Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint?
English Essay
Why does Harper Lee choose to tell the story from scouts viewpoint?
Harper Lee chooses to tell the story from scouts viewpoint because it allows the readers to see Scout mature and grow as the narrator and as a person. During the novel Scout learns many things and as we are viewing the events from her viewpoint we are able to see this more clearly. As Scout has grown up and changed, she can now see how things really were, and she can now begin to understand what happened. She can now see and understand the prejudice that was shown to Tom Robinson, Walter Cunningham, Miss Maudie and even herself.
In the Novel Atticus teaches Jem and Scout to be polite, caring kids. He taught them to have great sense of love for their neighbour and told them things that would help them get on in life. Scout was very lucky to have someone to guide her along the way. Although she was faced with "the real world", she had lots of people who would willingly explain to her and guide her. Because Harper Lee tells the novel from Scouts perspective we are able to see this more clearly.
Also we are able to see Scout mature during the book. She goes from a six-year-old child with little understanding of the real world to a ten year old who has been taught a lot of important lessons at a young age. She had to learn, very quickly, that life would not always be easy and fun this is shown well by having an grown old Scout narrate the novel. In the novel She learns many things that when she was a child she couldn't understand but now that she is older she can understand such as Station when she was younger she didn't really understand the class system as she just thought of everyone as equals.
The author, Harper Lee, picked an interesting person to narrate the story. The fact that Harper Lee chose Scout to narrate the story had some advantages and some disadvantages as the story progressed. When Harper Lee uses Scout as the first person, she opens the reader's eyes to the way that children think and act. Scout also offers a fair opinion of the affairs of Maycomb, and doesn't dwell on adult matters which would make it boring for the reader. However there are also Some disadvantages of picking Scout for the first person viewpoint, even though she was ...
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The author, Harper Lee, picked an interesting person to narrate the story. The fact that Harper Lee chose Scout to narrate the story had some advantages and some disadvantages as the story progressed. When Harper Lee uses Scout as the first person, she opens the reader's eyes to the way that children think and act. Scout also offers a fair opinion of the affairs of Maycomb, and doesn't dwell on adult matters which would make it boring for the reader. However there are also Some disadvantages of picking Scout for the first person viewpoint, even though she was smart, she didn't really understand what all the fuss was about as she was too young to understand everything that was going on around her. In my opinion Harper Lee the author did an excellent job of making the story easy to understand by using Scout as the narrator.
In my opinion by Choosing to tell the story from a child's point of view, it was easier to read between the lines and find the real meaning of what was being said. This was because if Scout didn't understand she could ask someone whereas if the story had been narrated by an adult this would not have been possible.
"It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."
This above paragraph speaks about what scout feels the meaning of courage is. There were many people who showed different kinds of courage in the story and even though scout sometimes didn't realise the reader was made aware. Atticus was probably one of the bravest people in the story even though scout and Jem didn't seem to think so. He stood up for a black man who was going against a white man in court. A lot of people disagreed with him, and some went so far as to spit in his face however he carried on against all odds.
In the novel Boo Radley was also brave. He risked his own life to save two children that he barely knew. He also faced so much gossip and persecution because of his home life and the way he chose to live. He could have come out any time he wanted to but he didn't, and because he didn't, he suffered for it. Te fact that Boo Radley saved the lives of the children even though he didn't like to go out shows that he has courage and because this is sown through Scouts perspective his courage is shown more.
We then begin to hear about how Tom Robinson, a black man, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and how everyone is saying that Atticus defends Negroes. The plot then goes on to explain about the trial and what happens afterwards, but we don't hear about Boo Radley until Halloween. When the kids are attacked, that is when the two plots combine. Boo Radley fights Mr. Ewell and carries Jem home. Scout figures out what happens and realizes who he is. Their game of "Making Boo Radley Come Out" has finally succeeded the fact that the above is all written from Scouts point of view makes it more effective.
Also when Harper Lee wrote the book, she made the entire book like a flashback. She began the story as a reminiscence about her brother's broken arm. By making the entire story a flashback, she could add funny stories and still keeping the story line. . When Lee uses foreshadowing to tell what is going to come, she makes you wonder what is going to happen next.
Irony is one of the biggest elements in this story. An ironic moment is when the children spend an entire summer trying to get Boo outside, and when he does come out (of his own accord), it's to save them. Irony is important to the story because the theme of the book is ironic in itself.
In the novel the children's relation to Atticus starts out as a child-father relationship. But as the story progresses, they begin to see what a great man he is. They realized that by defending Tom Robinson, he was doing something that no other man would do, not for the glory, but because it was the right thing to do.
The children and Boo's relationship is probably the most interesting one in the book and is shown well from scouts perspective. It goes from an obsession to an unconditional love. When Boo saves the children's lives, he proves that he is not scary as they had first thought. They realize that Boo was the one giving them little trinkets in the tree, and they realize that he was the one who folded Jem's pants and left them on the fence. Boo cared for the children, even though he barely knew them. He showed an unconditional love that most adults would not show. He was so kind that he risked his life for the children, and that is why Scout grows to understand and care for him because he is the opposite to what they thought he was.
I think that Harper lee chose to write the novel from scouts perspective because it gave the reader an added insight into the story and the events of Maycomb. It was good to write it in such a way because even though scout was young she was unusually clever and easily able to grasp what was going on around her and she always acted with the best intentions and didn't care about social class, she was a tomboy in Maycomb which would have been very unusual. Also by writing in this way the story became easier to understand and perhaps more interesting as scout was used as the narrator.
Also because of this we can quickly realizes when reading To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout is who she is because of the way Atticus has raised her. While most girls in Scout's position would be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout, thanks to Atticus's hands-off parenting style, wears overalls and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill.
She does not always grasp social workings this is shown when she tells her teacher that one of her fellow students is too poor to pay her back for lunch, and human behaviour often confuses her, when one of her teachers criticizes Hitler's prejudice against Jews while indulging in her own prejudice against blacks she cant understand it. Atticus's protection of Scout from social pressure has made her forthright and well meaning.
