Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is the story of a young girl's awakening to the prejudices and hypocrisies of small town life. Jean Louis Finch, known as Scout, lives in the small south Alabama town of Maycomb with her widowed father Atticus, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. The family is cared for by a black servant named Calpurnia. The action of the story takes place over several years. But it centers around a trial that happens in the last year of the story. Lee tells the story from the point of view of the adult Jean Louis. For the most part, however, she restricts the information to what Scout herself knew at the time. Thus most information is either what Scout witnessed or what is told to her by other characters. The adult voice also interjects occasional remarks about her later understanding of events. Events that might be imperfectly understood by Scout are often perfectly clear to the reader and time seems to stretch out and occupy more of the space of the book as Scout gets older and understands more. Eventually Scout has learned enough to explain a situation to her father in the adult terms he used when he told her that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird since they do no harm and merely provide people with beautiful music.

The entire novel is about the discoveries that Scout makes about the world. They are often confusing to her but frequently they are things that are confusing to adults as well. Scout, for example, can read anything but when s

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d to impress on Scout the importance of behaving like a lady from a good family. But she does this so badly that it seems as if she has nothing to teach Scout. The lesson she learns from her Aunt comes with her father's news about Tom Robinson's death. Her aunt is shocked and moved but she will not give in to the terrible gossiping women and is determined not to show her feelings to them. As Scout reasons, "if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I" (240). From the family's neighbor Miss Maudie, Scout learns the value of independent thought and behavior and begins to understand something about her father. As Miss Maudie explains to her, it is a great compliment to Atticus that people are willing to let him act for them. She admits that this is partly laziness and cowardice. But, as she says, the town trusts him to do the right thing. This kind of knowledge of her father accumulates throughout the book and contrasts with the superficial things about him, such as being a perfect shot, that impress the children at the time. The third woman from whom Scout learns a great deal is Calpurnia. Scout has always treated Calpurnia as a slightly detached member of her family but, in a sudden revelation, she sees th

Category: Literature - H