To Kill A Mockingbird Narrative Analysis

Authors often have a very good reason for choosing a particular personality for their story’s narrator. Scout was a vital character in the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Her impartial outlook on life and people was highly voluntary in order to produce the theme and message that Harper Lee was sending to her readers. Many of the events in the story would not have happened or would have occurred very differently if the novel was told through the eyes of an adult narrator. Even though Scout’s narration is often faulty or inaccurate, her innocence often allows readers to see the events and characters in the novel more clearly. Nevertheless, some still believe that Scout’s narration was unnecessary. There are many other young characters in …show more content…
Quite a number of times, Harper Lee makes good use of Scout’s narration by slowly uncovering the underlying secrets of Maycomb. For example: “Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem.” (“To Kill a Mockingbird” 99). This small piece of the story continues with Scout questioning her father: “’Do you defend niggers, Atticus?’ I asked him that evening. ‘Of course I do. Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.’” (“To Kill a Mockingbird” 99). Scout’s innocence and her having no former knowledge about what a “nigger-lover” is, helps the reader when she later questions her father. Because she is young and still needs to talk to her father to help her understand things, the common ways of her town are very clearly revealed. If Scout was older and already knew this information, Harper Lee would have a lot less creative result when she finished her novel. The young, innocent Scout makes the story flow and make sense while giving the reader plenty of background knowledge. Another example is when Walter Cunningham comes over to eat and drowns his food in syrup: “Atticus shook his head at me again. ‘But he’s gone and drowned his dinner,’ I protested. ‘He’s poured it all over-‘” (“To Kill a Mockingbird” 32). Later on, Calpurnia corrects Scout saying, “’That boy’s …show more content…
One way that she personally developed in the novel was that at the beginning of the novel, Scout wanted nothing to do with becoming a grown lady: “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches…” (“To Kill a Mockingbird” 108). However, near the end of the novel, Scout changes her viewpoint on becoming a lady: “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” (“To Kill a Mockingbird” 318). On page 372, Scout allows Boo Radley to escort her as she walks him home. If this had happened at the beginning of the novel, Scout would not have been mature enough to know how important it was to have it look like Boo was escorting her. These instances reveal some major changes that Scout endures over the time period of the novel. If Scout had not been narrating the way she was, these changes would have been way too sudden. As Scout learns more about what being a real lady is, she begins to slowly become fond of the idea. Calpurnia, Miss Maudie Atkinson, and even Aunt Alexandra become Scout’s role-models for becoming a young lady. Scout’s narration even helps develop other characters such as Jem. Scout briefly mentions that Jem had changed and that he thought he knew everything, but later it is easy to see that he is a bit of a know-it-all and very bossy. For example, he tells Scout that if she