To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee: Character Analysis

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After examining Harper Lee’s life and times, the reader can gain a richer understanding of her book To Kill A Mockingbird. In “Big Bird”, an article by the magazine New Yorker, Thomas Mallon states that Harper Lee was not your model lawyer, as her “lack of polish struck some as ill-suited to the judicial-decorum” (Big Bird 2). Many people and websites have linked Scout Finch to being Harper Lee, which is shown in Scout’s inability to be a follow rules and be a ‘proper lady’. Scout is constantly pestered by Aunt Alexandra to act like a Finch. Aunt Alexandra was always a “[fanatic] on the subject of my [Scout’s] attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed…show more content…
Lee’s unwillingness to stick with the rules is shown in Scout’s behavior. Scout inevitably hates her aunt, and any 6-8 yr old would too, if they were getting told to grow up and that they weren’t acting right. But Scout, doesn’t just stop at hating Aunt Alexandra; she fights back. And that is where Harper Lee comes into the book. Without Harper Lee, Scout would not develop into the person that she was meant to be. Throughout the book Scout is acting without permission, going behind Atticus’ and Calpurnia’s back, and acting on an impulse, not conforming with normality-the reader can see this with Jem too, although Scout and Calpurnia chalk it up to a teenage boy thing. If she listens to Atticus and Cal, Atticus and Tom Robinson might have died when the mob came to the county penitentiary. If Scout doesn’t go to the courthouse without permission, she misses a lesson known to most knowledgeable people, that Blacks don’t get equal rights. Scout’s (or Lee’s) inability to follow rules and be normal allows her to grow up quickly, which in turn allows the other major and minor characters to grow-at least in Scout’s perspective in her role as the narrator. Without Lee’s defining touch on Scout, the reader would miss out on the significance of her growth, and could also chalk up Scout’s sassiness and sophistication to Jem and Atticus’ influence on her. Which could be right, but only if there was no prior knowledge of Harper
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