BIG reading.

           with thirty pages left in to kill a mocking bird, the last, and most interesting thyme i want to talk about is age. scout, Jem and dill are all around ten years old, they are symbols of innocence and purity in this book. The scenes that scream out to me the most are the ones where the grown ups talk to scout about how young she is and how she will change when she grows up. What i find interesting about this is that the book is written from when scout is older, which means that by that time she has changed. -if the grown ups that told her she would are correct-  One specific scene that i found really interesting was the one where Jem and scout talk about the groups in Maycomb. this was a moment where two themes i was tracking came together. social class, and "age"/maturity. i felt that both scout and Jem were right. scout, younger and more accepting and Juvenile said that everyone was equal, and that no one class was better. Jem, said that there were classes and that the people in higher classes were supposed to treat the people below them differently because they would Hate the people below their class. i think this was a point where Jem and scout were getting to an idea where no one person is better, but in reality, people create classes because they want to keep people "in their place". 

the Scout inside of me...

Some of my own childhood memories have faded like smoke into thin air, leaving me searching for something I no longer have.  It's sad, and unfortunate, but it' a part of life.  One that sticks, though, no matter what, is that of hanging around with boys at a young age.  Because of my half brother, I went, in a very natural way, against the unspoken rules a what a little girl is and should be.  But for me, that was just the way things were.  I loved it, wanted to be with them and one of them, wanted to prove that I had the kind of strength that could match theirs.

Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird reminds of this in a huge way.  She is outgoing, fearless (as a six year old girl can be), and willing to try nearly anything and everything.  She tags along Jem as not only a faithful companion and little sister, but as a heroic sidekick, a commander in chief.  The time she is growing up in is even more restricting on the behavior of young girls than ours, yet she holds a strong identity.  I commend her for that, look up to her as a leader among what one may call ruthless little girls.

Yet i have to wonder; what is it that makes her this way? For me it was my half brother, but I doubt that having Jem as her older brother is the sole cause of her actions.  When Scout fights, Jem has to be the one to pull her off the other boy, and to give her a lecture on discipline.

I think the majority of it is her strong belief in a person's rights, as well as justice in the world.  She gets this from her father, Atticus, a defending lawyer who firmly believes in having the truth come out and be the law, despite the social normals or requirements of the time.  This is why she fights, why she does what she wants to and why she always stands up for what she believes is right.  Why she runs with boys, climbs trees, is not afraid.

As much as I see myself in her, sometimes i think that I'm only trying to, because I admire her so much.

In reality, though, there's a lot more to her side of this than there is to mine.