Point of View

Author’s Note: In this piece, I critically analyze the point of view of To Kill a Mockingbird and to show how the reader might interpret it differently if the book or a chapter was written from “Boo” Radley’s point of view. This is only based on the first 75 pages of the book, because that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I also don't have an introduction and conclusion because I'm only grading this on the reading rubric. 

In the American classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, a young girl named Scout tells a story about growing up in Maycomb County, Alabama. Part 1 of the book is mostly about Scout starting school, and about her, her brother Jem, and her friend Dill going on summer expeditions. They have a mysterious neighbor whom they call “Boo” Radley; he seems to never come out of his house. Curiosity begins to take them over and they begin plotting schemes to try to find out who he is.

The story is told from Scout’s point of view because it’s easier to tell of their adventures so that the reader can understand them. For example, it says:

Jem attached the note to the end of the fishing pole, let the pole out across the yard and pushed toward the window he had selected. The pole lacked several inches of being long enough, and Jem leaned over as far as he could. I watched him making jabbing motions for so long, I abandoned my post and went to him.

If these scene in particular was told from “Boo” Radley or Atticus’ point of view, we wouldn’t comprehend it well and we wouldn’t know the motive for the note. We also may not have known how much planning the kids put into the “mission.” For this reason I believe the point of view was good for most chapters.

Although Scout’s point of view makes sense and helps us as reader’s understand the text, I think it would’ve been cool to include some chapter’s from “Boo” Radley’s point of view. By doing this, it might add some comedy to the story, knowing that the kids may or may not be doing all of this for nothing. Here’s what I think it would be like if they added a few chapter’s in “Boo” Radley’s point of view:

… I reckoned when she found the blanket later she would be mighty surprised. It was the coldest day in Alabama since as long as I can remember, and the poor kid was hardly noticin’ herself shiverin’. I wasn’t ‘bout to let her freeze and get no frostbite. Next,  I walked right on over to Ms. Maudie’s place ‘n dragged furniture out the door. It was surprisin’ that I still had some strength left in me, after all them years of sittin’ on my wicker chair. After being there in that fire, I knew the place was gone. The stairs were givin’ in ‘n I could hear the roof a cracklin’. Them d*** fire trucks got their axels frozen right on em’ and the wheels weren’t even turnin’. When they finally got there, we all knew it was too late.

I think this would’ve been kind of cool to add a paragraph so we could tell what he thinks about the children spying on him. It would’ve given the readers almost an advantage on the characters because they know more than the characters.