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 …show more content…
They’re seen as hostile and inferior to White people. However, this idea is questioned when Zeebo welcomes them to the church with: “Mister Jem… we’re mighty glad to have you all here” (119). This warm welcome helps the children realize that black people aren’t necessarily the same as how society portrays them. The visit to the Black church as a whole helped them understand the side of African Americans that can’t be understood through normal interactions. Scout and Jem mature from this event, as they have learned to consider different perspectives and learn from them. Scout and Jem’s visit to the Black church also helps the children understand the togetherness of the Black community. Due to how White people describe Black people as, the children are surprised by how close the Black community is. Towards the end of their visit, Reverend Sykes asks the congregation for donations, “You all know what it’s for - Helen can’t leave those children to work while Tom is in jail” (122). The White people of Maycomb have described Tom Robinson as a monster who raped Bob Ewell’s daughter, and Scout and Jem have been misled by this
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 the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee includes many coming of age moments. For example, I chose the part where Scout walks Boo home. Scout is the narrator of the book and Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley accompanies her in this scene. This is a coming of age example because near the end, Scout talks about how she felt she’d already learned what she needed to be an adult. Today I’ll be talking about literary elements in this passage.
In the story, Lee shows how Scout is perceiving a different point of view: “I had never seen our neighborhood from this angle”(320). Seeing differences through other people’s perspectives is greatly needed to grow up. Scout had finally “stepped” into Boo’s shoes and had seen everything from Boo’s point of view. Scout points out that she is acting on the impression of Mr. Raymond: “Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too”(Lee 229). Scout realized from what Mr. Raymond and Atticus had told her that black folks get everything worse than white folks. Coming-of-age requires seeing problems through different
“You can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes” is a saying that will always hold truth to it, even in this day and age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, where two children are living in a racially segregated town in the 1930’s, this is demonstrated a lot. Through the use of point of view and coming of age, Lee proves that you can never understand how someone is feeling without imagining yourself in their perspective.
Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters develop and mature in unique ways. Boo, who fears talking to others, Aunt Alexandra, who is against people of other races or social classes, and Scout, who is young and is not aware of life’s challenges, constantly suppress their emotions and personality. Their life choices and decisions that they make throughout the book, lead them to be more accepting of others and less prejudice. As the book progresses, Boo, Aunt Alexandra, and Scout learn life lessons and develop into mature adults.
The passages i have chose today for my coming of age essay was the court scene and the problems after the court scene because there were multiple parts in those 2 scenes where the kids could have possibly observed some experience for coming of age and i will explain every single detail and every little piece of information to show you how and what they observed to coming of age in the future.
Harper Lee, in the realistic-fiction novel To Kill A Mockingbird, uses a variety of literary elements to aid in the overall development of the theme. All of the characters are going through some sort of coming of age experience or enhancing someone else's experience as well as their lives all the while being greatly impacted by the racial discrimination and injustices that occurred all around them. An event in the novel that expresses this is the court case of Tom Robinson, or more specifically, Atticus’s, Tom Robinson’s attorney, closing argument. During this Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a white girl in their town of Maycomb, and Atticus decides to defend him as his attorney despite the town's clear racial biases and preconceived stereotypes on people of color; this greatly impacts Atticus’s daughter, Scout. To show this Harper Lee uses setting, plot and conflict to enhance the development of the novel and put forth the theme. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses these literary elements, plot, conflict and setting to develop the idea that the presence of racial inequality leading to the undermining of justice impacts the coming of age for Scout on a variety of levels.
The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a novel about children coming of age during the great depression in the Jim Crow south. The passage when Dill comes of age is when Dill sees the ugly truth of reality. They are in the courtroom and Mr. Gilmore is treating Tom Robinson as though he is not a human being. Dill becomes emotionally unstable and goes outside where he talks to Scout, Jem, and Mr. Raymond. They talk about how Mr. Gilmore is stereotyping black people and making ugly remarks. The author uses the literary elements characterization, dialog, and tone to promote the theme, as we get older we can handle more information.
The award winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee includes several key components that are exemplary passages of coming-of-age scenes. One of the most significant scenes throughout the whole book is the courtroom scene that describes the trial of Tom Robinson, who has been accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. The outcome of the trial was creating a coming-of-age scene for several characters, including Jem Finch, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, and Dill Harris. In this scene, it is seen that in defense of Tom, Atticus Finch uses ethical, logical, and emotional stances in order to find Tom innocent and continue to fight for justice by being impartial and having no judgement unlike society. Although a strong defense was presented, society still
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The certain age at which this transition takes place changes in society, as does the nature of the change. Some coming of age experiences in To Kill a Mockingbird include Francis making fun of Atticus, Mrs. Dubose’s death, the narrator being in another character's shoes and the jail mob scene. Although, I will be focusing on the jail mob scene throughout this essay. Atticus leaves the house one evening and Jem, Scout, and Dill wonder where he is going. They go investigate and find him reading in front of Tom Robinson’s jail cell. Minutes later four cars pulled in front of the jail cell. The men gout out and ask Atticus if Tom Robinson is in the cell. They then
In Harper Lee’s novel about coming of age, To Kill a Mockingbird, there is a common reference to the sin of tainting something or someone that is pure. A mockingbird displays no evil traits and all they want to do is sing their beautiful songs. Similar to mockingbirds, some of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird represent nothing but innocence. Others are comparable to blue jays, who are noisy and obnoxious. A few of these birds that have their own song that is exclusive to them include Mayella Ewell, Jean Louise Scout Finch, and Boo Radley.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses multiple literary elements to develop the theme of “coming of age”. The setting of the story is in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s when racism and prejudice was common pre- Civil Rights movement. Throughout the novel, the theme becomes increasingly evident as we follow Scout through the early years of her childhood and witness her becoming more informed about her community. As the author is conveying the theme to the audience, it is noticeable that multiple literary elements strike out as more obvious than others. For instance, symbolism, the subplot, and dynamic characters are quite evident.
“Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” (Lee 101) In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man named Tom Robinson is being accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. White man, Atticus Finch, was given Tom Robinson’s case and was determined to fight for Tom’s innocence. Even if fighting for Mr. Robinson meant putting his children Jem and Scout in danger, he would still be teaching them right from wrong.
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.
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the representation of childhood shapes the meaning of the novel as a whole. Lee’s representation of childhood as innocence exposes the theme of prejudice being difficult to understand when growing up. To begin, childhood innocence shapes prejudice being difficult to understand when growing up by conveying the situations through the eyes and mind of a child who has more than the average knowledge of a typical child and knows the difference between right and wrong. For example, during the novel Walter Cunningham does not have any lunch and Miss Caroline offers Walter some money but Walter refuses to take and Miss Caroline does not understand, therefore Scout tries to explain to Miss Caroline but saying