Scout's Confusion In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the narrator is also the main character, Jean Louise Finch or Scout, However, the narrator show’s two points of view of when she was little to when she was narrating. For this reason, she switches from narrating to the main character so you can understand what the character is going through. Also, she switches back to narrating when she starts explaining the situation more. Harper Lee created this point of view so you can get a greater understanding of how Scout felt during the events in her life to confusion to how she was struggling. In any case, this helps us see scouts character clearer by showing us her confusion, emotions, and understanding of when she was young since she didn’t understand much.

In addition to understanding the character more this makes the story much more entertaining since children think they understand everything, but they don’t and its amusing to read them think they know everything. Also, this makes us think about both points of view and clarify what the themes are and what’s is going on.

An example of Scouts misunderstanding is when she doesn’t get why Miss Fisher accepts her classmate’s answer “He’s a Ewell” when Miss Fisher got upset by scouts answer of “He’s a Cunningham”. Scout is confused by this because she didn’t know that Miss Fisher was still new as a teacher and in Maycomb. Therefore, Miss Fisher didn’t know the Cunningham’s way of living and got angry at scout for being rude. Scout’s confusion makes the story more Ambiguous and Contrasts from the narrator’s point of view which understands what is going on. Another thing that Scout doesn’t understand is Calpurnia’s place in the Finch household while Harper Lee lets us see that Cal is more than just a housekeeper, she is like a step mother to both Scout and Jem, but scout doesn’t understand this. Also, Scout doesn’t know why Cal got upset with her for insulting Walter when they were having dinner by cause of Walter eating his food differently, and Cal can relate to Walter because they are outcasts in society. Scouts misunderstanding really does help with the story so you can figure out the themes in it and the narrator also explains what is happening so you can get what the themes

are.
To Kill a Mockingbird is set in small town Alabama in the 1930’s.

In Southern towns like Maycomb, like other places in the world, racist laws were created by the white majority to control people of color. Hence, they created the “Jim Crow Laws” which were laws that restrained colored people from any rights of power. Therefore they were created to make white people have rights and luxury than colored people. Also, the laws were created to keep colored people separate from white people, which you can see later in the story, laws such as intermarriage, housing, education, parks, prisons, and more. Even though these laws were outlawed later on, white American’s found new ways to keep colored people in their place in society by creating the “New Jim Crow Laws”. In the “New Jim Crow” there were more African Americans in prison, probation or parole than was enslaved in 1850’s. And, after being locked up, they lose their rights, access to education, housing, employment, and public benefits. Thus, white people basically stripped any rights the colored people had so they can’t be seen as equals. In the Australia policy of 1901-1974, colored people rights were also violated, for example, Molly, Daisy, and Gracie form “Rabbit Proof Fence” lose their liberty when they are taken away, held prisoner at Moore River, and are threatened if they try to escape. In addition, if caught, they will be whipped and locked up and degrading abuses like cutting off their hair. Scout’s stories are

important for people to read since it shows how the town doesn’t like Atticus helping a colored person, which relates to these laws of trying to keep white and colored people separate.
Harper Lee filled To Kill a Mocking bird with many kinds of figurative language. In the book nearly every page there is a simile, a pun, a metaphor, symbols, or personification. Harper Lee is doing this to create special effects and special meanings to make the book more interesting and enjoyable. Also, so you can remember parts of the text and understand it. Her metaphors help the reader understand what’s happening and her symbols help to emphasize the themes of the novel. She uses personification so you can get how the object is to a human, and so you can get an image of what she is talking about and so you remember it instead of forgetting it. An example of Harper Lee using figurative language is when Scout says “Jem waved my words away as if fanning gnats” she uses this simile so you can know that Jem wasn’t listening to what Scout was saying. Another example of her using figurative language is when Scout says “On the day he carried the watch, Jem walked on eggs” she is giving you an idea of how Jem was being really careful with the watch instead of just saying he took care of the watch which won’t give us much of an image of how he took care of it. So the use of figurative language does give us a better image and idea of what is going on. Also, she uses the metaphors so you can visualize what she’s saying like “Maycomb was a tired old town…” in this metaphor she helps us see exactly how Maycomb was just a normal old town where much doesn’t happen. Using all these types of figurative language helps us figure out what she is saying and either visualize it or find out.
Later on in the book, Harper Lee shows us, the readers, her knowledge of rhetoric in Atticus’s closing speech at the trail. Atticus uses logos, ethos, and pathos as well as other rhetorical devices, as he tries to secure Tom’s freedom. An example of logos, pathos, and ethos would be when Atticus say “Confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption, the evil assumption, that all negroe men lie; all negroes are basically immoral beings; all negroe men are not to be trusted around our women” and this is logos because of the part where it says “that all negroes lie” isn’t true and the jury at the trial know it’s not true. Pathos would be when Atticus says that “all negroe men are not to be trusted around our women” only for the reason of his skin color. Ethos would be because of how society is on race and that tom is guilty of being black and society’s rules can’t be broken so Tom was automatically guilty of the crime because he’s black and was with a white women. Also, Harper Lee has Atticus use rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, ambiguity, and repetition. For example, he uses hyperbole when he says “I have nothing but pity in my heart” he uses this so the people in the jury can have an emotional effect on putting Tom’s life at stake. In addition to using hyperbole in his closing speech, he uses ambiguity when he says “Tom Robinson is not guilty, but someone in this courtroom is” he says this so that the jury can do the right thing and choose who actually guilty since the Ewell’s story was unbelievable. He uses repetition at the end of his speech when he says “In the name of God, do your duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson.” He says this so the jury can do the right thing and believe in Tom’s story. Harper Lee writes this way so that you can understand who is guilty and see how the rules of society went against Tom for being black. All these rhetorical devices help show how racism was back then and shows us how Atticus tried to go against society’s rules and help set Tom free.