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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
To Kill a Mockingbird is a Buildungsroman—a coming-of-age story (other examples include The Catcher in the Rye and Anne of Green Gables). Typically, coming-of-age stories follow young teens or children as they grow up and learn important lessons about the world around them. To Kill a Mockingbird, like its fellow occupants of the genre, includes a wide variety of “teachable moments,” during which the children in the novel learn something important about human behavior or society. These moments are filtered primarily through Atticus, who serves as a mentor figure and moral compass for Scout, Jem, and Dill.
Scout plays an important role in her own coming-of-age story. More than simply the protagonist, an adult Scout narrates her own story, serving as a kind of mentor figure to her younger self. In a way, the Buildungsroman has already taken place by the time readers enter into the story: Scout is simply recounting the experiences that, in retrospect, shaped her as an adult. To Kill a Mockingbird combines Buildungsroman and autobiography, generating a reflexive narrative that showcases the complex nature of character growth. While Scout, as the narrator, has experience and perspective to contextualize her childhood, she still makes the effort to look back at the past and learn from it, demonstrating that growth is a lifelong process.
Related Themes:
