This essay Explains how the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" is effected by the age of the narrator and the perspective it is told in.

Essay by ScarTissue147High School, 10th gradeA-, February 2003

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The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is told in first person point of view by a girl named Scout. The age of the person narrating a story can drastically affect the narration of events that happen. Scout is a very young girl of only about six years old. She enjoys life and probably like most youngsters, takes it for granted too. When it comes to serious issues like racism or child abuse, such a young person could not understand who is being abused or why. As much as she bugs Boo Radley to come out she does not realize that Boo is being subject to child abuse.

Since the story is viewed from the innocent eyes of a child, the adult mind must sometimes infer to better understand the real situation behind the characters. All through this story she talks about Boo Radley, the supposed neighborhood spook. Everyone believes that Boo is a horrible monster who abuses his family, but upon closer analyzing of the information given by Scout, the reader can begin to see that Boo is not in fact an abuser but a severely abused person instead.

Unlike most stories, I actually have to pay attention to and think about what I have read so that I can better understand the novel. A novel written in first

person point of view also draws the reader deeper into the book and begs to be read for a much longer period of time.

What makes first person perspective so satisfying to the reader, is that it is an explicit look into the life of another person and who they are and how they feel. It is merely feeling that you know something about that person just by reading what they have to say.