Theme Of Childhood In To Kill A Mockingbird

Atticus is guarding the jailhouse to make sure no one hurts Tom Robinson before his trial, when he is approached by Walter Cunningham and his fellow goons. Atticus shows his bravery by standing his ground for what he believes is right in front of his son. When Scout lashes out to her father’s side, Jem holds onto her and tries to stop her from interfering. Then Jem refuses to go home and stands up for his father’s side although the odds were against them, while trying to protect his sister from harm. In page 152, chapter 15, Scout says, “... but from the way he stood, Jem was not thinking of budging.” This shows us that Jem has matured from the boy who would do anything if dared, to a young man who can barricade his emotions and proceed with reason in difficult situations.

Before, Jem would always be Scout’s playmate but now he tells her to “stop pestering him” and that she should start “bein’ a girl and acting right”. Jem now likes to be kept alone and feels as if Scout is a lot more childish than he had realized.

Atticus teaches Jem and Scout to act courageously by modelling that type of behaviour. By defending Tom Robinson Atticus puts himself in the middle of the conflict. Tom Robinson and

She would get a better understanding of this as the novel progresses. Scout also learns more about maturity when she experiences hypocrisy from her teacher, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Pre-ju-dice,” She is contradicting herself, saying that it is acceptable to persecute blacks but not Jews. It dawned on Scout that people are hypocrites and have double standards when it suits them. The biggest step the children took towards growing up was during the Tom Robinson trials. There, the children received full exposure to the evils, malevolence, prejudice and sorrow of the cruel world as a white man accuses an innocent black man for raping when all Tom ever wanted to achieve was to help others. The children understood what was going on completely and was therefore changed because of it. At the unexpected climax of the novel, the children have an unpleasant encounter with Bob Ewell who wanted to take revenge on Atticus for humiliating him by killing his children. This was an absolutely outrageous act of insanity but also taught the children how dangerous reality could be, finalizing their journey into adulthood.

Coming of age is an influential part of many people’s lives. They begin to leave behind their innocent childhood views and develop a more realistic view on the world around them as they step forward into adulthood. (Need to add transition) Many authors have a coming of age theme in their books; specifically, Harper Lee portrays a coming of age theme in his book To Kill A Mockingbird. Through the journeys of their childhoods, Jem and Scout lose their innocence while experiencing their coming of age moment, making them realize how unfair Maycomb really is.

Childhood is a very important stage in a person’s life because that is the time when they grow and learn important life lessons. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it shows how abuse can affect a person and their chance of success. It is impossible for a person to have a productive life if they are beaten and neglected during childhood.

Jem’s entire perspective of the world is thrown into chaos so he retreats into a state of disillusionment. However, Scout, maintains her faith in humanity. Atticus elaborates by saying as you grow older; you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life. Lee uses this scene to show the reader that racism is learnt. Scout gradually emerging from her innocence to the realization that people have different outlooks on the world and that these often include prejudice and hate which have been obtained by harsh experiences. Lee intends to show the reader that innocence is precious and once experience marrs, you cannot return to innocence. When Scout meets Dolphus Raymond, she learns not to trust the stereotypes that society casts on people because you never really know a person until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Scout’s narration showcases her struggle with the realization that not everyone values integrity and morals.

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee chooses to narrate the book from the perspective of Scout, who is a child. One of the themes of the book is growing up, and questioning the ways of the people in Maycomb. Scout always thought that the people in Maycomb were the best until she started to realize that a lot of them were very racist when the trial gets closer. Because she is a kid, her opinions can change more easily than those of an adult. Because she hasn’t known the people in Maycomb for as long as the adults, she can more easily accept that they have bad views, while people who have known them for a while would deny that because they’ve always thought they were a good person.

She understands that the facts were there, and Atticus presented them to his best ability, but, as Scout says, “in the secret courts of men’s hearts” (Lee 245), the white supremacy and black discrimination of that time presided over the truth. Thus, some of her childhood innocence leaves her, and a burden more commonly dealt with by older children and adults is placed on her shoulders. However, Scout is not the the only one to deal with subjects older than her age, as Jem is learning to cope with heavy matters as

She’s just escorted the infamous Boo Radley to his house and standing on his front porch gets her reminiscing about what she’s gone through lately, but from Arthur’s perspective. “In my mind the night faded. It was daytime and the neighborhood was busy” (Lee, 373). That’s her slipping into her memories. After reliving her recent past Scout says to herself, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (Lee, 374). This last quote indicates that her walk down memory lane has changed her view on Arthur Radley for the better. For being the main character who’s supposed to oppose the ignorance and prejudice that’s all around her, Scout was quite the hypocrite for much of the book. She always going on nothing but the gossip and rumor she was fed to judge Arthur’s character. That is, until this point. Scout take Atticus’s words to heart and sees the error of her ways, no longer just ready to accept everything anyone else says about others. This is Scout seeing the readers off with a flashback that guides her towards her own resolution.

Scout and Jem save his father when people get angry about Atticus of he help the Tom Robinson, they think he betrays their race. They go out to confront the men outside a courthouse. When Atticus told Jem to leave, and Jem refuses to leave from Atticus because he knew his father is in danger, he stays with his father is because of the love, love gave him the courage to make him stay, even though he knew he would be in trouble if he stays, but he still did. Scout tries to fight one of them when they reach for Jem. “Don’t you touch him!”

Scout rigorously was able to progress and mature, as well as adapt to new situations, visually changing her morals and outlook on her life. Scouts moral growth took off at the very beginning of the novel, early on during her issues at school with her teacher, Miss.Caroline. Scout professes her concern to Atticus on her learning, and her personal belief regarding Miss.Caroline's lack of teaching things of those similar to what Scout was learning at home. Scout felt although she was progressing more educationally at home when reading and writing with Atticus. After Scout talked to Atticus she truly realized Miss.Caroline’s point of view. In the text Atticus handled the situation with Scout by saying, “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 it.” (Lee 39) Scout definitely was able to gain new insight from this experience and from talking with Atticus. Atticus was as well able to accommodate Scout in learning these new skills. Scout additionally accomplished moral growth in her experience bothering Boo Radley. Scout and her rather childish ways began back at the beginning of the book when Scout took interest in Boo Radley and his life. Scout, being intrusive and invasive at the beginning, took concern in his life, which soon she quickly learned was not proper. Atticus provided the following saying to teach Scout the importance of developing and maturing from her preprosperous ways. “Furthermore had it never occurred to us that the civil way

Injustice is a theme that Lee portrays through Tom Robinson’s case and both Jem and Scout have trouble getting to grips with the fact that an innocent man is going to jail for a crime he clearly did not commit. The fact that good people can still suffer injustice is difficult to take on at such a tender age. However, the two understand the situation and although they are not happy with the result they are ‘coming of age’ and

One Motif that was not discussed in the use of childhood, which is really important when the author wants to keep things light and in a innocent. For Example, in “To Kill A Mockingbird” the narrator of the novel is a young girl who is six years old. She sees the world in a different light than she would as an adult. She is still young when her and her brother jem would be reacting the story of Boo Radley in the front yard, and eager to go to school and play outside with her big brother. These aspects keep the novel not only interesting but easy going despite the issues of race and social status. Another example is “The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn”, which also holds very heavy topics of discussion: slavery and racism. But through the use

Childhood is the best part of life when you are free from anxiety and responsibility and when you are the most innocuous in life. Lee shows the readers at the beginning of the book about how Scout relates to every child with the same childhood experience but when the reader gets towards the end of the book we can see how she has a different experience than other children would have in their childhood. When Scout really becomes aware of prejudice is when Scout and her Aunt have the conversion about Walter Cunningham “Don’t be silly, Jean Louise,” said Aunt Alexandra. “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.