Discipline and Punish in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"

In 1785, the English philosopher and social theorist by the name of Jeremy Bentham designed a very interesting type of prison building called "Panoptican". The main idea of this prison concept was to be able to observe the prisoners from a higher position, without being seen by them. Apart from these special qualities, another main reason for choosing such a type of building is that it required fewer staff and could therefore be cheaper than other prisons of that time. But apart from its practical use, the Panoptican also served in a more philosophical sense. For instance, Michel Foucault, the author of "Discipline and Punish" referred to it as a metaphor of the modern disciplinary societies and their tendency to control, monitor and correct individuals to the point of their normalization.

But how does this building look like exactly?

According to Ben and Marthalee Barton, "The architecture incorporates a tower central to a circular building that is divided into cells, each cell extending the entire thickness of the building to allow inner and outer windows. The occupants of the cells are thus backlit, isolated from one another by walls, and subject to scrutiny both collectively and individually by an observer in the tower who remains unseen. Toward this end, Bentham envisioned not only venetian blinds on the tower observation ports but also maze-like connections among tower rooms to avoid glints of light or noise that might betray the presence of an observer."

I could say Scout, the main character and narrative voice of "To Kill a Mockingbird" acts as an innocent observer-since she is merely a child-of the other adult characters in the novel. There could be made a sort of comparison with Foucault's idea of Panopticon, yet she is a candid judge who has yet unformed opinions of the world around her. Nevertheless, her childish curiosity urges her to investigate her surroundings, making her willing to explore the mechanisms of the system she is part of. The actions and idiosyncrasies of the other characters are rendered and interpreted through her very own limited perception. The most intriguing and mysterious character for her and her older brother is Bo Redley, a secluded man who stirs their infantile imagination, causing them to often get into trouble.

An element that certainly does play a significant role in the narrator's depiction of her counter-characters is the physical description. According to Foucault's concept of discipline and punishment even the human body is involved in the political field. Indeed, in "To Kill a Mockingbird" this may be regarded as a fact, if we come to think of the important role the color of the skin plays in people's minds. The community has its very strict structures and is marked by racial attitudes, which cannot easily be broken. If we are to consider the concept of Panopticon in the case of this novel, we could perhaps consider the little girl, Scout, to be the silent, unnoticeable observer of the "prison". She is taught by her father Atticus that in order to understand people, she needs to "step into their shoes", to imagine herself in their place. It could be that behind the funny often innocent voice of the little girl rendering the events there lies an observer who ceaselessly investigates the mechanisms of the system she is placed into, gathering evidence about the other characters and trying to discover their inner motivations for their actions and attitudes. I could find a similarity between what Foucault says about the isolation of plague-infected people in Middle Ages. Each individual is fixed in his place. And, if he moves, he does so at the risk of his life, contagion, or punishment. This is the way black people are regarded by the community in this novel. Because of Tim Robinson's act of "not staying in his place" and interacting with a white girl, he is ultimately punished.

With all their often expressed sympathy towards Black people, and especially towards Tom's unfortunate family, the rules of Panopticon inscribed in people's mind function accordingly and therefore the UN-obeying one gets disciplined and punished. This indeed could be said to happen in the story, although Harper Lee's political ideology transpiring through the voices of her characters (Scout being very much influenced by her father's generous, revolutionary and humanistic views on this matter) is clearly an anti-racial one.