To Kill A Mocking Bird Essay, Research Paper

Mariusz Jakimik Jakimik 1

Miss Rende

English ENG3A-05

March 11, 1997

From the time people are born, until they die, it is only a natural thing to want to

keep learning about their life and to figure out why they were put on this earth. From the

very beginning of life, babies want to touch and experience everything around them.

Throughout the novel, Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell, Brian O’Connal has

found himself with a tremendous hunger to discover the real meaning of life.

Clearly, then, Brian always searches for new ways to learn about the world he lives

in. One of the things that Brian shows an interest in is God. Brian really wants to meet

Him, not knowing that God is something that cannot be seen, for He is a spirit. Brian

would say “Lets go over to his place”(7). Throughout the novel, Brian seems to be

looking for God. He has his own image of God in his mind, thinking that “God rides the

vacuum cleaner”(31). Brian learns the truth about God from different people like his

parents, Saint Sammy, Mr. Hislop, his grandma, and his friends. He discovers that God is

everywhere and in everyone, but He cannot be seen.

Furthermore, Brian is very much interested, like many other children his age, about

where living things come from. Being as young as he was, he always thought that God

delivered babies. After Brian witnessed his very first birth, that of a rabbit, he became

very confused and curious about what and how it happened. Brian had a very

uncomfortable conversation with his dad, Gerald O’Connal, about where babies come

from:

Remember I told you the pigeon grows inside the egg, the mother lays the egg,

and it hatches?…They don’t with rabbits. Rabbits are different. The father

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plants a seed in the mother and the baby grows from it. When it’s time, they

come out.

Is that what he is doing when…

Yes Spalpeen, that’s what he is doing.(161-162)

This fascinated Brian very much.

Unquestionably, everything that is born and lives, must eventually die. Death is an

unavoidable fact of life, and cannot be escaped. The deaths in the novel start out from not

very significant, to the very shocking ones. Brian was becoming aware of death but was

not influenced very much from such deaths like the gopher, the rabbits and Mr. and Mrs.

Wong. After his dog Jappy’s death, Brian realizes how fragile life is. It was a complete

shock to him when his dad suddenly died. Brian did not know what to feel. It was as if

Brian’s life was over, and he felt lost and lonely without his father. Brian learned that

“People were forever born, people forever died, and never were again. Fathers died, and

sons were born. The prairie was forever, with its wind whispering for man, but for Brian’s

father-never.”(239)

Thus, Brian begins to realize that the world is full of strange and unexplained things.

Brian does not know why the two headed calf was born, so he concluded that it must have

been God’s mistake. The runt pig was another abnormal experience for Brian. He felt

sorry for it and wondered why such things are born, and he did not want Ab to kill it.

“You can’t kill my runt pig”(216), he said. Furthermore, Brian wanted to get to know the

Young Ben better, because he felt a special connection to him. It was as though they had

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something in common. Brian felt that he could learn something from the Young Ben,

something nobody else could teach him. Saint Sammy was another mysterious buy to

Brian that teaches him about God. Saint Sammy was an outcast in town because he

claimed that he knew God personally and had a special connection with Him.

Throughout the novel, Brian satisfies his need to understand life more by

experiencing many different situations. He learns that life is very complicated and hard

to comprehend. He becomes aware of God looking over us, he also learned how

wonderful birth is, and how sudden and tragic death is. Brian really understood that birth

is the exact opposite of death. He had seen the circle of life turn right before him, and life

and death were now familiar to him. Life is full of unexplained events, but everything

happens for a reason. Even though Brian witnessed all this, it is only human nature to

want to keep learning about life and what it has to offer.

Mitchell, W.O, Who Has Seen the Wind

Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Canada, 1947