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Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Decent Essays

All children go through changes and instances in their life that push them towards the brink of adulthood, especially those living in Maycomb County. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, elaborates on the lives of the main characters, Jem and Scout Finch, and how they experience profound ordeals that try to open their eyes to the real world around them. In the first part of the book, Jem and Scout are introduced to the reader as representations of innocence. When people are born, they are filled to the brim with innocence, but as they get older, the world withdraws that innocence out of them. Harper Lee illustrates this theory from the start of the story using the lives of the children. Scout maintains a bit of her childhood innocence even after everything she and her brother have to bear, whereas Jem has his eviscerated by each vexing incident. Jem endures critical moments in his life that commence his transition from a child to an adult.
First, the death of Mrs. Dubose has a great mental effect on Jem. Before she dies, both Jem and Scout think of her as this cruel old lady who speaks negatively of their father for “lawing for niggers” (Lee 135). This offends Jem immensely and in that moment he forgoes his commitment of being a gentleman like his father and destroys her camellia bushes. Even after receiving the consequence of reading to her for about a month, Jem did not become conscious as to why there is an alarm or why it keeps getting prolonged each day until

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