as "Miss Matty" in spite of themselves (albeit in an entirely affectionate way).

Another example of Matilda Jenkyns' thwarted dreams is revealed when Mary Smith learns during one of her visits that Miss Matty had once been courted by a certain gentleman.  This relationship had ended rather abruptly, and there are several scattered hints that Deborah's strong opinions may have had something to do with the couple's falling out.  This youthful relationship is rekindled but unfortunately again lost over the course of the novel. But despite losing so many loved ones, Miss Matty continues to be look on the bright side, and to be excited by life's possibilities.

Miss Matty is shown to be a bit flighty and indecisive--she will worry about making the right choice to the point of inactivity.  But she is always kind-hearted.  When she opens a small tea shop to supplement her income during a time of financial crisis, she adds extra loose tea to the bags and gives extra candy and cookies out to the children who stop by--she would much rather be over-generous than stingy.  As a result, it is not completely clear if she is actually seeing any profit from her shop!  Her kindness to everyone is repaid by her maid, Martha, however--Martha and her husband Jem take over Miss Matty's house and let her remain as an esteemed tenant, and still treat her as the "Lady of the House."  Her friends also pitch in to help secretly support her--but they would never hurt her pride (or their own) by letting her know that she is living on charity.  Even this proof of their esteem (and direct impact on her life) is hidden from her.

My art project is based on one of these stories about Miss Matilda.  She is shown over and over again to be the kind of woman who puts others' opinions before her own.  Sometimes her fancies are shown to be unrealistic or changeable, but no matter the arena, she is rarely left to make her own choices or mistakes.  She lives her life reliant on others--first her parents, then her sister, then Martha and Jem and Mary Smith, and then finally her long-lost brother take care of her.

In the following passage, Miss Matty yearns for an exotic sea-green turban, but once again she will not get to fulfill her fanciful idea:

Late in November - when we had returned home again, and my father was once more in good health - I received a letter from Miss Matty; and a very mysterious letter it was. She began many sentences without ending them, running them one into another, in much the same confused sort of way in which written words run together on blotting-paper. All I could make out was that, if my father was better (which she hoped he was), and would take warning and wear a great-coat from Michaelmas to Lady-day, if turbans were in fashion, could I tell her? Such a piece of gaiety was going to happen as had not been seen or known of since Wombwell's lions came, when one of them ate a little child's arm; and she was, perhaps, too old to care about dress, but a new cap she must have; and, having heard that turbans were worn, and some of the county families likely to come, she would like to look tidy, if I would bring her a cap from the milliner I employed; and oh, dear! how careless of her to forget that she wrote to beg I would come and pay her a visit next Tuesday; when she hoped to have something to offer me in the way of amusement, which she would not now more particularly describe, only sea-green was her favourite colour. So she ended her letter; but in a P.S. she added, she thought she might as well tell me what was the peculiar attraction to Cranford just now; Signor Brunoni was going to exhibit his wonderful magic in the Cranford Assembly Rooms on Wednesday and Friday evening in the following week.

I was very glad to accept the invitation from my dear Miss Matty, independently of the conjuror, and most particularly anxious to prevent her from disfiguring her small, gentle, mousey face with a great Saracen's head turban; and accordingly, I bought her a pretty, neat, middle-aged cap, which, however, was rather a disappointment to her when, on my arrival, she followed me into my bedroom, ostensibly to poke the fire, but in reality, I do believe, to see if the sea-green turban was not inside the cap-box with which I had travelled. It was in vain that I twirled the cap round on my hand to exhibit back and side fronts: her heart had been set upon a turban, and all she could do was to say, with resignation in her look and voice - "I am sure you did your best, my dear. It is just like the caps all the ladies in Cranford are wearing, and they have had theirs for a year, I dare say. I should have liked something newer, I confess - something more like the turbans Miss Betty Barker tells me Queen Adelaide wears; but it is very pretty, my dear. And I dare say lavender will wear better than sea-green. Well, after all, what is dress, that we should care anything about it? You'll tell me if you want anything, my dear. Here is the bell. I suppose turbans have not got down to Drumble yet?"

So saying, the dear old lady gently bemoaned herself out of the room, leaving me to dress for the evening, when, as she informed me, she expected Miss Pole and Mrs Forrester, and she hoped I should not feel myself too much tired to join the party. Of course I should not; and I made some haste to unpack and arrange my dress; but, with all my speed, I heard the arrivals and the buzz of conversation in the next room before I was ready. Just as I opened the door, I caught the words, "I was foolish to expect anything very genteel out of the Drumble shops; poor girl! she did her best, I've no doubt." But, for all that, I had rather that she blamed Drumble and me than disfigured herself with a turban.

--Cranford, "Signor Brunoni"

Mary Smith is determined to protect Miss Matty from herself--she conveniently fails to find any green turbans so that Miss Matty will not embarrass herself amongst her peers.  Matilda Jenkyns' desired style is deemed inappropriate and unbecoming, and so the decision is once again taken out of her hands.

For my Book to Art project, I decided to give Miss Matty a symbol for all of her set-aside dreams--a sea-green turban.  I studied paintings of Regency turbans, and then I bought a blouse and a necklace from a thrift store and turned them into my interpretation of her dream turban.

From behind:

Side view:

Details:

The necklace was twisted and tacked down to turn it into a bejeweled brooch:

It was a lot of fun to make this turban!  And it was fun to work on something a little different.  I really enjoyed reading "Cranford," and this project helped me reflect on the characters a little more.

I encourage you to consider your own Book to Art projects!

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Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Los Angeles Festival of Books this weekend!

And starting on Monday:  I will be posting one of my "HEDGEHOG ALPHABET ADVENTURES" Sketches every day!