Extending The Theme

   In the book To Kill A Mockingbird something that really stood out to me was how much I related to the characters. I related a lot to Scout, but I also related to Jem. Like Jem, I am an older sibling. My younger sister is someone who is very important to me, but who can also annoy me beyond words. That is always how its been. As siblings grow up, they grow up together, and they have no choice but to have interaction. Scout and Jem spent almost every waking minute together or so it seems. My sister and I spent a lot of time together also. I can relate to Jem's feelings that at school, I want to hang out with my friends, and my sister should hang out with hers. We both know each others friends so we did have some interaction when we went to schoo together, but so did Scout and Jem. Jem was a great older sibling for Scout and he was a really supportive brother. Though he was very mood-swingy at times, he did a good job of being there for Scout, and I like to think that I'm a pretty good older sister.
     As much as I related to Jem, I related to Scout, too. When I was younger I hung out with boys a lot. At preschool one of my best friends was a boy. A big difference between mine and Scout's childhoods, is that I had surgery when I was four, and again when I was five, and this resricted me from running and jumping and playing as much as Scout did. Granted, I still got to do a lot of things, and my childhood could have been much more affected than that.
    Another way I related to Scout was during Scout's experience at Tom Robinson's trial. When I was younger we had a babysitter who in recent years was put on trial. My mom took me to the trial so I could watch what was happening. I was older than Scout while she was at Tom Robinson's trial, but I had about as much insight as she did, and I was just doing my best to keep up. I wasn't able to do anything from my seat in the audience and neither was Scout. We both felt a little helpless. I don't know what I could have done to help in that situation, but I just remember feeling really overwhelmed with lot's of things going on. Scout also felt smothered by all the things that were going on that day. As the reality of my babysitter's trial englufed me I realized I couldn't do anything to control the outcome of the jury. Neither could Scout. The trial of my babysitter was much more fair than that of Tom Robinson, but it was a similar experience for Scout and I.
     I have always had the ability to compare myself to characters in books well. Finding a reflection of my self in To Kill A Mockingbird was more difficult for me than in other books, but I still did pretty quickly. As I read the book and got to know Scout more, I found more ways that we were similar, and I got more into the book when I realized that I was like Scout.