To Kill A Mockingbird Scout's Childhood

As people grow in life, they mature and change. In the novel , To Kill a Mockingbird ,by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, matures as the book continues. Slowly but surely, Scout learns to control her explosive temper, to refrain from fistfights, and to respect Calpurnia, their maid, and to really learn her value to the family. Scout simply changes because she matures, and she also changes because Atticus, her father, asks her to.

Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is also a victim of stereotyping. Atticus decides to help a black man (Tom Robinson) in court. Because of this decision, the people of Maycomb have a set opinion of Atticus Finch. They say that because he is working for “niggers”, he must be like them. They also say that because he chose to help Tom Robinson, that he doesn’t like white people, and more specifically, Mr. Bob Ewell. One day while strolling back from town, Scout and Jem see Mrs. Dubose. In response to saying hello, Mrs. Dubose says, “’Yes indeed, what has the world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you!’ She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it

She would get a better understanding of this as the novel progresses. Scout also learns more about maturity when she experiences hypocrisy from her teacher, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,” She is contradicting herself, saying that it is acceptable to persecute blacks but not Jews. It dawned on Scout that people are hypocrites and have double standards when it suits them. The biggest step the children took towards growing up was during the Tom Robinson trials. There, the children received full exposure to the evils, malevolence, prejudice and sorrow of the cruel world as a white man accuses an innocent black man for raping when all Tom ever wanted to achieve was to help others. The children understood what was going on completely and was therefore changed because of it. At the unexpected climax of the novel, the children have an unpleasant encounter with Bob Ewell who wanted to take revenge on Atticus for humiliating him by killing his children. This was an absolutely outrageous act of insanity but also taught the children how dangerous reality could be, finalizing their journey into adulthood.

As a result of Atticus's decision, Jem and Scout get into a number of fights with classmates and their cousin when they taunt them and call Atticus a "nigger lover." Life seems to be full of lesson for Scout and Jem. For example, when a rabid dog chases Scout, she discovers that her father, whom she previously thought too old to do anything, does possess some talents. Atticus turns out be a crack shot, killing the dog in one shot at a great distance. Another time the children learn to be tolerant of people who have problems even though they say mean things. A neighbor, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, derides Atticus and spreads lies about him, and screams insults at the children when they pass by. Jem gets very angry at her and cuts off her flowers from her bushes. Instead of siding with Jem, Atticus feels that what he did is wrong and as punishment, Jem has to read out loud to her every day to take her mind off her predicament. Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage as she

Scout tries to resist her community’s attempts to shape her into a ‘proper’ young lady in several different ways.

As a child, Scout experienced injustice. Since she was just a child, it was very easy for others to treat her unjustly. Her classmates, Mrs. Caroline, and Mr. Ewell criticized and harmed her for unjust reasons. Cecil Jacobs, one of Scout 's classmates, said, “Scout Finch 's daddy defended niggers.” (Lee 99). Cecil insulted Scout, making her upset. Scout wanted to start a fight, but was stopped by her brother, Jem Finch. Even as a child,

Scout also faces prejudice among the people she knows very well, but Jem, her brother also has to face prejudices from the community as well, some of these people being their neighbors. ”But Mrs. Dubose held us: “Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers!” Jem stiffened. Mrs. Dubose’s shot had gone home and she knew it: “Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you!” She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for”(lee 135). Mrs. Dubose, being the neighbor of Scout and Jem harasses them

Childhood is a very important stage in a person’s life because that is the time when they grow and learn important life lessons. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it shows how abuse can affect a person and their chance of success. It is impossible for a person to have a productive life if they are beaten and neglected during childhood.

In the novel written by Harper Lee titled To Kill a Mockingbird, it is a story that revolves around two children named Jem and Scout and their experiences in a prejudiced town as they grow up and mature into young adults. They learn lessons regarding what the real world has to offer during a time of segregation. As they discover new ideas, they also manage to learn more about themselves. Lee utilizes imagery, direct characterization, and dialogue to express the recurring theme of coming of age, also known as Bildungsroman.

When many people are children, their parents, grandparents, or anyone who poses as a parental figure tell them that they will become more mature with age. However, psychological maturity is mainly learned rather than simply accompanying a person’s ascent into adulthood. Inevitably people grow, but this statement proves the experiences a person has in their life, whether good or bad, will change the path he or she takes while growing up or even continuing his or her adult life. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jean-Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch are six and ten in the beginning of the book, respectively. Although they gain only three years by the end of the novel, the children develop even more mature mindsets than many of the physically grown-up people in the town. Three events that prompt this early maturation are a conversation that takes place between Atticus and Scout, Tom Robinson’s death, and the ordeal with Mrs. Dubose.

We can all agree that children have different illusions about what the world is really like around them. Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a bildungsroman that shows how a young girl named Scout grows up in Maycomb county with her father Atticus and her older brother Jem to guide her. The novel is set in the 1930’s in Maycomb county, a southern town where most of the neighbors get along with each other. Some of the neighbors have secrets that only the adults know, but eventually Jem and Scout find out what those secrets are, which challenges the illusions they have about their perfect little hometown and the friendly neighbors that live around them. In To Kill a Mockingbird it demonstrates a theme in the book about how things you believe to be true when you’re a child turn out to be different as you start to see them through adult eyes.

is a African American man who was wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell- who happens to be defended by Scout’s father (Atticus Finch). Scout is exposed to the racial discrimination that is obviously deeply rooted in the town, when it is passed down to and displayed by Cecil who says, “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace”. The aim to make Scout feel bad all because her father is defending a man who belongs to a certain race shows how racial discrimination continues to be passed along to Maycomb residents. Not only are the children showing it, but adults as well. Mrs. Dubose goes as far as telling Scout that her “father’s no better than the…

How different people in Maycomb view the issue of race affects how those people treat others.

At an age where most boys tend to only care about sports and friends, Jeremy (Jem) Atticus Finch was forced to deal with life-changing and troubling situations that caused him to mature much sooner than other boys. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author provides a story that includes a first-hand view of an American boy who grew up quickly because of the changing world around him. Jem Finch went through many events that presented a very different viewpoint that conflicted with things that he thought he knew as a child. There were many traumatic experiences Jem Finch had to go through, all leading up to his young adult years. Not only has his mentality matured through these events, but also his understanding of his community around him. The protagonist Jem Finch changes throughout the novel by having to grow up at a younger age than anyone normally would by watching an animal get shot by his own father, witnessing a controversial and significantly biased trial, and surviving his own near-death experience.

One’s childhood innocence is never lost, it simply plants the seed for the flower of maturity to bloom. It seems that almost every adult chooses to either forget or ignore this childhood vulnerability. But ironically, it was this quality that pushed them into adulthood in the first place. At the peak of their childhood, their post climactic innocence allows room for the foundation of maturity to begin to grow. In the sleepy southern town of Maycomb this is exactly what happens to eight years old Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. In To Kill a Mockingbird the character Scout is forced to surround herself with a very adult situation, when a trial comes to the small town of Maycomb. The trial raises the question that shakes the entire town up, what