To Kill a Mockingbird

I remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in high school and I remember liking it, but I’d forgotten how funny this book is. Scout’s commentary, sometimes befuddled with the confused logic of children her age, is hilarious. I laughed out loud when she suggested to Miss Maudie that Boo Radley might have died and gotten stuffed up a chimney. And when she described having to beat up Dill twice because he reneged on their marriage agreement. I always wondered why Harper Lee chose such a young protagonist to tell such a serious story. Maybe her age disarms the reader in a way, and makes them expect a silly, fun story, that later takes a serious turn. I’m not sure if that is the reason at all, but I can imagine that Scout’s age in this book might be a factor in the attempts at censorship against it. It’s a little jarring to hear her describe her teacher as “that damn lady,” and use words like “son-of-a-bitch” when relating the story of her father’s first clients. This story is, of course, told from the viewpoint of Scout looking back on her childhood, and so a lot of the things that don’t seem relevant to a child’s viewpoint can be explained by this. An example of this is the fact that she describes Boo Radley’s friends as “the nearest thing to a gang ever seen in Maycomb.” If Maycomb has never seen a gang, she obviously would not know what that is, except by being exposed to the idea as an adult. Scout’s precociousness, even as a child, is evident though. The fact that she has been reading for as long as she could remember, and that she and her brother talk to their father almost like equals are examples of this. I think it’s interesting that she calls her father Atticus; I thought this might mean that she and her father are emotional distant, but the conversations they have, and the fact that they spend a lot of time together reading, don’t really support this. I suppose it’s another way for Harper Lee to know that Atticus respects his children as he respects other people and this serves as character development for him.