Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird

Since the first spark of human life, coming-of-age has even occurred at the time of Adam and Eve. Many people think that the only part of maturing is puberty. However, one of the greatest parts of growing up is not, surprisingly, going through puberty. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives.

"In the little world in which children have their existence... there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt, as injustice". To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, follows a young girl's childhood, including an abused recluse and an unfair trial. The main characters, Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill, face issues they don't understand. Scout and Jem are used to Maycomb's prejudice, however, while Dill is not. Dill's childlike innocence allows him to see through Maycomb's prejudice, showing that justice is sought by people who can't stomach hatred.

There is a time in everyone’s life when they reach a certain age where they go through a period where they come of age. To come of age means that a person reaches an age when they discover something they didn’t know before and they learn it when they come across something significant. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses the theme of coming of age with her character Jem Finch. Throughout his coming of age experience Jem encounters the tree, the gun, and the camellias which teach him some important lessons that he will benefit from in the future.

As people get older they go through experiences in their life that can change them in bad ways or most of the time change them in good ways.This good change occurs usually by the experiences teaching them important lessons they should know in life.These changes are very important in ones life because it matures them into an adult. This transformation happens to certain characters in every novel and it is called coming of age. In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, both Jem and Scout go through this coming of age and learn what it means to be courageous, the unfairness of the world, and to look at other people's perspective before judging them.

In this novel, innocence is represented from all ages yet all still contribute to the mockingbird factor. Charles Baker “Dill” Harris doesn’t develop and mature throughout the story. In this way, he is seen as a mocking bird because he’s innocent by his childish actions. His childish actions flow throughout To Kill A Mockingbird and he never changes this lifestyle, because that’s all he knows how to do. An example of this is in the court scene when we wasn’t aware of what’s going on, “Dill leaned across me and asked Jem what Atticus was doing”(Lee 254). In this scene the children snuck into the courthouse to listen to Atticus defend Tom Robinson, and Dill is questioning what is happening in the court.This scene is an example of

The emotions of the trial are running high for everyone. Jem, Scout and Dill are sitting in the balcony with the black people of the town. When it was the prosecutors turn Mr.Gilmer started to drill Tom hard. Dill’s emotions took over and he broke into emotional tears knowing that something was wrong. For the first time Scout realizes a change in Dill and tries to comfort him outside. The children are sitting with the blacks who hear Dill’s crys showing that he is full of compassion for the guiltless man.

Coming of age is an influential part of many people’s lives. They begin to leave behind their innocent childhood views and develop a more realistic view on the world around them as they step forward into adulthood. (Need to add transition) Many authors have a coming of age theme in their books; specifically, Harper Lee portrays a coming of age theme in his book To Kill A Mockingbird. Through the journeys of their childhoods, Jem and Scout lose their innocence while experiencing their coming of age moment, making them realize how unfair Maycomb really is.

When you think of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee what do you think about? On the second read of the novel you realize how many coming-to-age experiences there are. The novel shows part of growing up is learning about society but not necessarily accepting it. The author uses Dill’s character development and his conflicts his subplot regarding his family to express the theme.

Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and cry. Maybe things’ll strike him as being—not quite right, say, but he won’t cry, not when he gets a few years on him . . . Cry about the simple hell people give other people—without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people too’” (Lee 269). This quote by Mr. Dolphus Raymond is especially significant as he provides a huge male stereotype: men cannot cry. Previously in the book, Aunt Alexandra had presented a female stereotype criticizing Scout for looking like a tomboy, instead of wearing dresses and helping her father around the house (which all girls supposedly have to do). Mr. Dolphus Raymond and Aunt Alexandra would probably go along pretty great since they both share that traditional way of life. This quote overall is significant because Mr. Dolphus Raymond informs Dill and he presents another stereotype of that specific time period, yet he is also the one going out of boundaries by having mixed children. In the 21st century, they would have called Mr. Raymond out for having male stereotypes about what they are supposed to do and be. Now in days, stereotypical people are called out therefore they try and demolish these “rules”. Mr. Raymond also states another one of his opinions during the quote, that he believes that both black and white people are equals.

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.

Harper Lee, in the realistic-fiction novel To Kill A Mockingbird, uses a variety of literary elements to aid in the overall development of the theme. All of the characters are going through some sort of coming of age experience or enhancing someone else's experience as well as their lives all the while being greatly impacted by the racial discrimination and injustices that occurred all around them. An event in the novel that expresses this is the court case of Tom Robinson, or more specifically, Atticus’s, Tom Robinson’s attorney, closing argument. During this Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white girl in their town of Maycomb, and Atticus decides to defend him as his attorney despite the town's clear racial biases and preconceived stereotypes on people of color; this greatly impacts Atticus’s daughter, Scout. To show this Harper Lee uses setting, plot and conflict to enhance the development of the novel and put forth the theme. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses these literary elements, plot, conflict and setting to develop the idea that the presence of racial inequality leading to the undermining of justice impacts the coming of age for Scout on a variety of levels.

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the characterization of Dill helps to reveal the theme. Scout, Dill, and Jem was at the trial of Tom Robinson and they were watching the trial of Tom Robinson in the balcony of the courtroom. Tom Robinson is standing on the witness stand and is cruelly addressed by one of the juries. “I don’t care one speck, it ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do em’ that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin like that- it just makes me sick.”(266). As Dill says, “I don’t care one speck,”this shows how he is enthusiastic about his opinions since his tone was exceptionally unforgiving. His perspectives on everybody being equivalent is solid since it makes him feel irregular by saying, “it just makes me sick.”This

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee has many aspects in coming of age. The passage where Tom Robinson’s trial has just ended and Jem takes it the hardest out of everyone and we see a different side of Jem shows literary elements. In this passage, literary elements introduces character, conflict, and setting. He comes to a realization or “coming of age”.

Has there ever been an event that has changed your life? When you’re a kid, you see things through a child's eyes. As you get older, your mindset changes as you gain more experience. Therefore, at some point in your life, you will have a coming of age moment. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, his younger sister Scout, and Dill, a friend from out of town that visits every summer, share an experience that changes their outlook on the world. Together, they create a new mindset for themselves based on their experience with Dolphus Raymond, the town drunk, when they realized that he was not really what they thought he was. Through these characters’ experience, Harper Lee uses the literary elements of internal conflict, imagery, and characterization to develop the theme that people are not always who you think they might be.

Decades ago, in the 1930s, people of color were not treated fairly. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird took place in the 1930s in the fictional place of Macomb County, Alabama. It was narrated through a young girl named Scout Finch. Throughout the novel, Scout, her older brother, Jem, and their good friend Dill discover realities of society. Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, was appointed to be the attorney of a black man. Because of the time period, the case was almost hopeless, but Atticus fought anyway. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays universal themes such as racial intolerance and innocence of youth.