Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is known throughout the country as a classic story depicting racism in a fictitious town in the heart of the South. The novel becomes so powerful mainly due to the characters and the role they play in their society. The reader follows a chain of events, showing the rise and fall of a community when confronted with issues such as racism, abuse, a coming of age, and a loss of innocence. .
Scout is the narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. She lives with her father, brother and cook, Calpurnia in Maycomb, Alabama. Scout isn't like most little girls in the town she is very unusual. She has many qualities that most girls in the town are lacking. She is extremely intelligent, inquisitive, and thoughtful, she fights and climbs trees with her brother Jem and her best friend Dill. She isn't a prim and proper southern girl. Her social identity is also much different from that of the girls in the town. She is unusual for being such a tomboy. One quickly realizes while reading To Kill a Mockingbird that Scout is who she is because of the way Atticus, he father, has raised her. He has taught her to be who she is, and not what she thinks society wants her to be. He is understanding and lets her make her own mistakes. He doesn't reprimand her for not being like the other girls in the town of Maycomb. While most girls in Scout's position would be wearing dresses and learning manners, Scout is wearing overalls. She doesn't understand why people in her town don't except black people as a first class citizen like the rest of the town. She quickly becomes confused when her teacher talks about the tragedy with Hitler and the Jews, while having her own hatred towards blacks. .
At the beginning of the novel, Scout is an innocent, child who has had no experience with evil in the world. As the novel continues, Scout has her first contact with evil through racial prejudice.
