Drama To Kill a Mockingbird Protagonist, Antagonist, Setting & Genre by Harper Lee
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Scout is the most obvious choice of protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. While her decisions do not directly incite the action of the trial, other choices she makes, such as to spy on Boo Radley, or to confront the men outside the jail, determine the course of the novel. Atticus also tells Uncle Jack that he is defending Tom Robinson because he wants to set a good example for Scout and Jem, so in a sense Scout is indirectly responsible for the action around the trial as well. Over the course of the novel, Scout matures from a child who judges people based on their status, such as unsophisticated Walter Cunningham or reclusive Boo Radley, to a more mature young woman who is able to see the individual inside each person. At the end of the novel, Scout has learned to see beyond her childish preconceptions about Boo Radley and thinks about the world from his perspective. In some ways, the very end of the novel is when Scout first steps into her own as a protagonist. Though Scout’s simplicity and goodness make her an appealing protagonist, her perception of racial issues remains simplistic and childish, which, while appropriate for the character, can be less than satisfying for the reader.
Another choice for protagonist is Atticus, whose decision to defend Tom Robinson incites the central action of the book and results in the death of two characters. Throughout the book, Atticus’s goal is to raise his children to judge people without prejudice in a town roiled by racism and intolerance. In pursuit of this goal he takes on a case he knows he’s going to lose, in hopes of setting a good example for his children. Thwarting Atticus in this goal is Bob Ewell and other racist members of the community, as well as the flawed justice system itself. As a character Atticus doesn’t change much over the course of the novel – he is an idealistic, determined, and wise father at the beginning of the novel, and ends with the same characteristics intact. However, Scout and Jem’s perception of Atticus changes over the novel, as they see aspects of their father they didn’t know about, such as the fact that he is an excellent marksman, or that he is sympathetic to their cruel and racist neighbor, Mrs. Dubose.
The social expectations of Maycomb, Alabama are the antagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird. The community of Maycomb grows largely hostile to Atticus and his children because Atticus has chosen to behave outside the expectations of those around him to uphold the racist status quo. Even Tom Robinson’s guilty verdict and eventual death are the result of Mayella Ewell’s decision to act outside social expectations that she not become sexually involved with a Black man. Mayella would rather wrongfully accuse an innocent man of rape than admit she made a sexual advance at someone outside her race. Scout runs into conflict over her father’s expectations regarding how she should behave as a daughter, her teacher’s expectations regarding how she should behave as a student, her aunt’s expectations regarding how she should behave as a girl, and Jem and Dill’s expectations regarding how she should behave as a friend.
Even though Maycomb serves in several ways as an antagonist to Scout, the town is not an entirely villainous entity. Certainly, there are villainous, even monstrous, aspects to the town, but Maycomb is also the tool by which Scout is able to learn about the realities of the world. In her interactions with Boo Radley, Mrs. Dubose, Calpurnia, and Walter Cunningham, among others, Scout learns to empathize with those around her, even when their behavior and motivation seems strange to her. In struggling against the expectations of the people in her community Scout learns to see other people’s perspectives. And in going through the experience of the trial, Tom Robinson’s unfair conviction, and eventual death, Scout witnesses firsthand the devastating effects of racism. Although the town of Maycomb attempts to thwart Atticus’s goal of raising his children free of prejudice, Atticus prevails, and teaches Scout and Jem to question social expectations they believe are unjust.
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during 1933–1935. These years place the events of the novel squarely within two important periods of American history: the Great Depression and the Jim Crow era. The Great Depression is reflected in the poverty that affects all of the residents of Maycomb. Even the Finches, who are objectively better off than many of the other citizens in the area, are ultimately poor and living within the means available to them. The years depicted in the novel also fall within the much longer period of time that modern historians often refer to as the Jim Crow era. This term describes the time from the late 19th century until the mid-1960s when Black people in the United States could no longer be held in slavery, but where laws limited the social, political, and economic possibilities available to Black citizens. We should remember that when Harper Lee wrote the novel in the late 1950s, the Great Depression was over, but Jim Crow laws were still present in substantial portions of the American South.
The fictional town of Maycomb, in the fictional Maycomb County, seems intended not to represent an exact location in the real world, but a kind of small Southern town that existed in the 1930s. Scout describes the town as old, tired, and suffocating. In addition to being literally appropriate, these descriptions also apply to more subtle social aspects of the town. The town is burdened, Atticus might say diseased, by social prejudices in general, and racism in particular. Maycomb is also sharply geographically divided along class lines. While more prosperous families like the Finches live in large houses close to the center of town, the Ewells live in a ramshackle cabin near the dump, out of sight of the rest of the town except at Christmas, when people drive their trees and trash to the dump. The only other dwellings in this area are the cabins where Black families live, an indication that the town is both racially and economically segregated. The Ewells lack basic necessities like running water and insulation, and they frequently forage in the dump for food. “Every town the size of the Maycomb had families like the Ewells,” Scout says, implying that the economic inequality is endemic to the region.
Southern Gothic
To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily an example of Southern Gothic fiction in that it takes place in the South, contains both dark and comedic elements, uses Southern vernacular, features exaggerated characters, and references the supernatural. Southern Gothic is a genre that became popular in the first half of the twentieth century, as a sub-genre of the American Gothic. A preoccupation with the unresolved past informs many Southern Gothic novels, as characters are forced to confront the South’s legacy of racism, slavery, and violence, often in the form of either literal or figurative ghosts. In Mockingbird, the character of Boo Radley functions as a living ghost, both in terms of his physical appearance and his name. The novel’s plot centers on an act of violence, and the town’s deep-seated racism informs the outcome. However, To Kill a Mockingbird is not as gruesome as other examples of the genre, and Lee’s characters are more sympathetic than in many Southern Gothic novels, whose authors exaggerate their characters’ defects for comedic purposes.
Courtroom Drama
This book is also one of the most famous courtroom dramas in American literature, as much of the action takes place during a criminal trial, and the ethical issues raised by the case heighten the story’s drama. “Courtroom drama” is a term usually applied to film, but it can also be used to describe books. Books in this genre take place mainly in a courtroom. Writers may use characters on either side of the case to represent opposing ideas about justice, morality, or society. Often in a courtroom drama, the protagonist has been wrongly accused of a crime that challenges the established social system. The accused is frequently defended by an attorney who convinces the jury to confront their prejudices. Keeping with the conventions of the genre, To Kill a Mockingbird centers around the trial of Tom Robinson, a Black man who has been unfairly accused of rape. Implicitly, the racist prejudices of the entire South are put on trial. However, unlike many examples of the genre in which the innocent party is vindicated and prejudices are overturned, Tom is found guilty, and is killed soon after the verdict. In this more ambiguous, less triumphant conclusion, the novel deviates from conventions of the genre.
Bildungsroman
Finally, To Kill a Mockingbird is a bildungsroman, in that it traces Scout’s development from innocent child to aware member of her community through the experience of witnessing Tom’s trial and being rescued by Boo Radley. A bildungsroman, which means “novel of education” in German, describes one character’s (often the narrator) passage from youth into adulthood. In a bildungsroman, this character begins the book with little understanding of the adult world. She faces a major challenge that tests her understanding of the world and teaches her something important about the society she lives in. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns about racism in her community and in the legal system. While at the beginning of the book she believes that most people in her community are fundamentally good, by the end of the book she has seen violence and cruelty firsthand. As a result, she is wiser and more prepared to enter society. Note that bildungsroman does not necessarily mean that the main character is literally an adult by the end of the book. It only means that the character faces a significant life challenge that brings her closer to an adult understanding of the world. This is why To Kill a Mockingbird is a bildungsroman, even though Scout is still a child when the book ends.
