Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: Scout's Childhood Innocence and Growing Maturity

One’s childhood innocence is never lost, it simply plants the seed for the flower of maturity to bloom. It seems that almost every adult chooses to either forget or ignore this childhood vulnerability. But ironically, it was this quality that pushed them into adulthood in the first place. At the peak of their childhood, their post climactic innocence allows room for the foundation of maturity to begin to grow. In the sleepy southern town of Maycomb this is exactly what happens to eight years old Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. In To Kill a Mockingbird the character Scout is forced to surround herself with a very adult situation, when a trial comes to the small town of Maycomb. The trial raises the question that shakes the entire town up, what prevails, racism, or the truth? And over the course of the novel the author shows how such events affect the way Scout grows over the course of the story. In the timeless novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee uses Scout’s incentives of purity and the quest for parental approval to stress the novel’s central thesis, the process of growing up.

Scout’s innocence and naivety push her to act the way she does, and also allow her to begin her own journey down the path to adulthood. Her immaturity becomes exceptionally clear in the middle of a neighborhood crisis. When her neighbor’s house catches on fire all Scout is worried about is retrieving a book because she is scared that her friend, Dill, will get mad if it burns in the fire. When she hears that her house might burn down her only words are, “That Tom Swift book, it ain’t mine, it’s Dill’s” (Lee 93). This quote shows her juvenility because when her whole house is threatened by a perilous fire she only says that she has to get Dill’s book. Such a...

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...s that she is capable of harnessing ideas that not even all adults can apply, as long as she has enough motivation. As a result, Atticus’ attention is enough drive for Scout to take a huge step forward. Just by trying to impress her father Scout learns a major lesson that allows her to mature.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird the moral of the novel, the process of growing up, is played up by connecting it to Scout’s motivations of childishness and the need for parental consent. Scout’s case is normal for a child on the verge of adolescence. By looking at a growing child’s example there is much to learn. Unfortunately, most adults try to forget their stage of innocence, act like they were never as vulnerable as a child. But the truth is, everyone can improve their outlook on life by just looking at someone like Scout, a child whose petals are starting to open.