Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a seemingly simple tale about
growing up in a fictional town called Maycomb situated in the southeast American state
of Alabama. The backdrop of the text attracts the reader’s attention to the racial
discrimination that was characteristic of the 1930s America. While the text has been
categorized by some as southern Gothic since it has elements of horror, decay, mystery,
etc., for others, it is a quintessential bildungsroman, a novel of formation, of growth, of education. This paper seeks to engage with the various ethical and moral discourses that
affect and effect this formation, growth, and education.
Besides its pungent portrayal of questions of class, gender, race, and violence, the
central peculiarity of the text is the narratorial voice. Narrated by the eight-year-old
Scout/Jean Louise Finch, the text retains its force by an innocent portrayal of the realities
of Maycomb. Emphasizing this opinion Dave (2007, 40) writes, “Unlike her grown-up
characters who easily tend to be caricatures seen in concave and convex mirrors, these
children are wonderfully true to life. We have some most unforgettable vignettes.” Since
To Kill a Mockingbird preoccupies itself with Scout’s negotiations with the world of
adult mores and laws, it promises to be interesting to investigate the opinions and impressions
that the various adults, namely, Atticus Finch, Aunt Alexandra, and Arthur/Boo Radley,
espouse.
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