Friday, April 30, 2010

Point of View

Harper Lee's use of first person flashback narration is one very effective element of To Kill a Mockingbird. The reader experiences events with young Scout but benefits from the perspective of adult Scout. Provide examples of one or both perspectives.

19 comments:

james_mann24 said...

On one hand the little scout persepective is that she is nieve and doesnt really realize the crimes against african americans are going on. But the adult scout gives us some insight on how she handled herself in those situations, like with the mob.

Unknown said...

when young scout was talking to her Uncle Jack after fighting with Francis she said "A nigger lover. I aint sure what that means...." This shows the immaturity of the young scout and why she would not understand what it meant when you called someone that.

Olivia said...

After Scout gets into a fight with Francis, Atticus is talking to Jack while Scout listens. Her father is voicing his worry for her and her fighting personality. At the end of page 89 Scout says, "it was not until many years later that I realized he wanted me to hear every word he said."

mottie92 said...

Scout's persepective is that she is nieve and doesn't realize that crimes against the African Americans are happening, but the adult scout gives some insights on how she handles herself in situations, like with the mob.

Dalton16 said...

The younger Scout shows how she was and felt at her young age. The adult Scout is more mature and show's the readers how adult young Scout can be and young Scout did take the adult situation better then most kids her age. During the trial she didn't fully understand what was going on and kept asking Jem what was going on but she did understand that something wasn't right about Tom Robinsons trial.

Anonymous said...

The prospective of scout is that of a little kids, in how she does not understand a lot of the things people talk about, like when people call her dad a "niger-lover". Then there is the point of veiw of herself when she has grown and now understands things that she did not understand in her childish years

Isaac C. the Pirate Bandit said...

Argggg... the young Scout seems to have no idea about the crimes aginst black people she has little understading of anything. However the older scout begins to know right from wrong when it comes to black and white people she starts to understand the way the world was and began knowing that crimes against plack people is wrong.

justin said...

when Scout was talking to the mob she didnt realize that these crimes against african americans were going on. but now that Scout is older she can say why these things happend, and how she feels about them

Unknown said...

The reader experiences a lot of events with young Scout. Anywhere from her brother breaking his arm to almost getting shot. She doesn't leave out hardly any detail. She learned a lot because of her father and older brother. She would follow him anywhere and make threats if he said he wouldn't let her. While making these threats, she used words that really weren't words at all. One of those times was when Jem was talking to her about trying not to antagonize their Aunty, she replied with "You damn morphodite, I'll kill you!" Morphodite is a shortened version of hermaphrodite and we all know Jem isn't a hermaphrodite.

Unknown said...

When Scout was young, her perspective wasn't very beneficial at all. Because she was so young, she never really understood the depth of the reasons to why certain things happened the way they did or why things were the way they were. She says "...but I wished I was the Governor of Alabama for one day: I'd let Tom Robinson go so quick the Missionary society wouldn't have time to catch its breath" (234). She doesn't see why certain decisions are made and it's basically this way throughout most of the book.

dustin the taylor said...

The story is being told by the narrator as she is older but her using Scout in an immature manor gives brilliance to the story and makes it easier to immerse yourself in the story. An example would be when Scout doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up and replies she wants to be a lady.The narrator also mixes in very good diction such eccleciastic impedimenta.

uhl9 said...

Young scout was very high tempered. she would always wanna fight people who called her dad names, but when Mrs.Dubois was calling her father names the older scout stepped in told herself to control the hatred. So she is benefiting from harsh situations

Staten said...

In Alysa's comment: "I'd let Tom Robinson go so quick the Missionary society wouldn't have time to catch its breath." is that an allusion? If so, to what?

Mrs. G said...

I'm glad you mentioned the Christian Missionary Society. Do you approve of that group that meets at the Finch home with Aunt Alex?

Anonymous said...

As many other people have stated, the mob is one of the best examples that can be used to tie young Scout to adult Scout. During the mob scene of the book young Scout acts as a child that is curious and wants to simply have a conversation with Mr. Cunningham, I believe it's adult Scout that takes charge and steps in between her father and the mob to help protect her father.

karamarie said...

The older Scout telling the story of younger Scout helps you understand better what happened with things like the Tom Roinson trial, the racism, the mystery surrounding Boo Radley and her raltionship with her brother Jem and her father. In the beginning of the book, when Scout introduces the story she says, "When enough years had gone by to ebnable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading up to his(Jem)accident," you can alsready tell that the older version is going to help you understand young Scouts reaoning at her age.

Anonymous said...

In the book To Kill A Mocking Bird the story is being told by Scout as an adault from her child point of view. You can tell it is from her child point of view when Scout says "Nigger lover" when she has no idea what it means. You can tell Scouts older self is telling the story when she says "And it was not until many years later that I realized he wanted me to hear every word he said."

Anonymous said...

Throughout the story young Scout really doesn't know what is happening around her, but at times she sort of knows what to do. Like when she went to see where her father went and saw all those men. It seemed like she knew exactly what to say to them to get them to go away.

Laura said...

The use of flashback is very effective in this book. For example,(pg. 245)when Miss Gates puts the word "DEMOCRACY" on the board, and asks for the meaning Scout recites a campaign slogan she had once hear Atticus talk about. Although as an older woman she knows the meaning of democracy, she doesn't learn the meaning until Miss Gates gives an explanation. As a young woman she is naive, and the reflection to her younger years teaches us how she has grown.