As I begin my summer, I started to read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, thinking it would be boring and expecting all the reviews from the people I know were right, that it was the worst book they have ever read. Finishing the first part of the book, my opinion is different from everyone else’s. Scout is everything I would love to be at the age of a child. She is sassy, tough, curious but also innocent. The things I love about her is that she curses and fights whoever angers her but is not afraid to be called a coward. Scout and her brother, Jem, live in this southern little place called Maycomb County, where everyone knows everyone and knows everyone’s business and the conflict between them and their hometown is to ignore what everyone is saying about their father, Atticus. It is hard, because if anyone was saying malicious things about my father, I would be angry too. The neighbors of Maycomb County all seem to have their own opinions of each other. For example, Scout, Jem and Dill all thought that Boo Radely was some kind of a person who belongs in an asylum but they never met him. Also, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, Cecil Jacobs, and Francis Finch all have something to call Atticus, but do they really know why Atticus is defending a black man? The people of Maycomb County make judgments of others and do not know the whole story. It seems like they only hear it from one perspective, which ties into the character interactions of the people of Maycomb.
Atticus treats his children like they are adults. He tells them directly what something means and he makes sure they see through a different set of eyes from everyone else in Maycomb. For example, Atticus makes Jem read to Mrs. Dubose to see how brave she was but also a punishment for cutting down her camellias. Atticus is an intelligent father. My favorite relationship in this book has to be Dill and Scout. Their relationship is innocent but also confusing to Scout. One day, Dill says that he and Scout are engaged and then the next day he completely ignores her. It is completely realistic about a real childhood love, how children change their minds all of the time.
I foreshadow in the next part of the book, that Boo Radely will become Scout’s and Jem’s guardian angel. He has already provided a blanket for the children when they were outside in the cold waiting to be safe from the house fires and I predict he was the one giving them the gifts inside of oak tree’s hole, which is why Nathan Radely filled the hole with cement. He did not approve of Boo Radely entertaining the children. Boo Radely will be the hero at the end, instead of the mysterious and weird person he came out to be in the beginning of the novel.
I like your character analysis. Think about this, if everyone looks at Atticus the same way and they have a consistent opinion, what does that tell you about the culture of the community? Look at the physical descriptions of the setting to see how people do or do not relate to each other.
ReplyDeleteI think you're totally right about how they make judgments without knowing the whole story, and a really good example with Scout, Jem, and Dill. It's also great how Atticus tells the kids directly because that helps them with their responsibilities when they're older. Your foreshadowing was not what I had expected, but I now that you say that I think you might be right!
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