To Kill A Mockingbird-Questions(2)

Q:Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.

I would like to be friends with Miss Maudie Atkinson. She respects everyone, including children,and sees them as slightly less experienced adults,and treats them like one, as seen in "She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives", unlike Miss Stephanie Crawford, who is always poking and prying into other people's affairs. I would not like to be treated as a baby, and I do not want my friend to poke in my private life.

Her respect also extends to African Americans. When Aunt Alexandra learns of Tom's death, she was depressed and upset because she thinks that the town people are pushing everything to Atticus. Miss Maudie speaks up for the small group of people, as seen in " The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord's kindness am I".

Miss Maudie also uses her sharp tongue to counter meanness rather than to perpetrate it. When Miss Stephanie told Miss Maudie that "she woke up in the middle of the night and found him looking in the window at her", and Miss Maudie retorted with "What did you do, Stephanie, move over in the bed and make room for him?" This joke embarrasses Miss Stephanie into holding her tongue, but this might also show the simple truth that Miss Stephanie knows so much about other people it was akin to her sleeping with them.This shows that Miss Maudie is a no-nonsense person.

Thus, I would like to be a friend of Miss Maudie.