Themes

Themes of this book are things like the fact that Nelle Lee moves many times through her life. Other themes are things like the fact that she continually wrote stories throughout her life. Another theme of the book is that Harper Lee became a recluse and it is noted many times throughout the book. Other things such as the fact that Nelle was different than some of the other women near her appear as themes through the book. These are some of the themes of the book.

My view of the book

I Am Scout was a great book. I enjoyed it very much. In fact, as I recall I read it the second day I got it. The book wasn't very long and it was really cool to find out about the book we'd been reading in class. There were lots of backstories I didn't know about and that was really cool to learn all the behind-the-scenes stuff. It was also tough to find entries of the book because since it's a true story, some of the aspects of the book didn't apply. Out of 5 stars - it would be a 4/5 for being too short. (Although one of the reasons it's short is probably the fact that it's modified for children.)

Works Cited

Miller, Sarah. "Since all the cool kids are doing it..." 15 January 2008. Sarah Miller: Reading, Writing, Musing... 5 June 2011 <http://sarahmillerbooks.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html>.

Antagonists and protagonists

The protagonist of this story would probably be Nelle Lee since she is the main character. However, when it comes to an antagonist, there isn't a clear-cut one. In fact, there isn't a person who tries to stop Nelle from doing anything. Of course, there are people who do dislike Nelle, but there isn't one major one. This is common for a biography. Most biographies aren't going to have an antagonist generally since it's a true story and not a fiction story where there's a clear-cut bad guy and a good guy.




Works Cited
Miss Engram. Short Story Elements. 29 May 2011 <http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/engramja/elements.html>

Setting

The setting begins in Monroeville, Alabama, where Nelle grew up. This is where it will stay for the first few chapters until Nelle goes to college - where she will then be in Montgomery, Alabama at Huntingdon College. During college, she goes to Oxford University in Britain as a foreign exchange student. After college, she goes back to Monroeville, and then to New York (to write) where she would live in an apartment in New York City. This is where Nelle will begin writing her book. While working on the book, she is called by Truman and this will cause the setting to move to Kansas, to work on one of Truman Capote's most famous books, In Cold Blood.
In Cold Blood is a nonfiction book about the murder of the Clutter family by two criminals who had been freed from jail and were caught. Truman and Nelle take a train to Chicago, and from there, back to New York City. After two months, they return to Kansas for a trial based on Truman's book, In Cold Blood. She then returns to New York again because of the publishing of To Kill A Mockingbird. In 1960, she returned to Alabama to sign books. She stays for a month, and goes back again to New York. She would go back to Monroeville or  to the house of Maurice and Annie Laurie Crain, the two agents who helped her go to a publisher. Later on, in the middle of production of the film, Harper returns to Kansas to help Truman again. She would return to Alabama during production of the movie to look at the set. Eventually, she would begin to go back and forth between New York and Alabama. She returned to England on vacation, and then back to New York she went. Then, while planning to write a book, she stayed in a motel in Alexander City. She would move to one of her sister's houses at one point. At some point, Nelle would move back to Monroeville, into the home where she had grown up. It seems, however, that she would still be in New York. This is where she lives to the day.






 Speaking of Monroeville, I found this video of a teacher who went to Monroeville, Harper Lee's hometown, to find out about it.

Here is another video about In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. This is by the same person who created the above video. (This is part 1)  (Part 2)

Conflicts

Some of the conflicts in this book include Man v. Man - because of the fact that Nelle is bullied at college by some of the sorority girls, but there are other points where Man vs. Self come into play because the book notes that Nelle's friend Truman ends up struggling with alcohol and drugs - which, sadly, ends up killing him. Man vs. Nature comes into play because there is a point where a tornado lands near Montgomery, Alabama and kills many people. Nelle is not involved with this but is indirectly involved when one of the people in her dorm is afraid of a tornado striking there - and so Nelle stays with the girl.


I looked up things about this tornado - and found some information.  This is a list of tornadoes in 1945 from Alabama - and one of the tornadoes on this list fits the bill for the one described in the story. This occurred February 12, 1945. Strangely enough, it wasn't the strongest tornado - but it had the most fatalities. 26! In fact, all the tornadoes for that year happened on February 12 except for one. This is somewhat odd but as you can see, there would have been something to be scared about.
The tornado I am looking at is in larger print than the other tornadoes.

Alabama Tornado Database
1945 Tornado Occurrences (8)
Year	Month	Day	Time (CST)	County	Damage Scale	Path Length (Miles)	Fatalities	Injuries	Location
1945	2	22	0030	Coosa	F2	4.0	0	0	Kellyton 17 homes and sevral barns damaged.
1945	2	12	2205	Jefferson	F2	0.5	0	1	Birmingham-Shades Mountain 7 buildings were destroyed and 6 were heavily damaged.
1945	2	12	1945	Chilton	F3	1.0	1	8	SE Stanton One large home and barn were destroyed.
1945	2	12	1930	Lee	F2	0.5	0	1	S Opelika 2 barns and 4 buildings were destroyed.
1945	2	12	1830	Macon	F3	0.5	0	2	E Tuskegee 5 small homes were destroyed.
1945	2	12	1800	Bullock	F2	8.0	0	9	9.0 W Union Springs-Thompson 4 homes were destroyed in Thompson and 4 others were damaged.
1945	2	12	1722	Montgomery	F3	13.0	26	293	5.0 SW Montgomery-Chisholm At least 100 homes were destroyed. 30 homes were demolished in Chisolm and deaths occurred in 15 different homes.
1945	2	12	1630	Sumter	F4	18.0	11	63	York-Livingston Several deaths occurred in homes along the path. A train derailed over the Sucarnoochee River. The conductor and a fireman were killed.

If you would like to view this chart in its entirety, just follow this link. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=tornadodb_194

Works Cited

National Weather Service . Alabama Tornadoes 1945. 16 April 2010. 29 May 2011 <http://www.srh.noaa.gov/bmx/?n=tornadodb_1945>.

Plot

Well, there's not quite a plot since this is a biography. However, since it is a life story, and a story must have plot - then, yes - there is a plot. The main plot is about Harper Lee's life. It details her living in Monroeville, Alabama and her friends and family. She goes off to college eventually and it details her life experiences there and in the humor magazines there. Eventually, she begins to write To Kill A Mockingbird after she is given a year's income to write the book. It then details the events of the book becoming a movie and the exploitation of it in Monroeville afterwards. The book ends with the death of one of her friends and her life today.


Now - I was looking for things that would possibly be of interest to the teacher grading this (since she does decide my grade) or anyone who happens to come across this blog. So I went to Google and looked up things about Harper Lee's life. Interestingly enough, something the book did not note that could have been part of the plot (when the book details how she has been hidden from the press and has garnered no attention for years and years) is that at one point she was on the National Council for the Arts in 1966. (Czech) Another thing the book says about the second book, which the publishers wanted Harper to produce as much as the readers wanted one, is that the script for the book was stolen from her apartment. However, the article I found said Harper Lee also said that in the first book she "said what she had to say."


Works Cited

Czech, Jan. A Look at Harper Lee's Life. 27 November 2009. 29 May 2011 <http://www.suite101.com/content/a-look-at-harper-lees-life-a174355>.

Point of view - or POV

The point of view in this book, since it's not an autobiography, is third-person. However, there is not a defined line between third-person limited and third-person omniscient. This is due to the fact it's a biography. However, it leans more towards third-person limited - in fact, thoughts really aren't shown at all. Even in main characters like Nelle and Truman - only a few times are there ever quotes where a character tells the author things they were thinking at times. It's really not definite. Oddly enough, even though it leans towards limited, nothing is hidden from the narrator - so it may be possible it's omniscient. I think in a special case like this, there's no definite answer.


So now, my dear readers, I am going to give you a lesson in perspective. I know what you're thinking. You're sitting at your computer, scarfing down cheetos or nachos or some delicious snack food like the glutton you are and the glutton the man in the picture below is. You're suddenly offended about the glutton joke. You say, "Ugh. This blog post is the worst. Post. Ever." (I hope at least somebody gets that reference. Ahem...)  Then you Facebook it or Twitter it. But then you realize that the whole thing you were mad about in the first place was that you had to learn something on a blog. Ugh.  At the risk of offending my "dear readers," I shall post this picture. 

For example, something like third-person limited would be something like this. 

 As you can see, only one of the people's thoughts are shown. Yet all of them are thinking something. If the man thinking were narrator, this would definitely be limited because he doesn't know the other people's thoughts. Things are hidden from him.

In third-person omniscient - you might see something like this. Now, as you can see, more than one person's thoughts are shown - and in omniscient, usually all thoughts are shown and nothing is hidden from the narrator. 

Works Cited

smashLAB.com. "Best Simpsons Character #18: Comic Book Guy." 16 June 2009. MakeFive. 5 June 2011 <http://www.makefive.com/categories/entertainment/television/best-simpsons-character/comic-book-guy>.

Characters

The main characters in I Am Scout are Nelle Lee of course, but A.C. Lee appears as a character and Truman Capote plays a major role in the book. Other characters that play a role in this book are Nelle's sister Alice - though, strangely the other siblings do not play parts. Publishers from the place Nelle goes to publish her book plus friends she meets at college and family members play roles. In all, there are many characters but due to the fact that this is a biography - well, there aren't defined characters like there would be in a fiction book.