To Kill A Mockingbird
Essay Preview: To Kill A Mockingbird
Report this essay
Scout Finch is not the stereotypical girl from the 1930s. Agents the wishes of everyone around her, she grows up in overalls instead of dresses. Scout plays in the dirt and sand, instead of in the kitchen. In the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Scout is the wild spirited narrator, growing up in the small town of Maycomb. As she gets older, she learns mostly from her father Atticus how to interact with people. Scout learns to show dignity and respect to everyone, under any circumstances.
In the beginning of the novel, the reader finds that Scout Finch is not the most peaceful girl. She fights boys quite often, and never backs down from a fight. One day Cecil Jacobs approached Scout and was taunting her because her father is “defending niggers”.
“I drew a beam on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away.”
It was not until Atticus had told Scout not to fight on his behalf, that Scout found the courage inside her to walk away. Her actions here show her respect for Atticus, and her dignity. She realizes now that fighting is not always the best way for her to solve her problems. Even after all the kids were calling her a coward, she had enough dignity to follow her fathers wishes and not fight.
Boo Radly often became the target of the childrens taunting. Scout had a set image of Boo in her head as a blood stained squirrel eater, even though she had never so much as seen him. That changed as she grew up.
“When we were small, Jem and I confined our activities to the southern neighborhood, but when I was well into the second grade taunting Boo Radly became passй.”
As Scout grows, she starts to see Boo as a person, as apposed to some sort of an evil creature. By stopping her games, and the tormenting of Boo, she shows respect for him and shows dignity in herself.
Near the end of the