preview

To Kill A Mockingbird Character Analysis

Better Essays

An Equal Balance of Evil and Good Are people too quick to judge the good and evil of the humans around them? To Kill a Mockingbird is a historical fiction novel written by Harper Lee, but the events in the novel are told from the perspective of a young girl named Scout. Readers are taken through the journey of Scout’s childhood as she experiences inequality and prejudice in her small town of Maycomb, Alabama. While Scout matures and develops along with the storyline, she remains unaffected by the bigotry of the adults around her. Lee succeeds in proving that no one is entirely good or entirely bad as depicted through Boo Radley’s benevolent actions towards Scout and Jem, Mayella’s uneasy behavior during the trial, and Atticus’ lessons to his children concerning the morality of humans. Initially Scout and Jem viewed Boo Radley as a malicious and mysterious man; however, the children soon came to discover that Boo Radley had been performing kind gestures for them. For instance, after getting his pants caught in the fence of the Radley house, Jem came back to retrieve them. The next morning, he told Scout of the surprise he found when he arrived, “When I went back, they were folded across the fence… like they were expectin’ me” (59). Although it takes him a while to realize it, Jem discovers that Boo Radley was the person who mended his torn-up pants. This is the beginning of the plot where Scout and Jem start to understand that Boo Radley is not as bad as everyone else thinks

Get Access