Complex Characters In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” the main character, Scout, matures in many ways and learns plentiful new things throughout the story. What does Scout learn and how does it affect her character at the end? What was the reason for this character to have such dramatic changes? These questions will be answered by this essay.

Scout developed significantly throughout the course of To Kill a Mockingbird. Her character transforms from a naive child, who sees the world in a black-and-white way , to a more courageous, empathetic person who is more mature. Scouts behaviour with Boo Radley when she meets him, displays both courage and empathy. Thus Scout is an adorable character, with, as can be seen in this essay, a great values and

Scout’s personality traits make up the character that she is. Without her unique personality, the events may have gone very differently. Tom Robinsons could be in more severe danger than he ended up being in, the truth of Boo Radley may not have ever been discovered, and Scout may not have done the things she did if she wanted to be ladylike. Each of her actions was driven by curiosity, her tomboy personality, and her courage and this traced the path for the book. Scout Finch and her strong personality make her a monumental character in To Kill A Mockingbird and one that many readers

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents a life of Jean Louis Finch, also known as Scout, growing up in a small town. The setting of the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1960’s. Life for Scout growing up appears difficult because of the Great Depression, racial inequality, white supremacy, and peoples’ prejudiced mindset. In the beginning of the book, Scout’s character shows her innocence, her tomboyish side, her adventurous personality, and her ability to question and observe the goodness and evilness of society. By the end of the novel, Scout learns fighting does not fix everything, possessing lady-like characteristics obtain value and holding prejudiced thoughts reflects in every person’s life.

At the beginning of the story, Scout was just a young girl not yet even in school. She spent her days playing with her older brother, Jem, and later on with Dill. Time was sometimes spend with her father reading. Jem helped guide her along the way so she wouldn’t make so many mistakes. She didn’t understand many of the things that went on around her.

Scout demonstrates the idea that adversity does strengthen an individual by learning how to take her life situations, furthermore turn them into positive outcomes, resulting in her building an emotional wall in order to prevent her past from breaking her down, leading her to show the world that she is transitioning into a mature, young woman. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch (Scout Finch) becomes exhibited to adversity in her early childhood. Scout begins by having an arduous time trying to be herself without facing the wrath of people narking on her about the way she dresses as well as the way she acts. Without a mother figure present in her life, the only way she feels like herself is by doing what she knows best, acting as well as dressing like a boy.

Readers look to Scout as a test to character and innocence. As Scout is only six years old in the beginning of the novel, she is unaware of the surrounding bigotry in her town, Maycomb. Unlike many of the characters in the novel, she is able to look at the world in a unique perspective due to her innocence and influence from her activist father, Atticus

6/24, Chapter One: As the book begins, the readers are introduced to Scout, and her knowledge of Maycomb. I noticed how Scout’s narration sounded; she is telling the story as an adult but from a five year old’s point of view during the book, but her narrative included complex words such as “imprudent” (5) and “domiciled” (10), which is unlike what a child would say. Harper Lee uses the unique narration so that Scout would be able to provide background and context to Maycomb, but also so that readers would be able to see how Scout reacted and felt about the events in the book, and how it impacted her life growing up. Scout also used description and imagery as she told the story, which I found intriguing, since children don’t usually care for description and see things simplistically.

First and foremost, in the very beginning of the book, Scout looks back on her childhood as an adult. She talks about how Maycomb was back in the day and describes how people in the neighborhood thought about Boo Radley. Scout explains, “People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them” (Lee 10). The people of Maycomb think of the Radley’s as an urban legend.

“Courage doesn 't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’” - Mary Anne Radmacher. Through this quote one can see the advantages of real courage. One can really understand the true meaning of courage by reading the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The book by Harper Lee is written by a 9 year old’s perspective named Scout. Throughout the book she discovers many mockingbirds in her society and the trouble they have to live through. This helps the reader identify many subtopics in the book like prejudice vs tolerance, compassion vs ignorance and more importantly courage vs cowardice. She deciphers the true meaning of courage vs cowardice when she meets the mystery character, Boo Radley. The book by Sherman Alexie too has similar themes and settings. It’s based on the struggles Indian’s face in America due to their race. The book uses a teenagers perspective to exhibit these struggles. This helps teenagers connect to the book as even they might have perspectives similar to of Junior’s (main character). Both the authors use similar literary devices like external conflict, internal conflict and characterization to keep the reader interested in the text. In both the texts one can see that the thematic idea conveyed is that courageous people don’t roar about their strength, but they use it to benefit the community as a whole.

Harper Lee uses Characterization to show the reader of her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, how different people and events impact children as they grow up and shape the kind of adults they will turn out to be. She shows how the people of Maycomb influenced Jem and how Scout’s view was changed by a single person. Lee also makes it evident that one event can change children’s entire perception of the

Atticus Finch said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”(Lee 39). As a result of this quote out main character will change. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses the character and characterization of Scout to show how empathy can change someone’s life for the better. Throughout the book Scout changes quite a bit. In the beginning she was very tomboyish choosing to wear overalls instead of dresses, she also liked to beat other kids up.

Her school teacher, Miss Caroline, tells her that she cannot read at home because her father doesn’t know how to teach. After confronting Atticus about her problem he says that “[People] never really understand a person until they consider things from his point of view” (39). This is a lesson about considering things from another person’s perspective, which is good for Scout to learn because she tends to judge people based on their looks or ways of doing things. This lesson will help her in real life because before she judges someone, considering their point of view will help her understand other people’s opinions. To end, Atticus teaches Scout a lesson about seeing things from others perspective.

To Kill a Mockingbird is full of heart wrenching and painful moments that shaped and defined each and every inhabitant of Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus Finch, the father of the main protagonist, once said, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view--until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," (Lee 51). This was a lesson he taught to Scout, the narrator and main protagonist of the story. Scout never fully grasps the idea of this concept until the very end of the story, but throughout the story she exhibits this lesson and is empathetic without even knowing it. No character felt others emotions quite like Scout, even if it was right away, a little while after, or even the whole book.

Her first day of school was terrible and she blamed the teacher, Miss Caroline. Scout felt that Miss Caroline made fun of her in class in front of all her other classmates. After Atticus explained to her what empathy meant. She realized that Miss Caroline was new to Macomb and had not learned all for its ways. From then on, Scout applied empathy to her life throughout the rest of the novel.