TKM Part 1 Analysis


1. What is the reason for the author's choice of a young narrator?
2. How does Jem and Scout's views of Boo Radley change during part 1 of the book?
3. Atticus tells the children several times that they need to walk in someone else's shoes before judging the person. Describe times when Atticus, Scout or Jem walk in someone else's shoes. How does this change how they view the situations? What role does this advice play in sympathy and compassion?
4. How do you think Atticus managed his role as a single parent?
5. Discuss race issues in part 1 of the book.
6. From your reading of part 1, What does To Kill a Mockingbird teach us about how people cope with issues of race and class? Do you classify people in your world as different "folks?" Do you see those sort of distinctions today?
7. Who is your favorite character from part 1 and why?

Answers:

1- The whole idea of a young narrator is basically because she tells and describes everything she see through her eyes; I mean, with innocence. This, under my point of view, is used by the author to show us the bad things as incomprehensive acts, just as Scout, that, because she didn't knew the "real world", she wasn't able to understand this mean acts.

2- First they think that he is a very creepy man, almost a monster or a ghost, and that is why they attempted so much to get him out of the house. Then, they noticed that he was aperson, just like them, that was just apart from society. An event that changed their minds was the "folded pants".

3- A clear case for me is when Jem invites Walter Cunningham for lunch, because he didn't had money for one, and his education was not to borrow something he didn't have. He accepted the offer and ate a lot at Finch's house. Jem didn't make any trouble about this, because he felt compassion for Walter, and knew that he didn't had money for lunch, neither today or tomorrow.

4-He really did it well. he taught their children very well, not to discriminate, and to understand and respect others, just as he did.

5-This part of the book shows us a lot of racism situations, specially at the end. The other children from school bothered Jem and Scout becaus Atticus was deffending  a "negroe" who suposelly commited a rape. We already know about racism in the US by this time, as I showed you in one of my previous entries.

6-What we can learn from the ideas expressed by H.Lee through this part 1 of the nobel is that eventhough a big amount of people is racist, this is a bad acting way, it is not the correct thing to do. I think that we are all humans and we deserve the same rights, no matter who we are, or our skin color. Unfortunatelly, racism is still exixting in the world, but less than in that times.

7-I think it is Scout, because he is not afraid of telling what he feels, although she knows that a lot of people is going to think bad things about her. Her childish innocense leave us a very important lesson on good and bad things.