Discipline And Resistance:A Foucauldian Reading Of To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has received both popular and scholarly attention since it was published.Researchers mostly focus on the main characters like Scout and Atticus,dealing with the subject of racial discrimination or morality.The study of the living condition and fates of the minor characters such as Tom Robinson,Arthur Boo Radley as well as Mayella Ewell is inadequate.The marginalized characters and their predicaments can be explained better with the help of Foucault’s power space theory.Besides,the exploration of their resistance and failure is conducive to reveal the anti-disciplinary implication of the novel.Tom,Boo as well as Mayella are the main marginalized groups who are persecuted severely in the power space of Maycomb.This thesis approaches the novel from the perspective of Foucault’s power space theory,specifically from the aspect of discipline,punishment and resistance.Meanwhile,the reasons for their failure are explored.Disciplinary power operates on the body and mind by virtue of hierarchical observation and normalizing judgment.These methods hidden in the space reveal the unfair relationship between the white and the black,the tragedy of the other under the social codes and patriarchal power,and the limited space for women.Their resistances are manifested through the transition of spaces,care for the others and an artistic life.Punishments are in the means of violence,and further remain a mental trauma.The failure is destined,which is caused together by the effects of history background,the identities and social normsThe thesis concludes that,the space of marginalized group is extremely narrow and that disciplinary power is everywhere,which in turn results in resistance.Moreover,the thesis is to reveal that the resistance of individual tends to fail in face of impregnable power.However,the analysis of individual resistance is of value for the progress of the awakening of equality and understanding of the other.The careful description of these characters enables the readers to have a deeper understanding of different groups(not merely the black people)in the American south in the 1930s,which is still relevant to the development of social justice today.