In To Kill a Mockingbird, what lifespan stage, and character(s) would you focus on as you look at biosocial, cognitive...development?(Consider the...

I am only allowed to answer one of your questions. Each
question must be listed separately.

To Kill a
Mockingbird is set in 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama, an imaginary town, prior to
the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The Civil War has been over since 1865, but the
scars and memories are still fresh in this part of the deep
South.

In light of the time period and location of the
story, I would probably select Scout as the character to study based not only on her
stage of life in the story (a girl just beginning to see the world as it really is, and
resenting the social restrictions some people—her aunt—try to place on her because she
is a girl), but also because she tells the story in the
first-person, so we can peek into her thoughts and observe with the clarity of a child
(one of Harper Lee's real gifts in the telling of this story) the curiosities of human
behavior and the hypocrisy prevalent on so many levels and in so many areas within this
community.

For instance, Scout does not understand the
hypocrisy demonstrated by one of her teachers who gets very upset about Hitler's
murderous march through Europe, when her teacher also acts in a hateful way towards the
blacks within their own community. Scout's viewpoint, while seemingly so innocent, gives
voice to very astute and adult observations.

Even when the
townspeople come to lynch Tom Robinson at the jail, it is Scout's childish voice of
reason that turns the mood of the mob around, as she is able to see the individuals in
the mob, rather than the mob as a living entity, and her ability to see
them as individuals reminds Mr. Cunningham, especially, of the
individuality of the man they are trying to kill.

(Note:
the movie and the novel have some very specific major differences. The movie is
excellent, but a great deal of the novel is left out.)