Maturation In To Kill A Mockingbird

“Maturity is not measured by age. It’s an attitude built by experience.” This quotation says of how you don’t mature by aging and growing older but maturing by understanding situations and events you are found in and how you deal with those challenges or problems. The definition of maturity is to “have attained a final or desired state.” This means that although some don’t mature ever in life it is of something every human being must do to properly work in an occupation or operation appropriately. The prestigious author Harper Lee writes the story of racism, prejudice and violence in a small Alabama town known as Maycomb. The town of Maycomb- although fake in reality- is derived from the southern

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.

Scout learns 3 important things about life in the book. One thing she learns is that life is unfair. She experiences this in a court case with her dad defending a black man named Tom Robinson who is accused for raping Mayella Ewell the daughter of Bob Ewell. Mr. Atticus had very good reasons on why Tom should not be accused of rape and everyone in the court including the jury and judge were sure that he would win but at the end of the case the jury decided

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”.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a first person narrative describing the life of Jem and Scout, a brother and sister who are the main protagonists of the novel. Jem and Scout grow up in a town where they are constantly surrounded by racial inequality, social unrest and prejudice. Jem Finch is considered a normal young boy growing up in the small Alabama town of Maycomb. Like his friends Jem likes to likes take part in activities that are perceived to be masculine in nature such as sports. Yet the way he is raised is very different than his friends and his upbringing is considered to be against the cultural norm of the time. Harper Lee creates the character of Jem to show the reader

“Shoot all of the Blue Jays you want, if you can hit them, but Remember it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird.” That was a major quote in Chapter 10. I chose Chapter 10’s Rabid dog scene from the book To Kill A Mockingbird as my Coming of Age scene. Let’s talk about three literary elements from that one particular scene/chapter.

When you grow up in a world where good and evil exist, growing up is really important. In the novel ‘‘ To Kill a Mockingbird’’ by Harper Lee, Scout develops to become more mature, to be more understanding toward others and to grow to be a lady.

In Life, there are many important stages, though few are as demanding or rewarding as parenthood. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, the character Atticus Finch provides a sterling example of how to raise children in a modest fashion, instilling in them creditable and upright values to live by. One such child in the book is Scout Finch, the feisty main character who is the daughter of Atticus Finch. Growing up in the small town of Maycomb in the Southern state of Alabama, Scout has had to deal with racial issues as a component of her upbringing. Fortunately, she had her family and friends to help her through the crucial life stage of childhood.

There are numerous moments in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout and Jem learn something fundamental about human culture and in return, something about themselves. Besides race relations and the history of the struggle for equality in the South, the novel is a coming of age text, mostly dealing with Scout's maturation. Lee conveys this theme this by using a variety of literary elements such as symbolism, imagery, tone and motif to express the overall theme. Using these elements, Lee demonstrates character development physically, mentally, and emotionally allowing her to express the increase of maturity displayed from each character. The reader gets an immediate impression of this maturation (Coming of Age) due to Scout being the narrator throughout the story. So even when the subject shifts to topics like equality and justice, the reader still is able to understand what is being mediated through the mind of a young girl who is also in the process of learning what these concepts mean and how society either employs or fails. Throughout this essay I will be specifically discussing the coming of age developed by Scout, giving examples from different scenes, and explaining how she has matured over time.

Atticus attempts to teach his kids about seeing things in other people’s point of view to eliminate prejudice because he knows that the town is full of bigotry and racism. Atticus teaches Scout a life lesson, which he applies to real life situations, in the hopes of shaping her

The Mockingbird is a symbol of innocence; they make music and they strive to never hurt others in any selfish way. Atticus and Scout were on the porch, minutes after the dispute with Mr. Tate, The argument consisted of who did the deed of stabbing Mr. Ewell. Atticus is silently crying for comfort and Scout hears his broken calls “Mr. Tate was right. Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. ‘What do you mean?’ Well, it’d be sort of like shooting a mocking bird, wouldn’t it?” (Lee 370). Scout grows an understanding of righteous justice; she takes charge of Atticus’s wrecked spirit and repairs it with a wise interpretation that the death of Mr. Ewell was not a crime. Scout knows that Arthur Radley is the mockingbird that sings by protecting the finch children from the magpie ways of Mr. Ewell. Not only did Scout learn a lesson about justice, but she also is privileged to learn of hypocrisy.

While one of the main themes of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is understanding another human’s perspective, it is also important to look at how people treat each other. The story’s protagonist, Scout, is a young girl from Alabama whose father, Atticus Finch, is asked to defend an African-American man who is charged with rape. The southern way of life during The Great Depression will not allow Tom Robinson a fair trial, and Scout and her brother Jem are forced to deal with a county’s ignorance and racist attitudes. Atticus and a compassionate neighbor, Miss Maudie, try to teach the children not to hurt mockingbirds as they do not harm anything and “... don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy”(90). While the comparison of a mockingbird to Tom Robinson illustrates the sin of hurting the innocent, it is also used to show the goodness of an unknown neighbor, Boo Radley.

Everyone should follow Scout’s example. Atticus has taught his daughter some of the most exceedingly significant lessons humans lack today. Scout is young and innocent; she sees the world in extravagant gray, not exclusive black and white. Throughout To Kill A Mocking Bird, Scout obtains an insight of justice for innocent, hypocrisy, manners and understanding others.

Although Atticus is Scout’s main resource for life lessons, everyone around her plays a part in her growing up with the values she has. One of the very first lessons she learns is to not kill a mockingbird, or in other words, one should leave innocent people and things alone and to

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, a Pulitzer Prize winner, several significant details develop the themes of the story. One of the themes of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is that one must observe the world from another person’s perspective to understand their true feelings. The main characters, Scout and Jem, confront evil and apply the lessons they’ve learned into the way they understand the world. In the beginning of the story, Scout hears malicious rumors that Boo Radley is a dangerous and cruel person who stabbed his own father in the leg with a pair of scissors. Believing these to be true, Scout tried her best to stay away from the Radley’s property, but one day, she let the temptation to prove her bravery to her brother, Jem, and his best friend Dill, get the better of her. After the trial and unfortunate death of Tom Robinson, Scout’s father convinces her to view it from the townspeople’s perspective. Scout learns that Tom was falsely accused because of the racism people of his race faced during that era. Atticus was also willing to stand up for Tom Robinson in a court of law, because he was wise enough to view the world from his perspective. Scout has often failed at realizing this, because she looked down on Walter Cunningham for behaving the way he did.