To Kill A Mockingbird Literary Analysis

Each person has his own way of interpreting things whether it comes from past experience or right from wrong. Children however, view life from a nondiscriminatory and innocent perspective while expressing their feelings in the process. This is how Harper Lee, the author of the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” portrays society through the use of children. In her novel, a young girl named Scout lives with her older brother Jem during the time of the great depression in a small town called Maycomb. Apart from the poverty and despair encountered during this time period, racism and other forms of discrimination were apparent. Scout and Jem reside with their father, Atticus, a lawyer defending a black man, Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping

Through the incorporation of children in her novel, Harper Lee alters the view of society to a more child-like, innocent of adulthood perspective of Maycomb. Being a main character and narrator of the novel, Scout’s views and attitudes of her town, Maycomb, are very evident throughout the story. During the story, there are many instances where Scout shows her child-like innocence. One instance, Scout tries to converse with Mr. Cunningham who is with his mob attempting to murder Tom Robinson in prison. Scout is ignored by Mr. Cunningham until she speaks of entailments being a poor thing: “‘Entailments are bad,’ I was advising him, when I slowly awoke to the fact that I was addressing the entire aggregation. The men were all looking at me, some had their mouths half-open. Atticus had stopped poking at Jem: they were standing together beside Dill. Their attention amounted to fascination. Atticus’s mouth, even. was half-open, and attitude he had once described as uncouth. Our eyes met and he shut it” (Lee 205). By mentioning entailments to Mr. Cunningham, Scout reminds him that he is part of Maycomb, like everyone else there. This reminder breaks up the mob and draws all