POINT OF VIEW IN A NOVEL - To Kill a Mockingbird and Scout.

Hello everyone!

Before writing any story, whether flash fiction, a short story, a novella, a novel, the writer must decide on the point of view to adopt to tell the story. The choices are wide:

• an 'all-seeing God', writing in the third person about something going on 'down there'. The advantage of this POV is the writer can talk about anything he/she wants to, but the disadvantage is that the story could be a tad impersonal.
• 'second person'. Not many writers choose this POV, but it can be interesting to find the occasional 'you' or 'dear reader' interspersed amongst the 'first person' or 'third person' narration. But when an author chooses to address the reader directly, pay attention, it must be for a good reason.
• 'first person', the favourite of YA and MG authors, where the writer 'becomes' an actual character in the story. This might liven up the story, make it more immediate, but again the writer has to stick to the rules and limit himself/herself in time and space as the character would be limited.

I do enjoy the old classic 'God-like' stories. Many remain favourites, but today the all-seeing narrator is not that common. Not everyone likes first person, so for them there are variations of the 'third person' style, a more limited viewpoint. I have no problem with first person, whether multiple viewpoints or a single viewpoint. One classic novelist made it her inspired choice, an unusual choice for her time - Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird. 

At first the reader struggles with the language - boy, is this little girl educated or what? How mature she sounds for such a young girl. The reader should keep in mind that there are two Scouts in TKAM: the little girl experiencing the story and the adult Jean Louise who tells the story. 

In TKAM, we are given the impression of incidents as they are experienced by six-to-nine year old Scout. Her name, too, is inspired - Scout is both a questioner and observer of people and events in Maycomb County in the American South. She asks tough questions because she is a child. She doesn't understand the full implications of the things happening around her, making her an objective observer and a reporter in the truest sense. 

This is a very nasty story, and Harper Lee could have treated it in a different way. It is a book about violence, hatred, bigotry and rape...just for starters. How do you think a Harold Robbins or a James Patterson would have told it? Lee's choice to tell the story through the eyes of a child was obviously deliberate; it softens the nastiness somewhat. Scout's innocence can be contrasted with the prejudice and hypocrisy, the dominant attitudes of the older townsfolk.

The first person POV gives the reader an insight into the story which Scout herself does not have. For example, Scout is not aware of the meaning of the objects in the knot hole, but the reader is; Scout is not fully aware of the danger outside the jail when Atticus is confronted by Mr Cunningham and his mob, but the reader is...etc... 

The POV presents moments of humour for the same reason. When Miss Maudie is talking about Stephanie Crawford's storytelling:

"Stephanie Crawford even told me once she woke up in the middle of the night and found Boo [Radley] looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him? That shut her up a while.

I was sure it did. Miss Maudie's voice was enough to shut anybody up." (p.51)

A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. It is likely she based Maycomb on her hometown, and her own childhood experiences. The racial concerns she addresses began long before her story starts and continue long after her story finishes. Her story was informed not only by the laws and attitudes that were part of her youth and her culture, but also by the Civil Rights movement which continues to struggle today at various levels. This is what makes TKAM timeless. Harper Lee is Scout. And she told her story in the style of Scout's memoir. It begins lazily then grips the reader by the throat and never lets go. I'm proud to own one of the first copies ever published. Second-hand bookstores are full of treasures!

LIES

Telling lies to the young is wrong.
Proving to them that lies are true is wrong.
Telling them that God's in his heaven
and all's well with the world is wrong.
The young know what you mean. The young are people.
Tell them the difficulties can't be counted,
and let them see not only what will be
but see with clarity these present times.
Say obstacles exist they must encounter
sorrow happens, hardship happens.
The hell with it. Who never knew
the price of happiness will not be happy.
Forgive no error you recognise,
it will repeat itself, increase,
and afterwards our pupils
will not forgive in us what we forgave.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko

(It could be an Atticus Finch monologue.)

Some other of my very favourite novels told through the eyes of a child:

1. The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
2. The Fault in our Stars, by John Green
3. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
5. Mockingbirds, by Daisy Whitney (using themes from TKAM)
6. Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
7. The Night Rainbow, by Claire King - (5-year-old narrator)
8. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess

My brain is working overtime now and I can think of plenty more, but will restrain myself and let you follow this link if you want to know a few more. There are also many novels in the third person omniscient POV, telling stories of children, such as The Lord of the Flies etc. There are heaps of others - can you add to the list?

• So...why am I on about POV and TKAM today? Well, I'm a guide by the side of my Year 10 students every year as they study it for its timeless themes. 
• This month's WEP challenge is: Through the eyes of a child, where entries are to be just that - told from a child's POV, whether flash fiction, non-fiction or poetry. Photographs and Artworks can also be posted that represent a POV of a child.

• Your'e invited to join us on March 26, with your interpretation of the prompt. You can sign up in my right hand sidebar, or visit Write...Edit...Publish.
• How many books do you know that are told through the eyes of a child?