Scout is the omniscient narrator in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. She is very unlike most children at her age. She loves to read and much prefers being one of the boys than acting like a lady. Her language is very mature for her age and this makes us feel that we are growing up with Scout and learning life’s lessons with her. ‘We were far to old to settle an argument with a fist fight… Atticus said we were both right’. At this time Scout was only 9 and Jem 13. At this age they were not too old to be violent. This also gives us an insight into Atticus’ character. He is Scout and Jem’s father and had a reputation throughout Maycomb for being open-minded, fair and full of integrity. He is very far ahead with his views on blacks. He believes that all humans should be treated as equals, he teaches Jem and Scout not to judge a person before they know them. Calpurnia is the Finches black maid; he treats her with respect and as part of the family. ‘Anything fit to say at the table is fit to say in front of Calpurnia, she knows what she means to this family’. Atticus is a good role model for us all, he has an answer to every question Jem or Scout may ask, and is deeply respected throughout Maycomb as both a good man and lawyer. Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley is another prominent character within the novel. Boo is considered an outsider of the town. Neither Scout nor Jem had ever seen him, but the rumours about what kind of life he leads influence the younger children’s active imaginations and they see him as a ‘malevolent phantom’. ‘The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways’. I think we are presented with Boo Radley to show how prejudiced society was at that time, not just to blacks but also to anyone who did not take part in everyday life.
‘The Son’s Veto’ has a similar moral, although it is presented in a different way. It is written in third person narrative, and Sophy is the main character. The message of this story is not as clear, although we see how women are treated as belongings who have no right to make decisions and have no feelings. ‘It will degrade me in the eyes of all the gentlemen in England,’ her son, Randolph, replied when Sophy asked his permission to marry Sam. We are given Randolph in this story to show the prejudiced views on the lower class. It is similar to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in the way that prejudice was an accepted way of life and it is irrelevant how happy a person is, being etiquette is paramount in society. Although this message is not based on Thomas Hardy, the fact that he managed to move social classes is not dissimilar to Sophy.
The language in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a mixture of Standard English, American and Childish dialect. We can speculate that the Standard English is meant to be believed by the reader, as these present the facts of Maycomb. The narration is always Standard English and in first person narrative. Scout uses very adult terminology; this could be because Harper Lee may be looking back on similar events in her life, and making sense of the thoughts she ad at the time. The use of Standard English could also reflect Atticus and how he educated her. ‘Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my learning’. The American dialect in the novel is easy to understand, mainly due to the amount of American television programmes and films we see today. The novel is split up into chapters for each event, maybe Harper Lee saw he childhood as chapters, each beginning with learning a new lesson and ending with how she should use that knowledge. The language is characteristic of the period, as we do not very often hear some of the slang that is used. ‘Yessum’.
‘The Son’s Veto’ uses language that is hard to understand. This is because it is characteristic and most of it has gone out of fashion. Sam and Sophy are the only that speak in Wessex dialect to show that they are of a lower classes. This makes the language even harder to understand. ‘The Son’s Veto’ is not in chronological order; it starts about halfway through the story and jumps back to Sophy remembering her past. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is also not in chronological order, it is cyclical. It starts of with Jem having broken his arm, and jumps back in time. The novel finishes with Jem breaking his arm. ‘The Son’s Veto’ is episodic. There are gaps in the text as Hardy sold his work to magazines and parts of it were printed each week.
The stories can be linked together by their morals. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has one main moral, that it is wrong to judge a person before you know them, based on their reputation. ‘They don’t do nothing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird’. This relates to the title of the book, and this message can be related to many of the lessons we learn in the novel. ‘The Son’s Veto’ has a similar message; that prejudice is wrong. The time in which it was written was when women were seen as the lowest species, as the blacks were in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. This is presented to us when Randolph refuses to let her mother marry Sam. Both stories show that inequality has always existed and how it affects others. The morals of these stories also have contemporary relevance. Although women are now equal to men and blacks are treated no different to others, inequality still exists in modern society. Gossip is another big lesson in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Atticus teaches scout and Jem how wrong it is and how it affects others. Then they experience it themselves when Atticus takes the job of defending Tom Robinson. He is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The Ewell’s are the ‘white trash’ of Maycomb. They are poorer than the Robinson’s and live on a rubbish dump. They don’t do anything for the community and send their children to the first day of school each year but nothing more. But because they are white they still have a higher status than the Robinson’s and for this reason win the trial. Even though it is obvious he is innocent and it is suspected that Mr Ewell may have committed the crime himself because he disliked the relationship between Tom and his daughter. This emphasises how prejudiced the community is. I think that Harper Lee wrote this book not only to show the reader the past and how society worked, but also to teach us lessons for modern life. Through the book we discover the hurt and unfairness of inequality, and therefore think more carefully about out future actions. Gossip also still exists today, probably more than ever with chat shows, magazines and tabloid newspapers joining in. I think it is a huge lesson to us all.
In conclusion I think that both books are not just for enjoyment, but also to make us think more carefully about others and our actions. I have learned that before I judge anyone I should get to know him or her. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was easier to read, but because ‘The Son’s Veto’ is written in an older language it seems of a higher standard. The message was also harder to understand in ‘The Son’s Veto’.
