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
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
In the 1930s Southern Gothic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the child and adult perspectives of the narrator to tell the story from the perspective of an innocent child, then adding on to it using the adult perspective, which allows the readers to have a better understanding of events in the story. It allows the narrator to tell the story as they experienced it as a child, which gives the perspective of how they feel about the events. The child’s point of view also makes the novel fit for an older audience, because they most likely understand mature topics that the child narrator does not. Using the two perspectives of the main character, Lee allows the readers to relate to and comprehend the novel better.
Scout is quite a confident character in the To Kill A Mockingbird novel especially because she is able to fight boys without any fear. She might be a small girl but she has one big heart, possessing the virtue of caring by always seeing the best of others and as well as having great concern for others. The way she acts or the clothes that she wears, she can come across as a tomboy because unlike other girls who wear dresses she rocks it in her cozy fashionable overalls.
To mature is to grow up and understand the world around oneself. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the character of Jem matures and learns many lessons from his father Atticus, neighbor Mrs Dubose, and the figure of Tom Robinson who help him to grow up. Over time, the reader sees Jem learn the life lessons of always doing the right thing, showing courage in the face of adversity, and learning that life is not always fair.
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch shows us various aspects of her personality, in her actions, thoughts, and words. Her home life affects this greatly as her father Atticus raised her with equality and a sense of freedom. Scout speaks her mind and does not confine to the standards of society at the time. Scouts intelligence is evident on her first day of school, when her teacher discovers her ability to read. Miss Caroline is off put as she was not expecting any of her students to be this advanced. Scout realizes this when “…she discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste.” (Pg.22) Her intelligence is also shown by her ability to realize when to use physical force in an argument,
How Scout Develops from a Tomboy to a Young Lady in To Kill a Mockingbird
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.
Evidence: An example that demonstrates Scout being immature is when she gets into a fight on her first day of school, “ Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop. Let him go, Scout. Why?. He didn’t have any lunch” (30).
The novel To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee is about a young girl named Scout and her brother, Jem, growing up in the small, southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout and Jem live with their older father, Atticus, and spend their summers playing with their friend, Dill. They have many neighbors, and one is an older woman named Mrs. Dubose. As the siblings grow older, they begin to drift apart and new disagreements begin. Yet, as Jem begins change, he starts to think more maturely about feuds with his sister and opinions towards his neighbors. For example, in the tire incident, Jem realizes that Scout is in trouble and tries to help her. In addition, in the flower incident with Mrs. Dubose,
As baby steps transform into bounding leaps, one must understand how to lengthen their stride mentally as they do physically. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee eloquently describes Scout and Jem’s journeys over the course of a few years that, in turn, cause them to mature individually as well as a duo. Their progressions as characters allow the reader to label the novel as one of maturation. Numerous experiences contribute to their growth and understanding of the world around them. Along the way, Scout and Jem learn to put themselves in other people’s shoes, that one should never kill a mockingbird, and that an individual should continue to fight regardless if they know that they are destined to lose.
When many people are children, their parents, grandparents, or anyone who poses as a parental figure tell them that they will become more mature with age. However, psychological maturity is mainly learned rather than simply accompanying a person’s ascent into adulthood. Inevitably people grow, but this statement proves the experiences a person has in their life, whether good or bad, will change the path he or she takes while growing up or even continuing his or her adult life. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jean-Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch are six and ten in the beginning of the book, respectively. Although they gain only three years by the end of the novel, the children develop even more mature mindsets than many of the physically grown-up people in the town. Three events that prompt this early maturation are a conversation that takes place between Atticus and Scout, Tom Robinson’s death, and the ordeal with Mrs. Dubose.
Scout is one of many characters in the historical fiction book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee that develop as the story progresses. She grows throughout the novel by becoming more aware of her surroundings as the story progresses and reveals more to the reader. Also, Scout over the course of the book starts to realize what kind of man Boo Radley actually is and begins to trust him more towards the end of the book. She even walks with him and talks to him as if he were a friend of her, which he could very well be at the end of the book. Finally, Scouts morals develop by in the beginning of the book having started at level one of Kohlberg's moral development chart, but towards the end of the book reaching level two.
First of all, Lee’s critical tone of prejudice is demonstrated by Scout’s innocent curiosity and perception of her surrounding society. Specifically, Lee’s critical tone is illustrated by Scout’s curiosity and the numerous questions she asks her family members throughout the duration of the novel. For example, when Scout raises questions to her Aunt Alexandra concerning her prejudice towards the Cunningham family, her innocence is exhibited by her desire to understand the world, but also to question it. A specific example of Scout’s curiosity is when Aunt Alexandra informs Scout not to invite Walter over for dinner, which leads Scout to ask “Why not, Aunty? They’re good folks” (223). Aunt Alexandra responds with: “The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he’ll never be like Jem” (224). Aunt Alexandra’s response exemplifies her prejudice towards the structure of the social classes in Maycomb County. However, Scout’s innocent nature enables her to remain uncorrupted by prejudice and to question the unquestionable. Lee’s use of a child as a narrator allows her to ask the tough questions regarding Maycomb County’s way of life and question why it is prejudiced towards a certain individual or group of individuals. Moreover, Harper Lee’s choice of narration
She begins to believe that Tom Robinson might have a chance at winning the trial. She no longer uses the N word after Atticus tells her never to use the word because it is offensive. As she matures, she begins to see just how racist Maycomb is. Her views on femininity have also changed since we have first seen Scout. As all the kids were getting older, Jem and Dill would be less inclined to let her play with them. So Scout would go and visit Calpurnia in the kitchen and she begins to see that, “there was some skill involved in being a girl” (116). Before, being a girl had been something that happened when she did not quite meet Jem’s standards. But as she is watching Calpurnia, Scout realizes that being a girl involves having positive traits instead of lacking them. Scout’s views on Boo Radley have begun to change and she begins to understand more about why Boo is the way he is. Jem tells Scout that he is “beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside” (227). Scout and Jem have begun to see some of the horrible things people can do and they understand why Boo would not want to come out. Exposure to these events is what matured Scout into the person she ended up
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is one of the main characters and the narrator. During the time the book begins, she is a little 6 year-old girl who is mature for her age, and she continues to mature as the book progresses. Over the course of the novel, Scout develops an exceptional character which is constantly changing from the effects of different events and characters. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses the minor characters Boo Radley, Miss Maudie, and Aunt Alexandra to help develop Scout into a strong and compassionate human being from the innocent child she used to be.