Harper Lee made a wise choice to use Scout as the narrative
voice of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Although the story is told in
retrospect, from the much older, wiser adult Scout, the author varies the voice between her
childlike innocence (present day tone) and her adult reminiscences. Her inexperienced narration
works perfectly with several of the main themes--innocence, racial prejudice--since the young
Scout does not fully comprehend many of the things she sees and hears. For example, Scout tells
her Uncle Jack "that I ain't very sure what it means" when her cousin, Francis, calls Atticus a
"nigger-lover," but she knows she doesn't like the sound of it. Scout even uses the "N" word
herself until Atticus politely tells her it is "common." To Scout, it is just another word that
she has heard from others, including Calpurnia. There are several good examples of Scout's
inadvertent humor in her youthful narration, particularly about things which she doesn't quite
understand. Examples include:
- Her story of Mr. Avery's
"arc of water... splashing in a yellow circle of the street light some ten feet from source to
earth." - Her wonderment about strip
poker - Asking Uncle Jack " 'What's a whore-lady.'
"
No comments:
Post a Comment