Author Archives: houston

A Truly Biased Book

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To Kill a Mockingbird book cover.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” promotes the anti-Southern narrative. The overwhelming majority of white people in the book were racist while only one black woman was presented as racist, Atticus was attacked for defending Tom Robinson even though the court chose him to, and the white people of the town believed Bob Ewell’s case more when he was totally untrustworthy. 

Although in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, most of the white people were hateful towards black people – with the exception of the main character, Scout, and her family – there was only one black who was spiteful toward whites. She was a woman at the black church who didn’t want Jim and Scout worshiping with them. In contrast, almost every white person was either racist, while all blacks were kind, loving, and friendly towards all the whites.

Another example of this stereotype is the Tom Robinson trial. Tom Robinson was the main black character accused of raping a white girl named Mayela Ewell. Although the Ewells had no evidence that Tom committed the crime, he was still convicted. Tom’s lawyer, Atticus, who was Scout’s father, interrogated Mayela so forcefully that she eventually admitted that Tom had not actually raped her, but then claimed that he had just beaten her. It soon became clear that her father, Bob, was the one who had done the physical abuse as a punishment for Mayela trying to kiss Tom when she invited him into the house. By the end of the trial, it was obvious that Tom was innocent and everybody in the court seemed to know that, so by convicting him anyway the author, Harper Lee, hammered home the theme of inescapable Southern racism.

Moreover, Atticus was shunned for defending Tom, yet the court chose him to be his counsel. It seemed the people of the town weren’t mad at him accepting the case, but for legitimately defending him. They thought that Atticus should play along but not really give him the strong representation that this black man needed. If Atticus had done what the people wanted, then his reputation as a lawyer would be ruined for not actually working for his client.

Despite the fact that Atticus had gotten at the truth through Mayela’s testimony, still the white people wanted the conviction of Tom. It didn’t matter that Tom was a nice, honest, working man, and Bob was a drunk and spent all of his money on alcohol, leaving his children with little food to eat, the white people were so loathing of blacks that evidence and character didn’t matter, at least that’s what Lee wanted her readers to think. 

Tom also had a supremacist all-white jury during his trial, which was not as widespread an occurrence as we’re led to believe. At the end of the case, the Ewells had not presented one shred of evidence against Tom, while Atticus had given plenty, again, reinforcing the picture that Southern society was brimming with injustice against blacks.

Therefore, “To Kill a Mockingbird Yankee” is anti-Southern propaganda. Because most of the whites were racist, Atticus was shunned for defending Tom, and the people trusted the Ewells case more than Atticus’, this popular and enduring work is a truly biased book.

A Common Misconception

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Icon of Saint Polycarp.

Dear Mr. Fish, 

In both your 5th and 6th grade history class, you address, multiple times, the pre-schism Western Christian Church as “Catholic” when in fact there was no Catholicism until 1054 when the Great Schism occurred. 

Before 1054, both the Eastern and Western Churches were one. There were many reasons for the split occurring but one of the major causes was the West declaring the Pope as the Supreme Head of the Church while the East only recognizing him as “The First Among Equals.” The Pope had been recognized as the “First Among Equals” for over a millennia when the Latins decided to separate from the East by excommunicating the Patriarch of Constantinople. 

Leading up to the schism, the Roman Church had been slowly revising original Christian practices by changing some of their theological beliefs, like the adding of the Filioque, painting their icons to look more realistic, and changing the architecture of their churches and cathedrals, while the Eastern Church’s dogma, icons, and architectural designs didn’t, and still haven’t, changed from the way it was 2,000 years ago. 

In lesson 130 of grade 5 history, you address St. Polycarp as “bishop of the Catholic Church in Smyrna” and “shepherd of the Catholic Church throughout the world,” when in reality Polycarp, although sainted in today’s Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, was not a Catholic Bishop. Smyrna wasn’t even under the jurisdiction of the Pope, as it was a Greek city on the coast of Turkey. St. Polycarp was, by all means, an Orthodox Bishop. 

In lesson 131, you say “Arianism,  the reigning ‘orthodoxy’ of the day, was in fact heresy.” While Arianism was a heresy that affected the Western and Eastern churches, it might be misleading to call it the “‘orthodoxy’ of the day.” Although your use of orthodoxy here is correct, your improper use of Catholicism could lead students to equate Eastern Orthodoxy with the heresy. Many Eastern bishops opposed the heresy and condemned Arius and his followers at the Council of Nicaea.

Lastly, modern Orthodoxy is not just Greek but is the prominent, and even sometimes official religion in many European countries including Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro, Belarus and Georgia. It’s also the main form of Christianity in Syria, Israel, Iraq, and Egypt. In addition to these countries, Orthodoxy is growing in parts of the United States.

Although a common misconception, the pre-schism Western Christian Church was not Catholic, but Orthodox, united with the Eastern Church.

Boulle’s Bridge: More Fiction Than History

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Destroyed bridge. Part of the Burma Railway.

Although some historical inaccuracies and controversies have arisen from the book over the years, “Bridge Over the River Kwai” is an entertaining read with fast-paced action, as well as some suspense. The book does a stellar job describing the environment and highlighting the human struggle between the officers and the suffering of the POWs. Even if it has more fictional elements than the author meant it to have, it’s still a compelling book,

Written by French author Pierre Boulle, “Bridge Over the River Kwai” was published and translated into English in 1954, two years after the original publication in 1952. It focuses on British POWs in Siam (modern-day Thailand) who are forced to build a bridge over the Kwai River for Japanese supply trains. 

In 1957, a film adaptation was made, bearing the same name as the novel. It even won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year. Directed by David Lean, the movie was shot along the Kelani River in Sri Lanka. The movie has a few differences from Boulle’s book, but overall is relatively similar. 

Boulle was born on February 20, 1912 in Avignon, France. Raised as a Catholic, he later became an agnostic, the belief that the existence of God is a mystery and is completely unknowable. Boulle studied and later graduated from Ecole Superieure d’Electricité in 1933, receiving a degree in engineering. In 1936, he traveled to Malaysia where he worked as a technician and engineer on British rubber plantations. In 1939, still living in Malaysia, Boulle enlisted in the French army in Indochina. When mainland France was conquered by the German army in 1940, he joined the Free French in Singapore. After helping with Allied resistance movements in China, Burma, and Indochina, Boulle was captured and arrested by Vichy France loyalists in 1943, being subjected to two years of forced labor. 

Besides his two most famous novels, “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” and “Planet of the Apes”, the author wrote another book, “My Own River Kwai”, in which he describes his actual wartime experiences, while “The Bridge Over the River Kwai” is roughly based on his experiences while a POW. 

The bridge described in the book was part of Burma Death Railway. Constructed from 1940 to 1943, the Japanese used the forced labor of Southeast Asian civilians as well as Allied POWs. It’s estimated that 180,000-250,000 civilians and 60,000 POWs were subjected to forced labor on the railway, around 102,000 of whom died. Much of the railway still stands today and runs from Ban Pong, Thailand, to Thanbyuzayat, Myanmar. The bridge that’s the subject of Boulle’s book is said to be Bridge 277, which was built over the Khwae Noi River, at the time called the Mae Klong River. Khwae Noi in Thai simply means “small river,” however, Khwae was commonly mispronounced by Allied POWs and called the “Kwai River”, meaning Buffalo River. Bridge 277 was damaged multiple times by American bombers near the end of the war, before being successfully destroyed in June 1945. 

In October 1942, captured British soldiers arrived at the Tamarkan POW camp to build the bridge. These men were commanded by British Colonel Philip Toosey, said to be Boulle’s inspiration for Colonel Nicholson, one of the main characters. Unfortunately, controversy arose when Toosey was found to have never collaborated with the Japanese, as Nicholson did in the novel. Boulle then revealed that Nicholson was not meant to represent Toosey, but French officers who collaborated with the Japanese and Vichy regimes. Nonetheless, some have dismissed the book as complete fiction for this and several other historical inaccuracies. 

Some of Boulle’s mistakes are due in part to the fact that he was not held captive by the Japanese, rather the Vichy French. For example, forced labor conditions under the Japanese were much worse than what’s described in the book. Daily, prisoners were deprived of food and medical supplies, beaten, tortured, humiliated, and forced to work sunrise to sunset without ceasing. Whatever a Japanese soldier could construe as disrespect or disobedience by a prisoner would most likely result in their murder. Unlike Nicholson’s nemesis, Colonel Saito, Japanese officers would not allow a man like Nicholson and his insubordination. Even if Nicholson had not been killed by the Japanese, the other prisoners would not tolerate his willing collaboration with the enemy. Because of these problems with the historical accuracy of the book, prisoners who were at the Tamarkan POW camp have also criticized the book. 

Although some of its errors can be misleading, the book is still based on real events and might introduce the reader to history they weren’t previously aware of. If readers approach “Bridge Over the River Kwai” as a historical fiction as opposed to non-fiction, it’s a rewarding World War II novel.