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A Little Girl In A Big Racist World

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A Little Girl in a Big Racist World
The Webster dictionary defines a bildungsroman as a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character. Scout is the main character and narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, along with side characters such as Atticus, Jem, Dill, and Boo Radley. Scout learns many lessons in the novel that develop her into growing up, but three really stand out.
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns to look into other people’s perspectives. For example, after lecturing Scout about the importance of school, Atticus mentions, ‘“You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view-...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”’ (39). This demonstrates that Atticus understands the importance of empathy and attempts teach it to Scout. If Scout had known about …show more content…

For example, when Scout and Jem and Dill were convening together, Jem describes Boo as, “‘... six-and-a-half feet tall.-... he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch….”’ (16). This shows that Jem, Scout, and Dill thought of Boo Radley as a sort of malevolent and morbid creature. They thought that what they were thinking of was a creature of the night when in actuality, was just human. In addition, after the Tom Robinson trial, Jem and Scout are seen changing their views on Boo when Jem says, “‘Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside.”’ (304). This proves that after many of the novel’s events, they eventually changed their view on Boo Radley. Scout at this point sees folks as folks, that essentially all people are equal. After understanding that people should be equal, Scout learns that things aren’t always as they

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Soon, Jem and Scout mention Boo Radley to their new friend Dill. Being a newcomer to Maycomb, Dill becomes curious and wants to know what Boo is like. In an attempt to give Dill a sense of who he is, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six and a half feet tall... he dined on raw squirrels... his eyes popped.”

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Throughout the novel, the children befriend Boo Radley, since he is a shut in and many children of the neighborhood are quite curious as to what he does inside all of the time. Boo and Scout came specifically close, him giving her a blanket when Maudie Atkinson’s house burned down and at the climax point when he makes his initial known physical appearance as he saves Scout and Jem when Bob Ewell attacks them. After the Tom Robinson trial, Jem and Scout are finally starting to see from his perspective as Jem says “Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside.

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Boo Radley taught them, in the sense, that you can’t Judge a book by its cover. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout pictured Boo to be this “...malevolent Phantom (Lee 10).” that went out at night and looked through people’s windows. But after leaving them gifts in the tree and putting a blanket on Scout while she was standing out in the cold, Jem’s and Scout’s Perception of him began to evolve from a monster to a person.

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