Scout Finch- the Narrator

One of the most widely read novels in the past fifty years is To Kill a Mockingbird, which was written by Harper Lee in 1960 (Bernard 8). The story is about Atticus Finch’s defense of a wrongly accused black man while the story is told through the perspective of his daughter Jean Louise Finch, called Scout, and about her life as she grows up in a close together but racist community (Bloom 11). Since it is told through a young girl’s perspective, it is a story about a trial, yet also a childhood and growing up involving games and first days of school (Bernard 9). Scout keeps her charm as a “classic American tomboy” throughout the novel even if some of her elders disapprove of it (Bloom “Introduction”, par. 2). Harold Bloom described her as “Harper Lee’s book, being not only the narrator but much of its most interesting consciousness” (par. 2). As Scout becomes more mature, she has to come to new understandings of prejudice in a small community in the south, the natures of good and evil, and about compassion, hatred, and justice (Bernard 9). Scout Finch is a protagonist in the novel while also the narrator, yet the story is told from adult Jean Louise’s viewpoint. Over the course of the novel, Scout ages from six to eight years old. Since she is young and innocent, she is able to report on the more complicated events with honesty and objectiveness (Bernard 64). Her style of narration is digressive and anecdotal which helps to build a full picture of the lives of the residents in Maycomb County (Bloom 12). Scout is better off then most of the kids in the location and time that she lives with money and the ability to read and write even before she went to school (Bernard 65). Scout is basically one hundred percent tomboy with everything she does from climbing trees to fighting and what she wears which is overalls (Bernard 65). Atticus tries to get Scout to discuss instead of fight, which is difficult for her since she is hotheaded (Bloom 14). When Scout sees Calpurnia, who is like a mother to her, with her own kind of people, she begins to comprehend the contradictory behavior of the adult woman whom she trusts and tries to mimic (Hinton, par. 5). As Scout grows up, she begins to realize that there is evil in the world that she used to believe was good, safe, and secure, but the trial of Tom Robinson opens her eyes to the truth of the world (Bernard 65). When Atticus leaves the house quickly one night, Jem, Scout, and Dill, a friend of theirs whom they met one summer because he came to spend the summer with his aunt, decide to follow him to the town’s jailhouse (Bloom 17). As they watch Atticus, a group of men show up, and they threaten Atticus, who is unarmed (17). Scout runs to them with the boys following, and she talks to one of the men who is the father of a classmate (17). Her friendliness to the men erases the hatred, and they leave (17).
Scout’s school has a Halloween pageant where she plays a ham (Bernard 55). After the pageant, Jem and Scout head home (55). On the way they get attacked, somebody pulls the attacker off of Scout and carries Jem home where they learn his arm is broken, and Bob Ewell is the attacker who was stabbed to death. Then Scout realizes Boo Radley was the savior (55). Scout who is not scared of Boo anymore escorts him home. While on the porch step, Scout experiences what her father tried to teach her which was to not judge a person and try to see it from his or her point of view (Bloom 21). Scout becomes very upset when Aunt Alexandra forbids her from inviting a poor white classmate over due to social prejudice (Bloom 20). When Dill runs away from his home, he teaches Scout that she is lucky to have her family no matter how tough it may seem at times (Bloom 16). Despite the evil Scout witnesses, she keeps her own idealism and faith in the integrity of the people of Maycomb County (Bloom, par. 2). While Scout sees that society’s prejudices are confusing and aggravating, they still have an influence on the people of Maycomb County (Bernard 78). The influence is so strong that some people are destroyed by it (78). Jean Louise narrates the novel while studying her ninth year and the events that led up to it. It appears that she is focused on the era of Bob Ewell and Boo Radley’s along with their impact on Jem, Atticus, and her life (Bloom, par. 3). Throughout the story, Scout must cope with the meaning of her father’s action during a time where people believe that white people are superior (Bernard 8). Bloom believes that Scout has the best of fathers in Atticus, best of brothers in Jem, and herself whose attitude is so wholesome that it charms almost everyone she meets (par. 4). Scout learns from Tom Robinson’s trial that being prejudiced will cloud one’s moral judgment (Bloom 22). She also learns if somebody has enough courage and belief he or she can fight racial prejudice (22).