What is the importance of…
Scout
Harper Lee writes the novel To Kill a Mockingbird from the retrospective view of a young Scout who narrates the events from her childish view. This allows for a more impartial interpretation as she is still developing her beliefs of right and wrong and so will lack the more biased view of an adult. The character of Scout helps point out the key themes of prejudice and social expectations, whilst exploring the idea of growth and maturity as well as the difference between what a person appears to be and what they really are. The most prominent asset of Scouts character, her nativity, allows the author a way to subtly rebel against aspects of Southern Society.
Harper Lee uses Scout’s naivety to satirize Southern prejudice. Within the mob scene of the episodic novel, Scout looks for a familiar face and finds Mr. Cunningham. Scout says “I go to school with Walter”, her innocence and unprejudiced courage diffuses the situation. Harper Lee has her address Mr. Cunningham to demonstrate the crowds making of farmers and town folk, people they live with, to emphasize how a mob mentality may not be the opinion of the individual. Her mention of his “entailment” to her father is comical in that it would cause an embarrassment to Mr. Cunningham.