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. First of all, early in the novel, Scout feels left …show more content…
When the children discuss the ‘sin’ with Miss Maudie, she tells them, “You’re father’s right...Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This lesson played a role in coming of age as the children now understand that they must consider the circumstances and act toward an individual as he/she would want to be
It’s interesting to see the ways different authors depict how a character matures. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird we can easily see how she chose to do it. The novel is set in Alabama in the 1930’s, while black vs. white racism was a big issue and problem for many. Atticus is the father of Scout and Jem, young children who witness the discrimination first hand when their father, a white man, defends a black man in court. Lee does a great job developing the characters; especially the narrator, Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Scout’s thoughts, conversations, and actions, illustrate that she’s emotionally maturing from the innocent child that she was.
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.
In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee, the author has used numerous different methods to portray the themes of innocence, maturity and growing up. These themes were put in so that the audience could become more empathetic towards the characters, especially the protagonists. She depicts these themes through characters, events, using symbolism, imagery and contrast located throughout the book.
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.
As children grow up, they open their eyes to the harsh truths in the world around them that they once did not understand or question. This is experienced by the main characters of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The story is of a girl called Scout and her older brother, Jem, who go through the trials of growing up in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Racism is rampant in the mindset of the townspeople, shown when the children’s lawyer father, Atticus, takes the case of an obviously innocent African-American man and they convict him in their hearts before the trial even starts. Through this all, we can see the theme of loss of innocence in the children. Lee uses characterization to portray
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.
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.
In the novel, to kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee presents three very distinct types of innocence that are portrayed by different characters throughout the novel. A good part in this story’s brilliance is that Harper Lee has managed to use the innocence of a young girl to her advantage. She does this by telling the whole story from a child’s point-of-view. By having an innocent little girl make racial remarks and regard people of color in a way consistent with the community, Lee provides the reader with an objective view of the situation. As a child, Scout can make observations that an adult would often avoid. In addition, readers are also likely to be forgiving of a child’s perception, whereas they would find an adult who makes these
It's interesting to see the ways different authors depict how a character matures, a stage that many of us have been through. In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird we can easily see how she chose to do it. The novel is set in Alabama in the 1930's, while black vs. white racism was a big issue and problem for many. Atticus is the father of Scout and Jem, young children who witness the discrimination first hand when their father, a white man, defends a black man in court. Lee does a great job developing the characters; especially the narrator, Jean Louise Finch (Scout). Scout's thoughts, conversations, and actions, illustrate that she's emotionally maturing from the innocent child that she was.
During the coming of age process, one must learn to see things from the point of view of others. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, a Southern Gothic novel by Harper Lee, Scout and Jem, children that are growing up in the racism-filled American South, mature as they experience the social prejudices around them. In chapters 12-14, Scout and Jem experience events, such as visiting a black church, while slowly beginning to understand the racism behind their father’s Tom Robinson case. In the chapters 12-14 of “To Kill A Mockingbird”, through the experiences of Scout and Jem, the characters and events reveal the message that coming of age involve recognizing different perspectives and learning from them. Scout and Jem’s experience when visiting the Black
When you write about a family with two young children obviously you can expect ‘coming of age’ themes to be prevalent in the text. Scout Finch is not your average 10 year old girl, she is not afraid to voice her opinions with her actual voice and her fists. Atticus tells her that this trait is not very proper and she should consider other peoples views before concluding her own.
To Kill A Mockingbird details the coming-of-age of both Scout and her brother Jem as they start to realize that the town that they have grown up in is not as nice as it may seem. This all starts when their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer, takes on the case of Tom Robinson, an African American man who is accused of raping a white woman. Since this is the 1960’s not too many people take to kindly to this act, and because of it his family comes under fire from the community. Even though it was Atticus, who took on the Tom Robinson case, it was his family who suffered the most: from the harassment of the townsfolk, from their own inner fears of the trial, and even from the embarrassment that came from the trial.
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a literary work written in 1960 by the american author Harper Lee, who demonstrates the importance and benefit of moral education through the characters Scout and Jem Finch, which leads to their growth as characters. The underlying message of the novel in regard to these lessons is that each one has a profound impact on how both Jem and Scout’s actions change as they learn and mature from the events that cause the children to pick up these traits. The novel explores this notion through three main lessons that the above characters have learned during the story’s progression: the lesson of prejudice, courage and empathy.
Growing up is an important part of life that we look forward to, as becoming an adult seems exciting, but realizing the truth may be difficult. In the novel, “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee shows the significance of growing up through his literature. Lee shows this through one of the protagonist in the novel, Scout looses her innocence as she discovers the harsh reality of society. In addition, her younger brother Jem also learns from his experiences, as he gains a new perspective and point of view from others. Scout and Jem also grow from their encounter and relation with Boo Radley. The two siblings both go through an emotional growing up development, as they learn from past experiences and see the world in a different way. One will lose their innocence from experiences that will change their point of view of things, but also gain wisdom and knowledge as it leads to the result of growing up.
As if derived from innocence, from the lack of guile and mental corruption of one's very own sense of purity; the loss of innocence is an inexorable process of maturity and the development of one's character for both physical and moral enhancement. For instance, throughout Jem and Scout's early years at Maycomb, the two children set an enormous breakthrough in their transformation into young adults as they encountered the real world and came to know the good and the evil on their surroundings alongside their own inner demons. For instance, the youngster's imagination and curiosity rapidly expanded through the mysteries and conundrums set on the simplicity of a knothole throughout their days. Furthermore, through out the development of the scene of the knothole, Jem and Scout began to unfold the character of Boo Radley as the responsible for their frequent presents on the knothole while at the same time