GREAT LITERARY LADY: Scout Finch
From a Pulitzer winning classic of modern American literature comes one of the most memorable literary voices of a generation, To Kill A Mockingbird’s six-yearold protagonist, Scout Finch.
Set during the Civil Rights unrest in the American South of the 1930s, the novel explores the interplay of small-town community relationships marred by racial and social division – but it brims with compassion and a rare humanity.
Although Scout’s lawyer father, Atticus, provides the moral ballast, without her it would be a novel without a heart. For it is through her innocent eyes and precocious inquisitiveness that the narrative cuts to the quick of the prejudice and hypocrisy of Maycomb’s townspeople.
While Atticus defends a black man falsely accused of rape in front of a bigoted jury, Scout is portrayed as a child who understands life as only a child can: without guile and free from the rules of convention. She courts friendship with Boo, the ostracised local recluse, and challenges her teacher’s racist views. And she’ll hit any kid who offends her dad’s honour.
Scout is a tomboy who has Atticus’s natural desire to defend what is right, and he encourages her independence of thought by allowing her to make her own mistakes. As she evolves through various life lessons into maturity, her moral education unfolds as her innocence gives way to experience – and take great heart.
Set during the Civil Rights unrest in the American South of the 1930s, the novel explores the interplay of small-town community relationships marred by racial and social division – but it brims with compassion and a rare humanity.
Although Scout’s lawyer father, Atticus, provides the moral ballast, without her it would be a novel without a heart. For it is through her innocent eyes and precocious inquisitiveness that the narrative cuts to the quick of the prejudice and hypocrisy of Maycomb’s townspeople.
While Atticus defends a black man falsely accused of rape in front of a bigoted jury, Scout is portrayed as a child who understands life as only a child can: without guile and free from the rules of convention. She courts friendship with Boo, the ostracised local recluse, and challenges her teacher’s racist views. And she’ll hit any kid who offends her dad’s honour.
Scout is a tomboy who has Atticus’s natural desire to defend what is right, and he encourages her independence of thought by allowing her to make her own mistakes. As she evolves through various life lessons into maturity, her moral education unfolds as her innocence gives way to experience – and take great heart.