2002-11-11
TKAM soundtrack, posted at 1:11 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com This is one of the model paragraphs I use for my To Kill a Mockingbird soundtrack assignment, which I handed out on Friday and is due two weeks from today. Yee haw."The first song that is a precise match for the To Kill a Mockingbird soundtrack is �What It�s Like� by Everlast. Both the song and the novel share the theme that a person never truly understands another person unless he or she can see the world from their perspective. In Everlast�s song, he sings of three situations � a homeless man, a young woman exercising her right to choose, and a young man who is shot and killed while working on the streets. After singing about the people, Everlast comments that the people critical of them never could know what is like to live life in their shoes. For example, in the song people tell the homeless man that he�s a slob and to get a job, but Everlast sings, �God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes / �Cause then you really might know what it�s like to sing the blues.� (Everlast) Everlast expresses this same theme of the importance of understanding others with the other two situations as well, and this is the same lesson that Atticus tries to teach his children in To Kill a Mockingbird. The theme is first expressed when Scout comes home from her first day of school, and is complaining about her day with Miss Caroline, who was new to both the area and to teaching. Atticus gives Scout the following advice: �I�m going to tell you something that will help you deal with people better. You never really understanding a person until you crawl around in their skin a little bit.� (Lee 32) This was an important moment for Scout, as she begins to see the world from Miss Caroline�s perspective and cuts her a little slack. This advice for Scout follows through as a theme throughout all of Lee�s novel, as Scout learns to see the world from not only Miss Caroline�s perspective, but also that of Boo Radley, Mayella Ewell, and Aunt Alexandra. Both Everlast�s song �What It�s Like� and To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrate the theme of the importance of understanding the world from the perspective of others."