...breathing,” Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird highlights her childhood, showing the racism in her home and mirrors her family life. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the innocence of children and growing up. Harper Lee’s Maycomb mirrors her childhood home of Monroeville, Alabama and the white supremacy. Scout is the child of a lawyer taking on a job of defending a black man in front of the town. Characterization is how an author portrays a character in their piece. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a masculine young child who is learning about the world with her curiousity. She is adventurous because she of the way she treats the mysterious Radley house. Scout Finch is more interested in playing rather being the “typical girl”. When Scout caught Walter Cunningham she rubbed his nose in dirt. This specific piece shows Scout’s aggressiveness and her “masculinity” towards everyone. She also stomped at him to scare him off after she rubbed his nose in dirt. This specific piece shows more aggression and “bravery”. “ He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham,” Scout says this to Calpurnia the family...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird: Essay Explore the growth to maturity of Scout in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Maturation is one of the most important themes in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, and one of the characters to whom this theme applies the most is Scout Finch, the narrator. Starting out as a young, tomboy character who is naïve and immature, over the years in which the novel is set a change in her behaviour becomes prominent, as she acquires more grown up behaviours and beliefs. Arguably the most important change in Scout’s character is her learning to understand other people and their desires and needs, rather than just her own. A notable example of this is her treatment of Boo Radley. At the beginning of the novel, the children’s games concerning his lifestyle and family history demonstrated childish and immature fantasies and, ultimately, a selfish obsession with him, revealing no thought of Boo’s feelings or point of view. Atticus advises them against this habit, telling the children to “stop tormenting that man”. The Radley games is also the one of the first times in the novel when Atticus uses one of his commonest pieces of advice: to “climb into his skin and walk around in it”. However, as the novel progresses, it is obvious that Scout and Jem do become more thoughtful of Boo Radley, stopping their constant annoyance of him, and starting to realise Boo’s sentiments as well. This is shown when Jem has an epiphany that the reason “Boo Radley’s stayed shut...
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is often cited as one of the greatest coming of age novels in modern literature. The story is told mostly from a child’s point of view, and focuses on two points in time. This character is Scout, a six year old (and eventually nine later in the book), who acts in the beginning of the story like most children her age, naïve. As the plot progresses, Scout is matured and transformed by mainly her experiences with society, which often have increasingly adult themes. In order to show how much she develops, Lee places emphasis on Scout’s perception of other people’s views. Scout’s story begins when she is six years old, when she is less focussed on the big picture and more what will immediately affect her....
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...Growing up is a major struggle for many as it is a time where one loses their innocence and starts to question their beliefs, values, and morals. Growing up is when one starts to face the harsh realities of society and starts to build an understanding of right versus wrong. In the three years covered by To Kill A Mockingbird Scout, Dill, and Jem grow from being naive, immature, and impulsive to being mature and understanding. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the destruction of innocence is used to depict the characters’ growth and development as well as their new understanding of the injustice in society surrounding race. The destruction of innocence is a major theme which illustrates growth and development within the characters of...
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...Coming of Age For many generations, coming-of-age has impacted the perspectives of many perspectives. Coming-of-age occurs in everyone at one point or another. Gaining new perspectives and seeing the world in a different way is an important part of life. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is an example of a character whose coming-of-age process involves gaining a different perspective. Scout’s maturity can be proven when To Kill a Mockingbird says, “I carefully picked up the tray and watched myself walk to Mrs. Merriweather. With my best company manners, I asked her if she would have some” (Lee 318). Scout is coming-of-age when realizing how to appropriately react to certain...
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...and Jem from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsb by Scott Fitzgerald. Each of these characters encounters different processes of coming of age. When these characters process of maturation and coming of age are compared, the most relevant coming of age best exhibited by Holden from The Catcher in the Rye, following with Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and Mr. Gatsby from The Great Gatsby; however, differences in coming of age are apparent in the different time periods of each novel setting, practicality, and present social issues. Holden Caulfield, the main character in The Catcher in the...
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...Through Chapters 9 and 10 of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, there are instances that show both the maturity and the immaturity of the characters. One instance in which the characters show maturity is when Atticus must defend Tom Robinson, a black man being putting on trial, accused of raping a white woman. Although Atticus may not fully support the cause, he must because of his social and ethical responsibilities, showing that he is mature enough to set aside his beliefs and morals for the right of man and his responsibilities. One instance that shows immaturity is when Scout curses at Francis and beats him up. This shows immaturity from both Scout and from Francis. On Scout’s side, this shows immaturity because she is taking what Francis said,...
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...Literature is composed of archetypes and some archetypes are usually taken from the human experience of coming-of-age. Such is the case in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, where Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and her brother Jem live in their ordinary world of Maycomb, Alabama. However, Scout’s ordinary world changes when their father, Atticus Finch, defends a negro named Tom Robinson in court for being accused of raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell. Harper Lee has Scout’s learn about empathy, courage, and standing against prejudiced ideas from her role models in order to build Scout’s character to prepare for the inmost cave. Scout learns how to empathize with other from her roles models to take the first step out of the inmost cave. Early...
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...Innocence is the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense. Innocence is one of the many recurring themes of To Kill A Mockingbird. Jem and Scout have an innocent point of view in life. The children believe the color of your skin shouldn't matter, however they soon realize ignorance in the people of Maycomb. “Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… But sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (quoted by Atticus/Ms. Maudie) Tom is nothing but a hard working innocent black man in the town of Maycomb county. Mockingbirds are symbolic to Tom Robinson because Tom is being falsely accused of rape to the white trash of the town, Mayella Ewell. Mockingbirds are innocent and all they want is to bring pleasure to those around them; Tom is innocent and all he wants to do is help Mayella with the chores around the house because he feels pity. However...
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...Not Your Average Child Scout, the main character in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, , is not a typical six year old girl. Throughout the story, she somehow manages to find trouble, even when she is not looking for it. Her brain, which is always bursting with ideas, causes her a surpassing amount of obstacles. Yet, she manages to triumph over one troublesome adventure after another. However, her carefree personality still held some understandings that many adults did not have possession of. Her inquisitive nature, loyalty, and insight all make up the complicated personality of Scout Finch. One trait that stands out in Scout's nature, is her ability to ask questions that others would keep to themselves. In the scene before the trial, Scout, Jem, and Dill spend their time observing the various individuals who arrived in Maycomb. Jem then pointed out a biracial child in the crowd, and he described their plight to Scout and Dill. After seeing the child, Dill inquires as to how Jem can tell the child apart from the other black children. Jem explains how, but Scout shows her dissatisfaction when she says, "But how can you tell?" I asked. (216) Scout is not satisfied with an uncomplicated answer, she requires a detailed...
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...A Finches Song As we grow we are constantly learning new things from people of all ages. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is written in the eyes of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, covering three years of an adolescent girl’s life. The narrator, Scout, has a better life than most during the Great Depression. In the story, Scout learns many lessons from other adults, just like any other young ‘player’ would. One of the main lessons learned is how to understand other people's perspectives by putting yourself in their shoes; which is the most important lesson Jean Louise learns in order for her to develop and evolve throughout the book. Scout got her hand slapped with a ruler the first day of school. In the schoolyard she chased Walter Cunningham...
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...Persuading the Future Generation "The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority." (Ralph W. Sockman) In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes the ways a community’s stupidly can provoke Prejudice and bias can cause a person’s true immaturity to be released. Prejudice and bias are created by the lack of knowledge, fear itself, and the need to have something to blame all our problems on and staying calm and collected will overcome this dilemma. Ignorance and the lack of knowledge can block someone from seeing that what they are doing is wrong. At the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird scout is too naïve and immature to see that everyone can be different and that is alright. When Jem invites Walter Cunningham over for dinner, without knowing what she was saying she called out Walter for “(drowning) his dinner in syrup” (32). Scout was slightly making fun of Walter because he was different and she wouldn’t accept that. She didn’t understand what she said embarrassed Walter because of her ignorance. Scout’s bias was coming from the fact that Walter comes from a family of farmers. The Cunningham’s don’t even make enough money to provide the children with proper meals. Another instance that the children were showing prejudice and bias was when it came to anything about the Radley house. Both of the Finch kids believed that if they “even touch the trees over there [they would] get killed”’ (45). This...
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