English Critical Essay
Greg Eusebi
Question: Write about a novel which creates an entertaining central character. What aspects of this character make them so memorable?
A character I have found memorable in a novel which I read recently, was Scout Finch from the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. I will attempt to examine why this character stands out in my mind.
Scout is a character who at the start of the novel is around the age of six and progress both mentality and physically, this is a feature which is I find effective in the novel. An example of this is the humour which is gained through from Scout’s inability to understand difficult concepts, which can be put down to her simplicity as a child. I feel that this humour adds another element to the storyline, letting the reader have a real insight into the character’s thoughts.
The reason I relate to Scout is because she is an interesting person which always catches the reader’s attention. The main thing which interests me about her is that she has character traits which I also had when I was younger. Her basic faith in the goodness of people is one characteristic I am sure every person had as a child, as they do not understand the difficulty of life which can lead to the change in personality of some people from good to evil. It is a human attribute to associate with people who have similar experience. An example of her trust in people in shown by the vent at which her father is standing outside the jail-house, un-knowingly to her father she follows and saves her life as her presence means a change in the mobs attitude.
“I go to school with Walter,…He’s your boy, ain’t he? Ain’t he, sir?
…He’s in my grade, I said, and he does right well. He’s a good boy, I added, a real nice boy.”
This again highlights how young Scout is, but it also shows how much she cares about her father, her only parent, by saving his life. As this mob intended on killing Tom Robinson Atticus’s client, but...