Harper Lee's Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird

Anne Frank once said “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it is a bildungsroman novel that follows Jem Finch as he grows up in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Over the course of several summers he, along with his sister Scout , face obstacles and challenges which consist of their mean old neighbor Ms.Dubose and the recluse Boo Radley. Although, in the beginning of the novel, Jem still is a child physically and mentally, and we witness him mature and grow up. We see Jem deal with problems that arise in a more mature manner. Lee shows that even someone as childish as Jem can grow up and learn to

Jeremy “Jem” Finch is a leading protagonist in Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird” published in 1960. Jem matured greatly throughout the duration of the book, starting to resemble and idolize his father, achieves the status of a guardian to his sister and introduces a whole new set of ideals in his lifestyle. He embodies the themes of growth. Throughout the novel we see how perceptions of things such as courage, respect, tolerance, and cruelty changes Jem as he matures.

Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters develop and mature in unique ways. Boo, who fears talking to others, Aunt Alexandra, who is against people of other races or social classes, and Scout, who is young and is not aware of life’s challenges, constantly suppress their emotions and personality. Their life choices and decisions that they make throughout the book, lead them to be more accepting of others and less prejudice. As the book progresses, Boo, Aunt Alexandra, and Scout learn life lessons and develop into mature adults.

In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee, the author has used numerous different methods to portray the themes of innocence, maturity and growing up. These themes were put in so that the audience could become more empathetic towards the characters, especially the protagonists. She depicts these themes through characters, events, using symbolism, imagery and contrast located throughout the book.

As the predominant idol to Jem and Scout over the course of the novel, Atticus demonstrates that the ambitions people achieve deserve commemoration, even if their activities and stances are contentious. After vandalizing the entirety of Mrs. Dubose’s camellia bush garden, Jem attempts to justify his stunt to Atticus. Citing Mrs. Dubose’s appalling insults directed towards his father, Jem firmly believes that he is vindicated from any form of punishment. Consequently, Atticus makes it mandatory for Jem to read for Mrs. Dubose for over a month. After Jem finished his exercise, Atticus informs his children of Mrs. Dubose’s death roughly one month later. Revealing that Mrs. Dubose had an addiction to morphine, Atticus highlights that she retained

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

Leading the reader to the realisation that maturity is one theme the author wants to express, is the presentation of maturity in various shapes and forms. The way Scout describes Jem as “[someone who] had acquired a set of values” (Lee 153) implies the evolution which Jem was subjected to. As it is deductible by Jem’s reaction to the news of Mrs Dubose’s death, how “[he] buried his face in Atticus’s shirt” (Lee 148) and cried, the event impacted Jem enormously, which consequently is the reason of his sudden growth. Additionally, it is possible to see Jem maturing by him breaking “the remaining code of [Scout, Dill and Jem’s] childhood” (Lee 187) and telling Atticus about Dill running from his house. Also how he separates himself from Dill and

For Mrs. Dubose, when the clock stops ringing one day, it means that she is released from her addiction to morphine; based on her conditions, it is doubted that she even listened to Jem while he was speaking. Jem reading to her only prolonged her detachment from morphine each day, it is likely that she did not even pay attention to the content of what Jem was reading, each day she suffered more than the day before, yet she still kept it up until her death where she died free of morphine. Mrs. Dubose and her morphine addiction foreshadow Atticus and the court case, Mrs. Dubose did not have to die free of morphine and Atticus did not have to defend Tom Robinson, but they both decided to do what is morally right to them. For Mrs. Dubose, the mentality of quitting morphine and to suffer from withdrawal is more difficult than physically not taking the addictive drug. As for Atticus, the mental decision to defend Tom Robinson and facing the hardships of doing so is harder than to physically stand up in court and speak up for Tom

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows Ms. Dubose’s certainty and doubt. In chapter 11, Atticus is talking to Jem and Scout about Ms. Dubose’s death and said, "She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you're sick as she was, it's all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn't all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that's what she did." Even though she was a morphine addict and slowly dying, she was certain to die her way. She could have doubted her strength against the drug, yet she fought through it. Jem read to her everyday as a punishment for losing his head and helped her focus to stay awake. It was because of her certainty that she obtained her goal of dying in her own way.

In chapter 3, Scout states; “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behaviour”. When Jem, cuts Mrs Dubose camellias, in chapter 11 for insulting Atticus, his punishment was to read to her every day. When he read to her he found it disturbing that she had fits and after a month Mrs Dubose dies. It was only known to Jem later that she had these fits because she was seriously ill and had become addicted to morphine. By Jem reading to her, it was distracting her from her addiction and she would be able to die clear from utilizing painkillers. Atticus later states that “I wanted you to see what real courage is...You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won...she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew."(Chapter 11) This was significant as, even though the children thought of her as a spiteful woman, she was going through a personal time in her life that made her that way. Mrs Dubose relates to the quote as even though she came across as horrible, other people needed to put themselves in her position and perceive how badly she was struggling with her

In Harper Lee’s historical fiction novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus shows the children that Maycomb is prejudice, teaches them courage, and the children show maturity. Scout and Jem are children of Atticus who's assigned to defend Tom Robinson is his case and throughout this case Scout’s summer neighbor and friend, Dill, Jem, Atticus, and Scout exuberate of these themes in their actions .Prejudice is when one pre-judges another based on their race, gender, age, or sexuality which one don’t understand and one hates the unknown of another. Courage is doing something without the fear of being judged or fearing the unknown. Maturity is learning lessons and applying them to oneself where one start to display adult characteristics. These

In the novel, Jem, behaves badly by cutting the tops off of every camellia bush that Mrs. Dubose owned with Scout’s wooden baton. At the time Scout thought “for a few minutes he simply went mad.” (136). After this occurred Atticus tells Jem he must go to Mrs.Dubose’s house, and apologize for his actions. When Jem goes to her house, Mrs. Dubose tells Jem that his punishment he must read to her. “‘She wants me to come every afternoon after school and Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours.” (140). Jem does the miserably, and is relieved when it’s over. Shortly, after Mrs.Dubose passes, and what Jem didn’t know was that Mrs.Dubose was a morphine addict trying to her break herself of her addiction , and was going through much suffering. Because of this Atticus says to Jem “If you hadn’t fallen into her hands, I’d have made you go read to her anyway. It may have been some distraction.” (148). Jem is surprised that after all of the terrible things Mrs.Dubose has said about Atticus that he thinks of her as a great lady, and acted so gracious to her. It is here that Atticus justifies his point again about how he

Sam Triplett How does the character Scout, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird change, grow and perceive the world around her? The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee looks at Alabama in the 1930’s. Through lots of events, the character Scout loses her childhood innocence and finds a new understanding of the people around her. Through Scout, the loss of innocence, prejudice and human kindness overwhelms people’s selfishness.

Harper Lee published her famous book, To Kill a Mockingbird, more than fifty years ago, but it is still one of the most read books of this age. Before her death, Harper Lee earned $9,249 a day, giving her a net worth of thirty-five million dollars. This money is well earned, however, as Lee used her words to impact and shape the way people thought to improve the world we live in. Former first lady Laura Bush called the book "a novel that has enshrined for generations an ideal of American decency” (al.com). Clearly, one can already see that the book is well known and influential enough to impress people all over the world. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a young girl by the name of Scout who grows up in a racist town. The story tells the reader

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