Literary Comparison

Literary Comparison: To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons

Scout and Salamanca are two very interesting, girl characters from two different books. Scout is the main character from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Salamanca is the main character from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Both girls, however, have lots of similarities and differences between them. Both characters are brave, but while Scout is a tomboy and close to her father, Salamanca is a normal girl who is distanced from her father.

One of the ways in which the two characters are different is in their views of their fathers. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus, the father, is someone who Scout admires a lot. This is a quote that I thought brought this point together really well. “It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.”(Scout’s thoughts from Chapter 11, pg. 105). In this passage, Scout is admiring her father because he acted nobly in shooting the rabid dog. Salamanca, from Walk Two Moons, on the other hand, seemed to think that her dad was good, but not the best. This is done more with a regretful tone rather than outrightly stating it. A quote that sort of shows this is as follows. “I wish my father had not been such a good man so I could have had someone to blame for my mother’s leaving.” (Salamanca’s thoughts from chapter 18, pg. 113). All throughout the chapter, you get hints such as this one which pretty much say that Salamanca thinks he’s a respectable guy, but not an outstanding character. As you can see, Scout worships her father, while Salamanca only respects hers.

Another difference between the two characters, Scout and Salamanca, is their upbringing. Scout was raised as a tomboy. She beat up people she didn’t like, wore overalls, and hated dresses. A quote that illustrates this from To Kill aA Mockingbird states, “She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.” (Scout’s thoughts from Chapter 12, pg. 124) Scout knows that she is a girl, but she hasn’t been brought up to act like it. Salamanca, on the other hand, never had that problem and grew up as a normal girl. Sal has long hair, so in Walk Two Moons, Salamanca thought, “Everyone kept touching my hair...”(Salamanca’s thoughts from Chapter 3, pg. 12) If Sal had been like Scout, she would never have tolerated that.

These two different characters do have some similarities though. For example, both were were expected to be brave. Scout was expected to be brave by her family. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout’s father said, "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." (Atticus from Chapter 11, pg. 106) In this excerpt, Atticus is telling Scout that sometimes you have to be brave and do dangerous things. Likewise, for Salamanca, everybody seemed to look to her for bravery. A quote that illustrates this from Walk Two Moons follows. “All around the room, people were acting as if I had single-handedly taken on a fire-breathing dragon.” (Salamanca’s thought’s from Chapter 3, pg. 14) In this passage, Salamanca takes care of a bug that is terrorizing the class. Salamanca doesn’t let fear get in the way of common sense, which makes her brave. Both Scout and Salamanca are very brave characters.


While both Scout and Salamanca are brave, both of these characters have their differences. Scout and Salamanca are different in how they feel about their fathers and in the style of their upbringing as girls. Even though they are different, they are still both really strong, stoic girls raised by their fathers. I liked the books, Walk Two Moons and To Kill A Mockingbird.