"To Kill a Mockingbird": Literature Review

In this story how to kill a mockingbird scout has changed her attitude in the ways a lot of people do like in her clothes,fighting, and by her taking up for things she believe not what other people believe.Scout is taught new things by questions and observing. Scout asks tough questions. she can ask these questions because she is a child. As a child, Scout doesn't understand the full implication of the things happening around her.To Kill a Mockingbird really presents two different Scouts: the little girl experiencing the story and the adult Jean Louise who tells the story. The woman relating the story obviously recognizes that her father is exceptional. However, the child Scout complains ""Our father didn't do anything, He sat in the living room and read. the adult Jean Louise can better understand the impact of various events than the child living through them.Scout hates school because in many ways it actually inhibits her learning. Her teacher is appalled that she already knows how to read, instead of celebrating that fact. She is bored waiting for the rest of the class to catch up to her skill level, and she doesn't have more than a passing respect for either of the teachers.

The most sympathy she was toward Miss Caroline is to remark ""Had her conduct been more friendly toward me, I would have felt sorry for her."" And she is offended by Miss Gates' comments about African Americans after her moving support for the Jews in Hitler's Europe. As a sign of her maturity, though, at the end of the story she realizes that she doesn't have much more to learn ""except possibly algebra"" and for that she needs the classroom.Scout faces so many issues, but one of the most lingering for her is the question of what it means to ""be a lady."" Scout is a tomboy. Sometimes her brother criticizes her for ""acting like a girl,"" other times he complains that she's not girly enough. Dill wants to marry her, but that doesn't mean he wants to spend time with her. Many of the boys at school are intimidated by her strength and actions, yet she is told she must learn to handle herself in a ladylike way by her aunt. Scout's tomboyishness drives Aunt Alexandra crazy.

Miss Caroline sees Scout's outspokenness and honesty. anyways, the person she most wants to please is Atticus. He is least concerned about her acting in a certain way. In fact she tells Jem, ""'I asked him “Atticus” if I was a problem and he said not much of one, at most one he could always figure out, and not to worry my head a second about botherin' him.'"" In the end, though, when she explains why the sheriff can't charge Boo with Bob Ewell's murder, she's become the kind of person who makes her father very, very proud.

Atticus begins teaching her the importance of looking at things from the other person's point-of-view very early in the story. He points out her actions and how some of them are wrong. Then he points out his point in his own interactions with other people. At the end of the story, Scout can put herself in Boo Radley's shoes, the person she's feared most throughout the story.