To Kill A Mocking Bird

Maycomb is an old town and not many families have moved in or out of the town, so everybody knows each other very well. I think that because of this Maycomb has stereotyped its own families. We see an example of this on Scout’s first day at school. When Miss Caroline is trying to give Walter Cunningham some lunch money, Scout tells Miss Caroline the he is a Cunningham. Miss Caroline does not understand this because she is new to Maycomb but Scout explains the Cunningham family’s characteristics. I like the way Lee brings in different family’s characteristics into the book. She subtly brings them in and instead of writing the characteristics into a paragraph she brings the topic into the conversation and recalls and occasion involving the Cunningham’s and Atticus, this make it more interesting to read. Maycomb is described as “an old town” and a tired town. It is an isolated town which means that it is not very modern. Scout tells us that there is still a caste system in Maycomb. New people do not come to Maycomb often which means that new ideas might not arrive in Maycomb until some time later and even then they might not be accepted because the community are all old and from what Scout tells us there are not many young adults in the town, I think that usually young adults are more open to new ideas whereas older people might be used to what they grew up with.

Maycomb society is prejudiced against black people. Calpurnia is mentioned in the first few pages of the book. We are told that she is the cook but we are not told that is black. She is described as squinting and having a hand as wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. Lee describes her like this as a child would, children would say things without thinking and not realise what they were saying. Negroes are first mentioned when Scout is describing that they would walk on the other side of the sidewalk and that they would whistle as they went. This is the first time we see this prejudice and racial discrimination Scout uses the word Negro to separate them from white people. We find out that Calpurnia is black on page 18.

“for Calpurnia rarely commented on the ways of white people.”

This shows that the children are aware that Calpurnia is black but maybe because they are children they do not really mind this difference. Lee tricks the reader and keeps the reader in suspense by not telling the reader that Calpurnia is black. When I found out that she was black I was surprised because she is treated as an equal.

        I like the narrative techniques that Lee uses, she makes the storyline interesting by subtly putting in ideas. Other ideas she puts plainly, I think this is a good technique especially with Calpurnia’s character where she suddenly surprises you by telling you that Calpurnia is black.