“How Does Harper Lee Present Her Ideas About Childhood in the Novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?” In the novel ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ written by Harper Lee, childhood is expressed throughout the story. The narrator of ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ is Scout, an adult when the book was written, but a child when the story was lived, with this narration Harper Lee, uses Scout to portray the events which, normally would have had a biased review by adults at the time, but because it is written by a child it has non-judgemental views. Therefore, because of the child narrator, and the other main characters being children, this shows that childhood in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ is important and crucial. In the chapters 1 to 12, childhood is presented by friendship, gullibility, pride, questioning and fear. The fear element, is a major part through ‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’, because at different stages of the novel at least one of the main characters is scared. The Finch children first experience real friendship in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’, when they meet Charles Baker Harris – Dill. Before Dill has passed the ‘Jem test’, Dill boasts to Scout and Jem that he can read. Which was not usually common in Maycomb at the time, but Jem and Scout could both read, which meant that they thought Dill was showing off and they wouldn’t want to be friends with him. Also what makes Dill become an issue about friendship, is how he introduces himself. He recites his entire name, and makes fun of Jem’s name (Jeremy Atticus Finch), which therefore causes Jem to dislike him. However when Dill, tells about Dracula, he is accepted in Jem and Scout’s inner friendship circle. All of these actions the boasting, the story telling, and the unnecessary argument with Jem about their names represents Harper Lee’s idea about friendship and childhood in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’. All three of the main children, are all gullible, because they all believe that Boo Radley, is this dangerous monster who eats cats, and that snow is caused because children who have misbehaved. Mr Avery in chapter 8 states that “when children disobeyed their parents, smoked cigarettes and made war on each other, the seasons would change”(page 70). Therefore this shows children will believe anything, which an adult, who they think is good, and unbiased, says even if it means that the result is because of their actions. What’s more the children also believe that Boo Radley is dangerous, because they have listened to gossiping adults, who enjoy telling stories whether they be true or not. However at the end, (and Jem a little in the middle), realizes that Boo isn’t dangerous or has hurt anyone in his life, because when Jem and Scout are attacked, it is Boo who comes to save them. So therefore they have learnt that no matter what someone has said, it is always important to treat people equally, and not believe something until you know it is completely accurate. However at the time of Boo Radley being fascinating, neither of the children knew, the truth about him, so they used to say things and recreating things which they thought was really at the time, so therefore they cannot actually be blamed for mistreating him, because they didn’t know the truth. Like I’ve said before they only had other adult opinions to rely on. So for that reason Harper Lee, has created Boo Radley to demonstrate that all children believe in things until they know the truth. During chapter 10, one of the main factors, is the death of Tim Johnson. When Atticus kills the dog, Jem is in awe, but he understands that even though Atticus has proved himself as an interesting father when compared to others, he knows that incident has demonstrated a skill which Atticus did not want his children to witness. In chapter 7 and chapter 5, the children are presented as inquisitive, because they find presents in a tree, near the Radley house. When Scout first found the chewing gum, Jem made her spit it out, but later on in the story, he enjoys the gifts which they have found and even lies to Atticus about them, which proves that he has changed his views on Boo Radley, plus this stage also shows the first loss of childhood innocence because he starts to become wiser about Maycomb’s inhabitants. The note, which the children planned to place on the Radley house, depicts them as inquisitive because they want to know about him, but when Atticus caches them, Jem tries to explain what they were doing only to result in Jem yelling “I thought wanted to be a lawyer, but I ain’t so sure now!”. This shows that Jem is beginning to grow up because he now argues back to Atticus which he would have never done before. Atticus advises Scout to step in others shoes, so when Dill makes Scout leave the court room because he has been crying, and when they both meet Dolphus Raymond, who is apparently always drunk. They comprehend that he only acts drunk, because he wants to spare himself from all of the racial abuse that he would encounter, so instead he pretends that he is out of his mind. Scout starts to understand that the people who she thought were good hearted citizens are actually racist and prejudice to anything that does not meet the exact requirements. Jem has changed significantly since the beginning of the novel, because for example on page 7 Jem says “we were never tempted to break them” meaning the boundaries that Atticus has set for them. The words ‘never tempted’ means that they accepted the boundaries and have never considered breaking the rules. However on page 168 Jem shakes his head and says ”I ain’t going..” to Atticus. This contrasts to Jem’s previous actions because he has now defined Atticus by not budging and ignoring instructions which would save him and his sister from any harm, but because he is stubborn, he as a consequence feels protective over Atticus, because he knows that if he goes, Atticus might get hurt. Jem’s feeling towards his sister scout have also changed during the novel because in page 17 he told Scout not to bother him, but on page 118 he says “my sister ain’t dirty” to Mrs Dubose. Therefore he has changed from not wanting Scout to be near him at school, to defending Scout when she is targeted by Mrs Dubose. So therefore Jem wants to protect Scout. Furthermore, Jem also protects Scout, when they both get attacked by Bob Ewell, even though Jem is still only a child, he sacrifices his own safety to let his sister run away from their elusive attacker, which is what an adult would normally do. In the end it turns out that Boo Radley, the one who the children tormented all summer saves Jem, and as a consequence is seen by Scout. This appearance makes Scout become conscious that Boo Radley, could always come out of his house but he chose not to. To conclude Harper Lee presents her ideas about childhood in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ by demonstrating three children’s actions in three years. In these years the children face many situations, which only a child at heart could deal with. At the beginning of the novel the children thought everyone was a good-hearted person, but at the end they have a wider range of view on racism and prejudice.