To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout's Character Development
A story is always different depending on the person telling it. This is the case in To Kill a Mockingbird, a classic book by Harper Lee published in 1960. The book is about a child growing up in a racist community in Alabama and the challenges she faces. During her childhood, She messes with Boo Radley, a neighbor, goes to the trial of Tom Robinson, a innocent black man, and is attacked on Halloween night. The story has received much popularity, and has since then been made into a movie. Although the book and the movie follow the same general plot, the book contains many important events missing from the movie that lead to the character development of the main character, Scout.
One of the things that is missing from the movie is Scout learning to understand others. In the book, Scout is taught by Atticus, her father, about learning to understanding other people and the situations they face. In the book after a frustrating first day of school and a strong hatred towards her teacher, Atticus tells her "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.[26]" This is a big part of Scout growing up, as she begins to realize what other people are going through. This greatly affects her, as she begins to understand Boo Radley, a neighbor who never leaves his house. She realizes that he just wants to be alone, and stops bothering him. Throughout the book, Scout learns this valuable lesson, but does not do so in the movie. In the movie, this is left out of the story and Scout does not learn to understand others, especially Boo Radley. She does not learn to get along with others a...
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...situations like a lady should. This is a big part of Scout developing and maturing from her childish ways. In the movie, this change is not noticed, and there is no major character change on Scout. She does not mature as much as she did in the book and the perspective of the story is changed.
The book and the movie are very similar, but the movie is missing many important events. This affects the growth and development of Scout throughout the story. Her understanding of others, knowledge about racism, and learning to act like a lady are all crucial elements in the story missing from the movie. These all affect how Scout grows and develops throughout the story, and how the story is told from her point of view. Her maturing leads to the understanding and realization of the world around her. The story is then portrayed very differently in the book and the movie.
"She had her own views about things, a lot different from mine, maybe.son, I told you that if you hadn't lost your head I'd have made you go read to her. I wanted you to see something about her-I wanted you to see what real courage is instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand" (128). Scout's change of maturity level is defined by a progression towards understanding Atticus' life lessons, which halt at the ending chapters of the book when Scout recognizes Boo Radley as a human being. After the night when Bob Ewell's life ends, Boo Radley exposes himself as a kindhearted man who Scout can relate with.
One thing that Scout learns is not to believe that everything she hears as the truth. This is a very good lesson because if you did, you become very confused because people can rarely agree on how a story went. For instance, when Scout wants to know more about Boo Radley, Stephanie Crawford gets excited because she sees this as an opportunity to open her mouth and goes on to tell Jem that, " she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him looking straight through the window at her .... said that his head was a skull" (13.) Then Jem goes further into what he heard by saying, " he dined on raw squirrel and any cats he could catch" (13.) This shows how the town compensates not knowing things about others by making up stories. Also Scout sees lies getting passed off as truth when Atticus takes on Tom Robinson as a client. Mean things are spread about Atticus and his credibility is questioned. Since Scout has a short temper and ears that hear everything she is easily offended at the comments that are said, such as the comment made by Mrs. Dubose, " Your father father's no better than the ni**ers and trash he works for." This angers Scout and Jem very much. It also shows that the town isn't happy with the moral decision's that Atticus makes and feel the need to bash him in unfair ways. Scout learns that if she keeps listening to what is said, she would go insane from not hitting anyone.
Scout is the main character in this book, everything happens from her point of view. But, what happens with her, how does she change and develop? Throughout the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout develops by becoming less aggressive, more independent, and more able to see things from other people's points of view.
One of the most important characters read during this semester was Scout Finch. Compared to other characters in To Kill a Mockingbird who were not of the Finch family, Scout was different. She was mature, for equality, and noble. These are all attributes, none of which could be found in most characters of the book. This is especially significant considering the early age of Scout. With her age with her level of nobility, maturity, and her strong sense of racial equality, Scout is not only years ahead of her age, but also above the rest of Maycomb County.
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the story is told by a young girl called Jean-Louise Finch but also known as Scout aged five at the start of the book almost turning six who in the book is quite unique as she could read at the age of six and understand her fathers profession as a lawyer. The story is about Scout growing up in the southern state of Alabama in a small town called Maycomb with her brother Jem and her father called Atticus who is the lawyer. The main theme of the book is about Atticus defending a black man called Tom Robinson and he is accused of raping a white girl called Mayella Ewell and how it affects her, in the book she learns about racism and prejudice and the struggle of black men in life and she also learns about the ways of life and family traditions. The book is set in the late 1930’s so racial discrimination is at its peak in the southern states of America.
Imagine just two young kids maturing within a matter of years. Imagine that same two kids, experiencing or understanding things that they aren’t meant to at a young age. Jem and Scout were just like that. They have experienced many things that they shouldn’t have at their age. Scout on the other hand, seems to be the one maturing the most. Throughout this whole essay, you will learn about Jem and Scout’s attributes, personality, and how alike or different they are from each other.
To Kill a Mocking Bird, is nine by the end of it. The novel, written
To begin with, there are many similarities between the book and movie To Kill A Mockingbird. For example, Tom Robinson died in an attempt to escape from prison in both the book and the movie. In my opinion Tom's death was crucial to the original story, and I believe the movie would have been seen as over-sentimental if the scriptwriters had let him live. Another important similarity between the book and movie, is the mutual fascination between Arthur Radley and the children. Arthur, or Boo as the children called him, left them gifts such as dolls, a watch, and chewing gum in the hollow of a tree in his yard. The children made expeditions to the Radley house to look in the window just so they could catch a glimpse of Boo Radley. I believe this captivation was important to the story line because it was the main foundation of the children's imagination. A big part of the story was imagining Boo to be some kind of freak that came out at night to eat cats and squirrels. An additional similarity between the book and movie is the respect showed to Atticus by the African American community of Maycomb. They respected him for his courage, which by his definition meant, "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."(112). I think the mutual respect between the African Americans and Atticus was important not only to Atticus, but also to his children. Their father and the sad story and memories of Tom Robinson taught them the wrongs of racism. I think if the movie producers had taken out the good relationship between Atticus and the African Americans, it would be taking away one of the most important themes of the story. There are many other significant similarities between the book and the movie.
As most everyone knows, there are differences between a book and it’s movie adaptation. This is applicable to the book and it’s movie counterpart To Kill a Mockingbird, as well. But aside from the differences, there are also similarities between these two.
Many of the scouts learning experiences are in clearly insignificant scenes. Ultimately she must learn to respect the difference in behavior between vastly different people, especially when the behavior differs from the normal as radically as in the cases of Boo Radley, Mrs. Dubose, and the Cunninghams. So early in the novel, Scout in the novel, Scout is faced with some confusing experiences at school, where she confronts a teacher who doesn’t understand why she can read and where she meets Walter Cunningham. Later, Atticus explains to her that to judge a person, you must try to see things from that person’s point of view. You must learn to walk around in his skin.
When Scout goes to the courtroom to hear Atticus speak and fight for Tom’s freedom, she realizes that Atticus is trying his hardest to defend an innocent man. Finally, Scout grows through her interest in school by learning about Hitler and the horrible historical events that have happened in the world. Her maturity is expressed by what she has learned about the world around her and can apply those things to her everyday life. Moreover, Scout has matured greatly in the novel and she has learned many lessons about life, family, and womanhood.
As a child grows, many people influence their development as a person. Some people impact more than others, and a select few really leave their mark. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” several characters play this role. Among them, Miss Maudie Atkinson, a woman who proves herself a strong character, prevails as the one who has the greatest impact on Scout Finch, the protagonist of this novel. As Scout matures and grows up, her views on the world around her change. Through subtle yet effective ways, Miss Maudie teaches Scout many life lessons about being humble, judging, and attitude, all of which ultimately have a great effect on the kind of person Scout develops into and her outlook on the world.
Because As a child Lee was a rebellious and unruly tomboy. This makes Lee like Scout. Scout is an unruly tomboy who acts and speaks like Harper Lee did as a child. Like Lee, Scout talks back to teachers saying, “My name’s really Jean Louise Bullfinch.” (“To Kill A Mockingbird”) story continues to match her life by following her past. Like, Harper Lee was born in a sleepy town in Alabama. Likewise, “To Kill A Mockingbird” is set in a slumbering Alabama town. Our last comparison comes in the time which she was maturing. “To Kill A Mockingbird” takes place in the 1930’s. This is also the time period in which Harper Lee was developing into a young woman. Harper lee's life could also be reflected in TKAM. Because she could also be reflected through Boo Radley. Becauses Harper lee said 'You know the character Boo Radley? Well, if you know Boo, then you understand why I wouldn’t be doing an interview. Because I am really Boo,' She is connected to boo, because the character Boo and Scout. At the end of the book, Scout and Boo met for the first and last time. This is symbolic, because she met boo for the first time. But it would be the last time she met boo. Lee was no longer a little girl and turned into someone more aware of their surroundings and more scared what the world and people can do. Harper Lee's life is also reflected in ¨To Kill A Mockingbird´´. By racism, stereotypes and prejudice thoughts.
First of all, Scout allows the reader to focus more on the exterior of situations. Children tend to experience things differently from others. Events that take place in society may be of great importance to adults and mean nothing to children. Things of importance differ between children and adults. But sometimes, a child’s perspective may be the best way to look at things. In To Kill A Mockingbird, the whole town was talking about Tom Robinson’s trial, especially since he was African American and Atticus, a white man, was to be his lawyer. According to reviewer Edwin Bruell in Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, “[To Kill A] Mockingbird, he tells us, is about the townspeople, not about Robinson” (Mancini 101)....
Scout is the narrator of the whole book. She is the young daughter of a lawyer, Atticus. They live in Maycomb County with Scout's brother and Aunt in the 1930's. At the beginning of the book, she doesn’t know much about the prejudice of Southern America. She basically knows nothing about prejudice. She thinks every person is the same as her. But she finds that out at last. She also finally finds out that most people are nice. She just has to put herself in those people's situations. "As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra" (Lee pg. #). This statement shows that she understands the prejudice and people's thinking, at last. That makes her life a lot different.