TKAM and WTM Comparison Essay

            Have you ever read To Kill a Mockingbird, or Walk Two Moons? After I read these two books I realized that Salamanca Hiddle and Jean Louise Finch (Scout) have a lot in common. They also have multiple differences but all in all they have formidable personalities.

            Scout and Salamanca are alike in that both of their mothers are dead. In Walk Two Moons, the quote, “There, on a little hill overlooking the river and the valley, was my mother’s grave.” Illustrates that fact as does, “Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence.” Both of their mothers died at different points in their life. Salamanca’s mom died when she was old enough to miss her afterwards, while Scout never really knew her mother. These points were elemental in teaching them that life is not always full of “Smoothbeautiful folds.”

            Both Scout and Salamanca learned the hard way that life isn’t always fair and happy. Two quotes that illustrate this point are: “It can’t be dead. It was alive just a minute ago.” From Walk Two Moons and “It’s like bein’ a caterpillar in a cacoon…I always though Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world.” From To Kill a Mockingbird. Both Scout and Salamanca learn the world isn’t all fluff and rose petals from two different, yet similar situations. They also have numerous differences.

            One of these differences is the way they talk. While Scout can be found saying, “I’ve been chewin’ it all afternoon and I ain’t dead yet, not even sick.” Salamanca speaks in a more educated way, and likes to state facts with less personality than scout. “My father once said I was as gullible as a fish. I thought he said edible. I thought he ment I was tasty.” –Salamanca

            Both Scout and Salamanca have a friend with a large imagination. Scout’s friend and fiancée, Dill, once said, “ I-Smell-Death.” He then went on to say that an old lady taught him how to tell if someone is going to die. Salamanca’s friend, ‘Peeby’, is the equivalent of Dill. “In her world, no one was ordinary. People were either perfect…[or] they were lunatics or axe murderers.” Both Dill and Phoebe were using their imagination and half truths to explain their world.

            Scout and Salamanca are alike in many different ways, and different in multiple others. Although they are from two completely different worlds, they still hold striking similarities.