Rezwan Uddin
Magistra Dunn
English Class III R5
26 September, 2013
In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Scout reflects on the events that took place in Maycomb, Alabama from 1933 - 1935. She narrates stories of her childhood as a 5 year old to a 7 year old with her brother Jem, her neighbors, and her father Atticus. Throughout the course of the story, Scout is exposed to many different types of characters. It is evident in her lack of understanding that Scout is indeed a child who has yet to learn the true reality of the world despite the fact that she is highly intelligent for her age. Still, Scout uses Atticus advice of considering different paradigms before coming to conclusions to enlarge her innocent childish scope on life into a much broader and more importantly, a more mature view.
At the start of the book, Scout’s lack of foresight illustrates herself as nothing short of a child. One scene that shows this takes place on the first day of school. Walter Cunningham is invited to dinner by Jem following the attack from Scout. At dinnertime, Walter poured honey all over his food. Scout being irked by this, says “Atticus shook his head at me again ‘But he has gone and drowned his dinner in syrup’ I protested ‘he’s poured it all over-”(Lee 27). Normally, a distinguishing factor between children and adults are their ability to forecast. A child does things without thinking of its consequences thoroughly in contrast to adults. Point in case, Scout's short tempered reaction ends up in a “stinging smack” by Calpurnia. This is foreshadowed by “Atticus shook his head at me again” because it shows disapproval of the adults. In addition, the word “protested” connotes an annoyed and furious tone in Scout. Interestingly, this short tempered stubborn attitude that she possesses seems to contribute to her lack of understanding. In the sense that she is annoyed at Walter for doing something that she thinks is wrong without regarding the fact that Walter comes...