In the novel written by Harper Lee titled To Kill a Mockingbird, it is a story that revolves around two children named Jem and Scout and their experiences in a prejudiced town as they grow up and mature into young adults. They learn lessons regarding what the real world has to offer during a time of segregation. As they discover new ideas, they also manage to learn more about themselves. Lee utilizes imagery, direct characterization, and dialogue to express the recurring theme of coming of age, also known as Bildungsroman. In the text, imagery is used to help understand the theme of coming of age. An excerpt of imagery is shown when Jem chides Scout about killing insects. The following states, “I lay on my stomach, reached down and poked …show more content…
He rolled up. Feeling sleepy, I decided to end things. My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke. Jem was scowling. It was probably a part of the stage he was going through, and I wished he would hurry up and get through it. He was certainly never cruel to animals, but I had never known his charity to embrace the insect world (Ch. 25, Pg. 319-320).” This piece of imagery is used to reveal the theme of coming of age, since it shows Jem being more mature and considerate towards insects and animals. In fact, this compassion did not manifest until Jem started maturing into adolescence. Another example appears at the end of the novel, where Scout has matured enough to understand a very important moral. According to the text, Lee writes, “... They stopped at an oak tree, delighted, puzzled, apprehensive. Winter, and his children shivered at the front gate, silhouetted against a blazing house. Winter, and a man walked into the street, dropped his glasses, and shot a dog. Summer, and he watched his children’s heart break. Autumn again, and Boo’s children needed him. Atticus was right. One time he said …show more content…
As Jem grows up, the stages of growing development is apparent. The following states, “Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to stop pestering him I consulted Atticus: ‘Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?’ Atticus said no, Jem was growing. I must be patient with him and disturb him as little as possible (Ch. 12, Pg. 153).” This use of direct characterization suggests the theme of Bildungsroman due to the fact that it blatantly states the characteristics of a growing minor. This shows how much Jem has changed in the
Since the first spark of human life, coming-of-age has even occurred at the time of Adam and Eve. Many people think that the only part of maturing is puberty. However, one of the greatest parts of growing up is not, surprisingly, going through puberty. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives.
Scout begins to notice the change in Jem’s personality and feels offended because she doesn't quite understand. On page 153 the text reads, “Over night, it seemed, Jem had acquired an alien set of values and was trying to impose them on me: several times he went so far as to tell me what to do.” Jem gets older and begins a long path of puberty. This, Scout does not understand yet. Jem moving towards a more adult like personality upsets Scout. Jem’s loss of innocence is a change but also begins to creates a new daily understanding for both Jem and Scout.
Have you ever wondered how you got to where you are now and what the changing points in your life were? Well, in To Kill a Mockingbird, we see how Scout grows up and what her changing points were. We also see how Jem matures through Scout’s eyes. Through the duration of this novel, these kids go through something most kids never have to deal with. As the Great Depression is happening, the trial of Tom Robinson, and having been attacked by Bob Ewell, Scout and Jem have to mature and act more adult like to get through these points in their lives.
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.
The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a story of life in an Alabama town in the 30's. The narrator, Jean Louise Finch, or Scout, is writing of a time when she was young, and the book is in part the record of a childhood, believed to be Harper Lee’s, the author of the book..
As To Kill a Mockingbird progresses, Jem takes definitive steps toward maturity with his actions in the tire and flower incidents, for example. He would later go on to repair the flowerbed he destroyed, and take greater care to protect Scout. Through his actions, we can see Jem develop a sense of morals and responsibility that would prove to be a lifesaver.
"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." A quote by Atticus Finch a loving single father of two children in a novel by Harper Lee. The story takes place during the 1930s and the Great Depression, in a small (made-up) town called Maycomb Alabama. Scout now an adult is narrating what she experienced and felt in ages 6-9. She gives details of her family, school, and just everything she goes through. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, she also talks about her brother Jem, who starts as a careless young boy that slowly starts getting more mature. Jem changing throughout the story helps show a little bit more of how the story develops and why character development is important in making a good novel.
Living in a small town a boy named Jem matures his thinking and learns compassion which takes him on the journey of becoming a man. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel about two southern children Jem and his younger sister Scout who experience love, danger, and tragedy. Jem begins the novel as a boy but as it progresses he takes on a more adult-like thinking and shows compassion for others and the truth.
Literary elements take up substantial fragments in stories today. In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, there is a young boy named Jem Finch and throughout the story, you start to realise that he’s growing up, not physically, but mentally, we call that ‘the coming of age’. Jem’s coming of age experience is developed at Mrs.Dubose’s (a bad tempered old lady) house through conflict, irony, and symbol.
As the novel progresses, both Jem and Scout are shown to mature, this is due to "To Kill A Mockingbird" being a bildungsroman novel. Through this coming of age process, we are actually shown Jem’s new found maturity enabling him to find empathy and acceptance regarding the Boo Radley myths, as he finally took his father’s advice to “climb into someone else’s skin and walk around in it” when he was explaining to Scout his epiphany that he “[is] beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut in his house all this time. It’s because he wants to stay inside.”
In the book, she is depicted as a tomboy. She first mentions her brother Jem, who is introduced in the story arguing against Scout about the events leading to Jem’s broken arm. Jem is a commanding type of boy. He is demonstrated throughout the story to have leadership qualities. Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout has the character of a righteous and virtuous man. He is shown to be a lawyer in the book. He is first recorded in the story in a flashback during which Scout explains how he attempted to convince his clients to plead guilty to second degree murder. She explains this because it shows a way how Atticus tries to do the right even when the standards are virtually
Intro: As Scout matured throughout the the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many common themes became obvious to both the protagonist and the reader. One of the greatest idea’s revealed was about coming of age--something that everybody goes through. This was shown through Lee’s inclusion of literary devices throughout the book. Through her use of a troubling conflict, strong individual changes, and influence from supporting characters, Lee reveals that as children mature, they realize that the world and people around them are not what they originally seem.
Why are humans here? Where did they come from? What is consciousness? Do animals have it? Are there aliens? What are they like? What is God like? Does He really understand humans? Is there free will? Is reality just an illusion? Why do humans long for order? Does evil always win? Does fighting monsters inevitably lead to becoming a monster? Are humans fundamentally good or evil? These are merely a few of the various questions that run, nay, race, through the mind of a child. There is beauty in the simplicity of curiosity on impulse, before the following of simple desires such as curiosity is exchanged among countless other treasures for security and convention. The entire relationship between childhood and adulthood is so complex and profound that it has spawned its own type of book. Bildungsroman is a German word meaning a book wherein the protagonist grows up, both in worldview and in physicality. There is an immense number of these Bildungsromans, yet almost all are, by nearly all standards, bested by the classic of American literature Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird is the predictable story of an archetypical southern kid, with one key difference: Atticus Finch. While Scout and Jem appear, at first glance, to be normal southern kids that will grow up into racist adults, swinging on the porch drinking sweet tea, this thought is inherently constrained by the innocence of the children. Jeb and Scout are too innocent to be condemned to what is, by
Scout’s maturation and non-judgmental attitude that develops throughout To Kill a Mockingbird help her mature into an individual with integrity. Contrary to the beginning of the novel, Scout establishes herself as a wise character in the latter portions of the book. After an incredulous Atticus is told that Jem did not kill Mr. Ewell, Scout reassures Atticus by saying, “Well it’d sort of be like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” (Lee 276) Taking Atticus’ advice into consideration, Scout climbs into Boo Radley’s skin and finally respects Boo’s decision to remain indoors and not be proclaimed a hero. Additionally, Scout matures into a very open-minded
One of the main elements Harper Lee uses her imagery to make the reader see different perspective from characters like Scout, Jem and Atticus. One time imagery was used was after bringing in Atticus “Jem was standing in the corner of the room, looking like the traitor he was” (161). That shows Scout's perspective of how Jem was being a “traitor” or a horrible person. Then we see though Jem gains maturity, by not getting angry at Scout or the others for thinking poorly of him.