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To Kill A Mockingbird Coming Of Age Analysis

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a critically acclaimed coming of age novel, focuses on the life of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch and a sleepy town called Maycomb. Lee uses the book to explore multiple themes involving racism and coming of age. After a pivotal moment with Cecil Jacobs Scout undergoes a clear psychological change where she discovers that the world isn’t a perfect place where everyone is treated equally, the theme of the book. A pivotal moment in the novel takes place in Chapter nine. After a fight with Cecil Jacobs Scout asks Atticus why Cecil called him a nigger lover. Atticus explains how he is “simply defending a Negro”(Lee 77). Atticus later explains why he is doing this and Scout’s eyes begin to open to the fact that people are looked at differently and it isn’t fair. After all her father was being made fun of for simply defending a Negro. Imagine the treatment actual Negroes get. …show more content…

During the opening chapters of the book Scout is carefree and outgoing ignorant of the social barriers society has created. Over one summer Scout, Jem and Dill even make a Boo Radley game that they polish and perfect adding “dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play upon which we rang changes every day”(Lee 40). Scout is innocent and sees nothing wrong with playing a game that makes fun of someone and could easily offend them. However, after the trial Scout sees the error of her ways as she “felt a twinge of remorse, when passing by the old place, at ever having taken part in what must have been sheer torment to Arthur Radley”(Lee 245). Consequently the actions taken in the trial and the views shown have caused Scout to see the true nature of the world and the problems with making fun of people you know nothing about despite what everyone else

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