General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Banning CRT: Does this mean "To Kill a Mockingbird" is out? [View all]StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)would be a fair criticism.
But if she did know about people like Tom Robinson and his family, and wrote about them with truth, depth and sensitivity, such accusations would be unwarranted.
I love To Kill a Mockingbird. But I also see its weaknesses and one of the most serious weaknesses is the two-dimensional portrayal of the Black characters. Had the shallowness of their depictions been folded into the narrative - for example, as some have said here, if it was shown as a lack of awareness of the white characters, that problem would have been alleviated and would have made a very profound statement.
No one expects authors to know about or offer deep insights into every character they write about. But, unfortunately, To Kill a Mockingbird's Black characters are central/essential to the story, but they are treated more as a backdrop to the richly developed white characters with no inner lives of their own.