Childhood In To Kill A Mockingbird

A person’s moral compass is shifted with each memory gained in life. Harper Lee’s story, To Kill a Mockingbird, revolves around two impressionable growing children, Scout, and Jem Finch. Over the course of two summers, the Finch children learn how to dictate their judgment over what is right and what is wrong. Living their childhood in the small town of 1930s Maycomb, Alabama, they experience moments that change their perception of life forever. Family dynamics, peer interactions, and hometown customs influence their ability to empathize with others.

Experiencing disillusionment is a normal part of coming of age. An important aspect of facing reality involves dealing with other people’s differences. Atticus Finch, the children’s father, teaches

By the beginning of the novel, six-year-old Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch had not yet reached that level of understanding, especially when it came to her neighbor, Boo Radley. Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley is the family’s solitary neighbor who is the subject of the majority of the rumors in Maycomb. The adults’ gossip had laid the foundation for her perception of Boo Radley; she was unable to see him as the human being he was. Instead, he was a frightening “malevolent phantom (Lee, 9)” with “bloodstained (Lee, 14)” hands. Her deductions drove her to treat him without kindness or empathy; he was but a monster who only brought pain to the community. Scout and the other children’s antics crossed the line of respect as they disregarded his right to respect. Scout’s disrespect for Boo Radley had emerged from a place of ignorance visible to

Though the divisions between race and class were apparent, Scout and Jem could not comprehend how divided their world was. One way that Scout and Jem came to understand the divisions in their world was through their exchanges with the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams were a family of poor, white farmers entirely dependent on their harvest to survive. When their youngest, Walter Cunningham Jr., came over for dinner, he relished himself in their supply of syrup. Scout was appalled and disgraced him at the table, leading Calpurnia, their black cook, to pull her away from the dining. Scout struggled to see her mistake, she couldn’t see him as anything more than “just a Cunningham (Lee, 27).” She respected the levels of the social hierarchy in Maycomb and treated Walter as if he were inferior solely because of his financial status. Calpurnia informed her that “some folks---don’t eat like” like her family could (Lee, 27). Although Syrup may seem like an ordinary thing for Scout, it is a luxury for someone like Walter Cunningham who doesn’t even know where his next meal is coming from. This ordeal helped Scout question just how damaged the social norms are in