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To Kill A Mockingbird Coming Of Age Quotes

Decent Essays

“The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don’t have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it.”-Anonymous. Both Harper Lee and JD Salinger promote setting and character in order to demonstrate that coming of age requires a different perspective. Each of these authors apply these devices to the theme of coming of age through the main characters. Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, displays these devices through her main characters, Jem and Scout. Very similar, yet very different, JD Salinger, who wrote Catcher in the Rye, portrays these devices somewhat differently through his main character, Holden. Many characters between the two books learned so much relating to the coming of age theme, but in the end these …show more content…

Multiple examples of these devices are shown throughout the passage, but one specific example is shown when Scout and Jem visit the church with Calpurnia, and they noticed, “Negroes worshiped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays.” In particular, Harper Lee, shows Scout’s perspective on the church and how the Negroes used it for what it was, but it illustrates how the white men utilized it as a place to gamble during the week. In addition, Lee also writes about how character is also a device of interest throughout these excerpts. For example, Jem takes charge when he says, ““Naw Cal,” Jem whispered, when she handed him a shiny quarter, “we can put ours in. Gimme your dime, Scout.” In summary, Jem is maturing with the perspective of Calpurnia. With her, he realizes that not everyone is as fortunate as him and Scout, therefore they give up the money they had in order to help a friend out. Overall, both Jem and Scout have learned and matured from the different perspectives of setting and

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