First Rate Intelligence In To Kill A Mockingbird
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
I often confronted with contradictions to my opinions and value at homes, at school, and in the society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “first-rate intelligence” is what I have been trying to achieve; sometimes with success and sometimes without. I want to have the ability to tolerate and respect the antitheses to my opinions while still have the courage to fight for what I believe to be correct. To Harper Lee’s protagonist, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, “holding two opposite ideas” can means discovering goodness in an evil person: it can also means …show more content…
Scout is a naive and idealistic girl who has little experiences with the social injustices in her world prior to her confrontation with the “evils”; She is quick to judge anything that she considers different. For instance, when Walter Cunningham joins the Finchs for lunch, Scout criticizes Walter for “drown his dinner in syrup” (32) simply because this is not the way she eats. Scout leaves her “ordinary world” when she met Dill; Dill provoke Scout’s curiosity in the person that she fears the most, an enigmatic neighbor named Boo Radley, and persuade her to engage in a series of adventures in the Radley Place. If the famous Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud were to analyze Scout, he might argue that Scout’s immaturity is evidenced when Scout lets her Id overpower her ego (considering the reality before making choices) and superego (considering adult’s opinion and the social standard before making choices) (Saul McLeod “Id Ego Superego”). Although Scout really wants to be a part of Jem and Dill’s friend group, she vacillates when Jem and Dill invite her to sneak into the Radley’s backyard because her ego tells her that it is dangerous and her superego warns her that Atticus disapprove such action. However, when Jem says, “I declare to the Lord you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!” (Lee 69), Scout
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
I often confronted with contradictions to my opinions and value at homes, at school, and in the society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “first-rate intelligence” is what I have been trying to achieve; sometimes with success and sometimes without. I want to have the ability to tolerate and respect the antitheses to my opinions while still have the courage to fight for what I believe to be correct. To Harper Lee’s protagonist, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, “holding two opposite ideas” can means discovering goodness in an evil person: it can also means …show more content…
Scout is a naive and idealistic girl who has little experiences with the social injustices in her world prior to her confrontation with the “evils”; She is quick to judge anything that she considers different. For instance, when Walter Cunningham joins the Finchs for lunch, Scout criticizes Walter for “drown his dinner in syrup” (32) simply because this is not the way she eats. Scout leaves her “ordinary world” when she met Dill; Dill provoke Scout’s curiosity in the person that she fears the most, an enigmatic neighbor named Boo Radley, and persuade her to engage in a series of adventures in the Radley Place. If the famous Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud were to analyze Scout, he might argue that Scout’s immaturity is evidenced when Scout lets her Id overpower her ego (considering the reality before making choices) and superego (considering adult’s opinion and the social standard before making choices) (Saul McLeod “Id Ego Superego”). Although Scout really wants to be a part of Jem and Dill’s friend group, she vacillates when Jem and Dill invite her to sneak into the Radley’s backyard because her ego tells her that it is dangerous and her superego warns her that Atticus disapprove such action. However, when Jem says, “I declare to the Lord you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!” (Lee 69), Scout