A Literary Dog Walk

Come on girls, let's go.  Just let me get your leashes on.  Yes, it's a little cold tonight but we've got to do it. Let's go.  Let's just turn out of the driveway here and head down the street.  Who knows how far we will go and who we will meet tonight.

Ya I know, the couch was more comfy.  Ok, just  have a sniff there.

Hey, there's  Bob Ewell, the red neck cracker in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Seems appropriate that he would join us on the walk tonight.  It's right around now, after the American Thanksgiving and the Harvest Pageant, when he attacks Scout and then breaks Gem's arm.  Scout is dressed like a ham and cannot see the attack.

So glad Bob's here.  He's a first class bigot and a second class white trash citizen in Maycomb County. Remember how he seeks to satiate his anger at being white and poor in the deep south by accusing a black man, Tom Robinson, of raping his daughter Mayella?  He blames "the other" for his problems and a large portion of the town points the finger right along with him.  No worries about you becoming dated Bob, you're alive and well and living in all the places where blaming others for your own circumstance is now known as "populism."

Come on girls, let's keep moving.

I hate Bob Ewell.  Well, sometimes I hate him.  Somehow it's not an open and shut case with him. It's like when Walter Cunningham comes to lunch with Scout and she's amazed that the kid puts syrup on his lunch. Atticus tells Scout not to judge.  Walk a mile in his shoes Scout. Somehow I end up feeling for the Ewells. Even Mayella.  She's just lonely and invites Tom Robinson in to talk.  Good Ol' Bob here, beats on her.   How the hell is it possible for me to feel empathy for that red neck cracker?

The dogs are leading me home but I am not with them.  I am in Maycomb Georgia with Scout and Gem, Atticus and Boo, Mayella and Tom.  Bob Ewell started it all by emerging out of the darkness into my imagination on that first turn of our walk on this dark November night.

We all carry our work days home with us.  Bosses and clients and issues and budgets  and deadlines cloud our minds after dinner, while we watch TV or take our kids to hockey.  I've certainly lugged a few troubling classes along with me on the nightly dog walk but I have been luckier than a lot of people.  I've spent my life carrying around characters, talking about fictions.

I've spent a large part of each working day living in fiction...and that...that has made all the...never mind.

Let's go in.  Let's get in the house...As For Me and My House...