To Kill A Mockingbird Personal Narrative Essay

When people walk past someone who seems to be irritated, they would assume they’re having a terrible day but in reality, it’s just because they have an RBF. At a young age, people believe anything that they hear. As they start to grow older and think back on their choices and thoughts, they might not be the same as they used to be. They start to experience different things and start to have opinions of their own that help them in life. This can be seen in Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird. The setting of the novel takes place in the 1930s high during the Great Depression with two young siblings, Jeremy Atticus Finch, also commonly known as Jem, and Jean Louise Finch, alias Scout. Lee shows how Jem and Scout were quick to jump to conclusions with other characters and precisely Arthur ´Boo´ Radley, even though they hadn't met the man before and based on the rumors believed he was a dreadful person. As they grow older, they start to slowly realize that not everything people say is the truth and throughout the novel gradually see the truth of who Boo Radley is by using literary devices.

A literary term that can be seen in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is dynamic characters, when Jem, at the age of 10, and Scout, at the age of 6, would pester the Radley household by bothering or trying to drag out the infamous Boo Radley. Boo Radley was always deemed to be the creepy neighbor around the neighborhood. Doing appalling acts, namely peeping through women's windows or mutilating people´s animals. The area deemed him to be such a monster, that Jem and Scout Finch who have never met him before declared he is as such. This can be seen when it states, ¨Jem said if Dill wanted to get himself killed, all he had to do was go up and knock on the front door.¨ (Lee, 16). This indicates that Boo Radley was seen as a horrible person to the point that people believe he would kill children. However, as Jem and Scout got older and started to mature, the fear that they once held for Boo Radley started to cease. As they experience things that no one at a young age should, they start to slowly understand why Boo Radley might be hiding away from society. This can be seen when it states, ¨Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . it's because he wants to stay inside.¨ (Lee, 304). This expresses that as the children experience how cruel people can be and how not all adults are perfect, they realize that there is a possibility that Boo Radley stays in his home because people don't get along with each other even though they are all the same.  Then as we get near to the end of the book, Jem and Scout were attacked by Bob Ewell to get back at Atticus Finch, the father of the children. It was dark so they weren't able to understand what was happening. Jem was knocked out onto the floor and Scout panicked until Boo Radley came to the rescue of the children. Jem wasn't able to meet him or was able to interact with him, but Scout was. She then realized as she did that he seemed timider than the rumors deemed him to be. He even needed his handheld when he was trying to go home.

Another literary term that can be seen in Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is irony. The irony of the novel is that people believed that Boo Radley was this horrendous monster that feasts on raw squirrels and cats he sees or he's just a crazy man that stabbed his father in the leg. Jem was convinced that Boo Radley had this grotesque look about him. This can be seen as it states, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” (Lee, 16). This shows that it was believed that Boo Radley had the appearance of a monster and was not humanlike.  Regarding the fact, near the end of the book after saving the children, Boo Radley’s true appearance was shown to the reader. This can be seen when it voices, “I looked from his hands to his sand-kissed khaki pants; my eyes traveled up his thin frame to his torn denim shorts. His face was as white as his hands, but for a shadow on his jutting chin. His cheeks were thin to hollowness; his mouth was wide; there were shallow, almost delicate indentations at his temples, and his gray eyes were so colorless I thought he was blind. His hair was dead and thin, almost feathery on top of his head.” (Lee, 362). This conveys that Radley is as ghastly as they believed him to be. Before they believed that his appearance was more monstrous than human because of the rumors, but in reality that was not the case.

The last literary device that may be seen in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the theme. The theme of the novel is to never judge someone before walking in their shoes. If people are quick to judge then they would never know the full story or stay ignorant of the truth. This can be seen when it states, “Scout you’ll get better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-”

“Sir?”

 “-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee, 39) This shows that since Scout was a young child at the time, she couldn’t understand other people's living conditions causing her to question and make assumptions or off-handed comments about what they did. If she were more open-minded, she would have the capability to be able to get along with others well since she usually was a feisty child.

The reader will learn from this novel that dynamic characters, irony and there is a part of the coming of age. It helps teach people to be more open-minded with others and not to basely assume how someone is based on the rumors that surround them. It gives them a better understanding of others and possibly makes strong bonds and connections that may affect their life later in the future. If people were to stay ignorant listening to useless rumors instead of trying to get to know someone, then it would be possible no one would talk to each other. Everyone talks about one another no matter who they are, whether it be friends or family members, so it’s everyone's job to get to know someone to decide if that person is who people say they are.