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Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Decent Essays

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, she highlights various ways to convey the difference in maturity between between the adult narrator, Jean Louise Finch, and the child char-acter, Scout. Jim Rohn once said, “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not com-plain when things don't go well.” Everything that is being told, is told by the adult Jean in this book. This way you can see two sides of the story. One of them is from a child’s mind and mem-ories of it; then, the other is from a mature adult who is looking back at her life at a more elabo-rate angle later in life. You see as reading the story that there is actually a really big difference between the two mindsets, but both are about the same things. It is a combination …show more content…

Her grammar is not fully developed to where it would be as she grew to be an adult. She uses the word “ain’t a lot. She does not understand that some things in life are serious and that she has to take them in a responsible manner. She has a playful mindset when she is younger. Scout is the annoying little sister who tags along on the tail of Jem’s coat everywhere he goes. She wants to be the center of attention. At school, she gets caught up in small talk about Atticus and ends up getting into fights with her classmates. After hearing about what Cecil Jacobs had said about Atticus defending Tom she went up to him and her thoughts were, “I drew a bead on …show more content…

She has had time to grow up and become responsible. Lee presents her as now knowing her rights from wrongs. Af-ter Mr. Ewell’s death Atticus asks her if she under stands and she replays with, “Yes sir. I under-stand. Mr. Tate was right, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” She displays and tells the scenes and memories of what happen as she remembered them. You tell a major dif-ference between the two by reading the communication she had with her family and friends in the story as a child compared to how she speaks while telling the story as an adult. Her choice of language has improved as she has gotten older. Her knowledge had improved greatly. Jean Louise Finch as the adult narrator acknowledges that she now understands what Atticus was try-ing to teach her; however, as a child, she did not understand the concept. Scout was a tomboy and she thought that she would always be one. As she got to be an adult, she started to turn into a more of what you would call a “girly girl.” Her Aunt Alexandra has been trying to turn her into a lady. After the death of Tom Robinson. She responds with, “After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I.” There is a huge difference from where she started to

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