Connections to Doubt

When one thinks about the movie Doubt the word gossip tends to come to mind. An entire sermon speech was dedicated to the detrimental effects of gossiping. Once one starts it, it is impossible to completely undo the damage. Father O’Rourke states the comparison of gossip to feathers in the wind to a woman in the church who has confessed to gossiping.

Father O’Rourke: “Now I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out onto the wind”

Woman: “It can't be done. I don't know where they went. The wind took them all over.”

Father O’Rourke: “And that, is gossip!”

This perfect metaphor explains how gossiping spreads all over. Once it spread, it is unable to be undone. On the way, it also changes just as the feathers would. In To Kill A Mockingbird there are many rumors that go around about Boo Radley. When Scout talks to some people she hears that Boo Radley is still alive and well, he simply prefers to keep to himself. However, when she talks to others she hears that Boo Radley stabbed his father and later died himself and was stuffed into the chimney. Everyone had been talking about Boo and now the facts cannot be separated from the lies. In both Doubt and To Kill A Mockingbird gossiping is a major problem that leads to the major issues that we have been introduced to thus far.

In Doubt and To Kill a Mockingbird both people are forced to recognize their faults. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout, Jem, and Dill were scolded by Atticus. Although their form of gossiping was different than that of Doubt it still had the same detrimental effect. Dill, Jem, and Scout were playing a game that made fun of Boo Radley. They publicly shared their version of a story which they did not know the truth to. They mocked him as well as dramatically put their own twists on the story for why he acts the way he does. To this, Atticus told them that they were publicly humiliating someone who had never done anything to them. After this, the game died down.

However, the form of recognizing the damaging effects of gossiping come is slightly larger. In this case there was an entire sermon to explain just how large of a sin gossiping was after he learned of women in the church who had participated in the act. Although this form of scolding was on a larger scale because of their age, the same lesson as in To Kill a Mockingbird was learned.

This lesson that was learned in both stories is that publicly sharing your opinion on someone else is unnecessary and unfair to that person. Most of the time, what you hear is not true. Therefore, it is best to keep what one may here hidden away until the truth is revealed from the person themselves. Scout, Jem Dill, and the woman in Doubt all had to learn this the hard way. The problems that arose in both cases could have been avoided. Boo Radley would be able to live in peace and solitude and although we know little about the situation of Doubt, it is clear through the guilty expressions on the gossiper’s face that they too started a good amount of trouble for someone.