Coming Of Age: The Effects Of Traumatic Experiences

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.

R1: In the beginning of the novel To Kill a MockingBird, Lee’s character, Scout is an immature, loud-mouth tomboy.

In this quote, Scout is kind of oblivious to what is going on. She isn't realizing that she just had walked into a lynch mob that was trying to hurt Tom Robinson. Atticus had told her not to come out and stay at home. She let her curiosity get the best of her. Having been that little she is able to not get hurt by the mob, but if she is older they might have hurt her or Atticus in some way. This is one way that her ignorance protects her in the beginning of the book.

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.

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 Scout realizes her father does not view African Americans like he used to and how she thought he did, this causes her to change. At the moment when she realizes that her father has changed, it hits her hard, “She felt sick. Her stomach shut, she began to tremble.” (Lee 111). This is huge to Scout, who felt betrayed by her father and everything he ever told and taught her. Scout felt as if she no longer knew he father. Since her Atticus had been the only one there for her the most and the longest, she lost her sense of trust and admiration towards. “She did not stand alone, but what stood behind her, the most potent moral force in her life, was the love of her father. She never questioned it, never thought about it, never even realized that before she made any decision of importance, the reflex, “What would Atticus do?” passed through her unconscious...she did not know that she worshipped him.” (Lee 118). As much as Scout had reverence for her father, it all started to crumble once she put the pieces together and realized who he was. Atticus was no longer the wise and thoughtful father to Scout as he lost all value in her mind, causing a bit change in how Scout saw and admired him; a total change of character. “His use of her childhood name crushed on her ears. Don’t ever call me that again. You who call me Scout are dead and in your grave.” (Lee

Coming of age is a recurring theme that is universally known throughout many different pieces of literature. Whether it’s influenced on true experiences, childhood memories, or even based on one’s current juvenile reality, many of theses works have a correlation between them that include many similar ordeals and struggles that the character goes through in order to metamorphosize into taking their first step out of childhood. One prominent theme that often appears is how one experiences and faces a time of tribulation and other walls that stand in one’s path. In effect, hardships mature and enlighten one, causing the loss of something such as childhood innocence. Lastly, these three combined points finally lead to one’s metamorphosis out of childhood. All in all, these three factors take one out of childhood, and slowly allows one step out into the reality of this world.

In coming of age stories, the protagonists often experience a pensive and dramatic moment where either they break through to adulthood or retreat to childhood - it is this moment that unveils the magnitude of growing up for the reader.

Scout was raised in a time with racial prejudices going on around her. This instilled in her the admirable qualities of courage and maturity. Her father, Atticus Finch, was fighting for the freedom of the opposing side, the one everybody despised. This caused her to be put in many dangerous and hate filled situations in public which included school and the

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee chooses to narrate the book from the perspective of Scout, who is a child. One of the themes of the book is growing up, and questioning the ways of the people in Maycomb. Scout always thought that the people in Maycomb were the best until she started to realize that a lot of them were very racist when the trial gets closer. Because she is a kid, her opinions can change more easily than those of an adult. Because she hasn’t known the people in Maycomb for as long as the adults, she can more easily accept that they have bad views, while people who have known them for a while would deny that because they’ve always thought they were a good person.

Scout Finch changes and grows significantly over the course of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. In the beginning of the novel, Scout is a young girl who hadn't thought much of the prejudice in the world and was quick to judge others. Throughout the novel she becomes more aware of the prejudice in her own community, more sympathetic and understanding of others, and learns to stick to her morals. These changes were largely influenced by her father's example, the trial he was a part of, and her experiences in school.

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”.

Scout finally understood him as an equal, but it took her father's wise advice and her experiences to fully understand what he had meant. She had grown emotionally enough not to be scared but rather to think and try to understand how others are feeling around her. She also shows how she had matured past her childhood fears when she was walking with Jem the night of Halloween. The fears of “Haints, Hot Steams, incantations, [and] secret signs, had vanished with [their] years as mist with sunrise” (292). She has grown past her emotionally irrational fears as she has begun to see how the world really is. Scout changes how she sees the world by starting to see it more rationally rather than emotionally. She begins to react to the rational part of her brain though she is feeling things different emotionally. There were many ups and downs in To Kill A Mockingbird with one of the many downs being when Tom Robinson gets killed. When her father tells her the news of his death, rather than weeping and pouting like a child, Scout gets her

Scout's father, Atticus, had played a huge role on her development by teaching her life lessons and making her a better person. Atticus would always teach her life lessons on becoming a better person. Atticus would explain, “ Until you

In many children and young adult books, the transition from being a child to becoming more “adult-like” is a common theme. Coming of Age stories gives its readers the opportunity to go through the transition period with one or more characters from the novel. Most of these stories share similar conflicts, struggles, barriers, and developmental milestone that most of the readers are dealing with at that particular point in time of his/her life. These books and sometimes novels, describe the barriers in ways that all readers can relate to regardless of time period; these stories become more timeless universals for all readers to connect with.