Growing up is hard, but when you add in nosey neighbors, scary houses, a stuck up aunt, and taunting children, it becomes more difficult. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee that was published in 1960. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Scout Finch is a six year old narrator. She lives with her father, her brother, and Calpurnia, their black cook. Scout spends her summers playing with her brother, Jem, and her friend, Dill Harrison. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is a lawyer and he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The story is an account of the next three years of Scout’s life in Maycomb. Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it takes a couple years for Scout Finch to grow and mature into an understanding, empathetic, polite, young lady. Scout starts to understand people’s needs, opinions, and their points of view. In the beginning, Scout does not really think much about other people’s feelings, unless it directly pertains to her. Jem and Dill decided to create a play based on the life of one of their neighbors, Boo Radley. According to neighborhood rumors, Boo got into a lot of trouble as a kid, stabbed his father with scissors, and never comes out of the house. The children create a whole drama and act it out each day. “As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it, added dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play among which we rang changes every day” (Lee 52). Scout turned Boo’s life into a joke, something for her entertainment. She did not think about how Boo would feel if he knew what they were doing. Near the end of the book, while Boo was at the Finch house, Scout led him onto the porc... ... middle of paper ... ... have some. After all, if Aunty could be a lady at a time like this, so could I” (318). Her aunt taught her that even at times when you are completely distraught, it is important to pull it together and act the right way. Scout went from being a troublemaking tomboy to a respectful, young lady. In conclusion, To Kill a Mockingbird is a book about growing up and taking other people into consideration. Scout Finch is the main example of this. She starts the novel as a naive, ill mannered, tomboy. By the last page, Scout has transformed into an understanding, empathetic, polite, young lady. There is not a specific age where a girl turns into a woman or where a boy turns into a man. Maturity is reached through experiences and how they are handled. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1960. Print.
Each and every person will go through a coming of age experience sometime in their life. Those experiences can come in different forms. But, each coming of age experience ends up shaping us to become a mature adult. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells a coming of age story through Scout Finch, an aging girl’s point of view. Her brother, Jem Finch, who experiences coming of age before Scout, realizes that being an adult was not what he hoped.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is based during the era of racism and prejudice. This era is commonly referred to as The Great Depression and is during the mid-late 30’s. The novel is set in a small town and county called Maycomb, Alabama. The novel follows the story of the Finch’s and their struggle before, during, and after a rape trial that is set against an African American by a white woman and her father.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. The novel is set in the depths of the Great Depression. A lawyer named Atticus Finch is called to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. The story is told from one of Atticus’s children, the mature Scout’s point of view. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, the Finch Family faces many struggles and difficulties.
Few have very strict and narrow definitions of what it means to be a lady, however; those who do appear extremely attached to the ideals and strive to maintain their image.There are many examples of this, although the most notable and influential to Scout has been Aunt Alexandra. Aunt Alexandra completely adheres to and advertises the highly ideal standard of a woman in the 1930’s. In the 1930’s the ‘ideal’ woman or the standard for it was extremely close minded as demonstrated by Aunt Alexandra’s very presence, Scout views her in a strict manner and says, “ Aunt Alexandra fitted into the world of Maycomb like a hand into a glove, but never into the world of Jem and me”(Lee 150). In the early stages of their living together, Scout resist the idea of giving up her masculine activities for a life like her Aunts. While Scout aims to reject her Aunt’s ideals Aunt Alexandra is the type of woman who understands that a woman’s image is always fragile because it is always in the hands of a man. Another woman in the novel that Scout resists for most of her early years is Calpurnia. Following Scout going to Calpurnia’s church, Scout begins to respect Calpurnia’s ways. Scout states “That Calpurnia had led a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside our household was a novel one”
The book To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 by an author named Harper Lee. Harper Lee born was April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama Lee had made 2 novels in the time she was alive she had wrote To Kill A Mockingbird and Go Set A Watchman. Harper lee had also illustrated a few children's books. So what is courage? To Kill A Mockingbird gives the readers a look into how terrible things were in the south during the 1930’s from prejudice to racism to morality and even youth. When an African American man named Tom Robinson is wrongly accused of raping a young, white girl a lawyer named Atticus Finch takes the case. Atticus Finch is the main character's father. Atticus is very different from most people in Maycomb county, Atticus believes in justice for all and that
Everyone goes through different changes as they grow up. Maturing, coming of age, and doing the right thing are important themes in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This theme is most often seen in the character Jeremy “Jem” Finch. He portrays this theme when he begins to enter puberty and becomes a young man. Jeremy starts to become more independent, wiser and more able to comprehend adult situations; Jem begins to get a better grasp on things. Other characters that demonstrate this theme are Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Arthur “Boo” Radley. Harper Lee shows how Scout comes of age in similar ways to Jem. Scout begins to grow up and become more tolerant of others by “putting herself in another person’s skin”. Boo displays his “coming of age” in a somewhat different way than Jem and Scout. There’s a scene in To Kill A Mockingbird where Boo has the chance to do the right thing by putting himself in harm’s way in order to save lives, and he takes the chance. To Kill A Mockingbird is a book that is overflowing with the theme “coming of age” (whether it is shown through the main character or others). This theme is important to the story because these characters are a small example of the changes that Maycomb needs to undergo. Jeremy Finch is the character in which this theme is most represented in.
“The worst prisons were not constructed or warped steel and stone. They were carved out of expectations and lies, judgement and corruption.” -Kelseyleigh Reber, If I Resist. To Kill A Mockingbird is written by Harper Lee and was published on July 11, 1960. The book is written about the prejudice and racial discrimination during the early 1930’s. At the same time, slavery has recently been abolished and The Great Depression had begun, when the US economy had crashed into economic recession. The story revolves around a girl named Scout, her brother Jem and their father, Atticus Finch. In Maycomb County, a town located in Southern Alabama, a man named Boo Radley has never left his home and is rumoured to be “six-and-a-half feet tall and dines
In person’s life, he or she goes through a stage of growing up. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, author Lee directs the readers into the Depression era where the characters live in a world filled with white prejudices and racism against African Americans. Tension and injustice rises when false accusations on African Americans were placed by White folk. Throughout the novel we see Scout, the main protagonist and the narrator, grow up from the beginning to end when she discovers hidden secrets in her town. Every child, like Scout, experiences a major event in their life that allows one to grow up and better understand the world they live in. Overtime, they develop into a different person and he/she gains a new perspective about
The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place in the 1930s in a small Alabama county called Maycomb. The novel is about the Finch family of three. Atticus, the father, Scout the older brother and Scout the younger sister, who acts like a tomboy. Scout may be a lady, but does not like to act like one, she likes to play and get dirty with her brother. Being young, both children learn lessons throughout the novel by many different residents, such as, Calpurnia, the maid, Miss Maudie, the neighbor, and their father, Atticus. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird various citizens in the town of Maycomb play an important role in the lives of Jem and Scout Finch
To kill a mockingbird, written by the award winning author Harper Lee, is a story filled with stereotypes, misconceptions and racial prejudice. It is set in the mid 1930’s in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Much of the novel was based around a court case between Tom Robinson; a negro citizen of Maycomb, wrongly accused of the sexual assault of Mayella Ewell; a poor, mistreated and abused white girl, desperate for affection.
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird was published by author Harper Lee, in the year of 1960; during the period of The Great Depression. The plot takes place in southern Alabama, where racism and hatred is shown throughout this literature piece. The book is told from the perspective of a child named Jean Louise, also known as Scout. She lives with her older brother named Jem, along with her father Atticus, whom is a well known lawyer in the county. Throughout the story, the author builds up the events that add up into the occurrence of the trial, the trial of Tom Robinson against Bob Ewell and his daughter Mayella Ewell. Robinson is put on trial because he is accused of raping his daughter. The main focus of this piece is the vanishment of innocence. As
As people grow in life, they mature and change. In the novel , To Kill a Mockingbird ,by Harper Lee, Scout, the main character, matures as the book continues. Slowly but surely, Scout learns to control her explosive temper, to refrain from fistfights, and to respect Calpurnia, their maid, and to really learn her value to the family. Scout simply changes because she matures, and she also changes because Atticus, her father, asks her to.
As Scout grows, she starts to see Boo as a person, as apposed to some sort of an evil creature. By stopping her games, and the tormenting of Boo, she shows respect for him and shows dignity in herself.
No matter where or who a person is, they are always learning something, either about themselves or about the environment around them. In Harper Lee's heartwarming novel titled To Kill A Mockingbird, the main characters Jem and Scout grow and mature throughout the story as they learn both more about themselves and the world around them. As the story progresses, they learn many life lessons including those about prejudice, people and how they have been categorized and judged, and, last but not least, gender issues.