Perspective in to Kill a Mockingbird

Perspective plays a huge role in every story, event, or situation told. If you compare the views of a child to an adult, you will see that they differ greatly. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is told through the eyes of a child growing up. As the story progresses a profound understanding is seen, an understanding that adults have long surpassed, something only children are able to grasp. That is why through the actions of Scout, Jem, and Dill the statement “children can see truths to which adults have long been blinded.” will be proven.

Scout, the free spirited tom boy and Jem, her equally charming brother are prime examples of how much children actually see and understand of what is happening to the world around them. They are one of the very few who actually see Boo Radley as a person, instead of a “malevolent phantom”. In chapter twenty three Jem particularly understands why Boo Radley is so keen at staying home and hidden. He says, “ Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed up shut up in the house all this time. It’s because he wants to stay inside.” (Lee, pg. 227) Jem’s realization not only leads to the fact that perhaps the myths about Boo are false but it also leads to one of the main subjects in To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice. If you reread the last few pages of chapter twenty three, you are faced with an idea Jem has about Maycomb having four different kinds of people, ordinary people, people like the Cunningham’s, people like the Ewells, and the African Americans. Scout, on the other hand disagrees with him, saying that there are only one kind of folk. After a moments silence Jem responds by saying that he believed that too, but that if they are all the same then how come they can not get along? To sum it all up,
The siblings inability to understand prejudice in chapter 23 proves that prejudice does not make sense. Which leads to a deeper understanding, an understanding proving that the adult world is corrupt and senseless that is why Boo wants nothing to do with it. Dill is another prime example of how much a child truly understands. One could say Dill was not an important character in To Kill a Mockingbird as he was just the eccentric best friend who had developed a liking for the Radley’s. On the other hand, he could be seen as an example of the innocence every child has and the perception that comes with it. We see this when he runs out of the courtroom crying towards the end of Chapter 19 and the beginning of Chapter 20. He is then confronted by Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a man known to be an avid drinker, a drunk. However, to Scouts surprise Mr.Raymond confesses to being sober and drinks coca-cola instead of the whisky everyone in Maycomb thinks he is drinking. The children, curious as they may be question Mr. Raymond; why has he chosen to tell them his deepest secret? He responds, “Because you’re children and you understand it,” he said,”and because I heard that one - “He jerked his head at Dill : “Things haven’t caught up with the one’s instinct yet. Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and cry. Maybe things’ll strike him as being--not quite right,say,but he won’t cry,not when he gets a few years on him.” (Lee, pg. 201)You see Dill cries because he can not accept the indignity adults treat each other. His crying symbolizes that the world has not gotten to him yet and made him blind to its injustice. Dill, being the growing boy he is has yet experienced the world. He still has the purity in his mind that still can differentiate and react to the wrongs in our world, something that many of us have lost due but should have retained.

Everyone has been or even still are children. Children, as we all know eventually mature and grow up. Their minds and the way they see the world change. They stop questioning the issues in the world and why they are happening. They start ignoring them as they “have better things to do”. They watch the news and shake their heads, feeling pitiful yet they sit on their couches doing nothing about it. Children on the other hand do the opposite. They cry over issues, ask many questions and beg others to do something, to help. After quite a bit of time they realize what is happening but do not fall into the ignorance adults have developed over the years. That is why, Scout, Jem and Dill, no matter how naive the three friends may seem are solid proof as to why growing up can damage your perspective on things. They are representations of how children are actually smarter than they seem as they have a higher concern to humanity and therefore show more apprehension than most adults of the twenty first century. That is why children see truths to which adults have long been blinded.