Harper Lee wrote the character of Scout Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird" off of her own experiences growing up. She grew up a girl in the south, at a time much different from ours. Scout battled society trying to turn her into a "Proper lady,"she had to battle the people in her town not accepting her family, and she had to try and comprehend the "difference between her and the black folk." The 1930's were times of inequality, and Scout Finch had to learn to comprehend the cruelties of the world the hard way-Just like most of us.
Scout Finch battled society trying to turn her into a "proper lady." Growing up having just her father and a brother as family, she never had women in her life as role models. So when she starts going to school and is expected to wear skirts, she fights back hard. When the old lady on her block chides her for for "talking like a boy," she fights back hard. Soon enough, her own brother, Jem, starts being ashamed of her. Scout and Jem were like best friends, Jem had always accepted her of who she was, a "tomboy," per say. But we all know what happens when you grow older: You change. You change from always being entirely your own, quirky self to the person other people want you to be. It happens to everyone, and it happened to Scout. She battled what society expected her to be, but in the end she had to learn to comprehend the word like it really is.
Scout also had to battle the people in her town not accepting her family. She grew up without a mom, she acted like a boy, and her father was under attack for defending a black man in court. That made her family very controversial in their small southern town. When Atticus, her father, defended the black man, her entire family became under attack from their town. Scout even got beat up in school by a boy who's family was racist. At first, Scout did not understand why the world seemed to be ganging up on her. But Scout learned eventually that there would always be gossip in small towns, and with a family like hers she would have to accept that there was nothing she could do to stop the gossip. It's a sad fact, but true.
Scout also had to comprehend why she wasn't supposed to fraternize with the black people in her town. Because her heart was so pure, she didn't understand why the people in her town treated the black people as lesser than the white people. It's the whole idea of idealism to realism, that's what this response is all about. Scout has to battle the world in how she believes in the black people, against all others.
I can understand exactly what Scout goes through. Obviously, it's a lot harder to have to face society in a small town where everyone knows everything about each other, than New York City. But in a way, we all face the same difficulties as Scout does. We all have to change ourselves based on what society wants us to be. We all have to learn what the world is really all about, have to change our ideas from what we want the world to be like to what it really is like. I think the reader should take away from this that, even when society does everything it can to change you, you will one day be able to be yourself and express your own opinions. And maybe one day, society will let others live the way you weren't able to.
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