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Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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Jaylen Isidore Mrs. Andrews English 1 Apr 12, 2024 To Kill A Mockingbird Essay “I want to know why you brought white chillun to a n****r church”(Lee 135). To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a long story about two children and their experiences in the Deep South during the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, they experience different types of racism toward African Americans. They’re experiencing racism from a different perspective than others.Lee uses elements of the character, conflict, setting which highlights a coming of age moment for Scout and Jem. In Chapter 12, Scout was introduced to an African American church for the first time in her life. Once Scout arrives at the church, she feels like she belongs there. As Scout inches further and further into the church she starts to feel …show more content…

Although Scout is uncomfortable with the place she is in, she still claims that, “It's a happy cemetery” (Lee 135). It's mighty weird for a cemetery to be called happy, even though there are dead bodies underneath where people stand. Then when Scout enters the church, she is seen by many friendly children, then she later gets a very weird and unknown smell of the church. Scout starts to describe the smell as “the bittersweet smell of clean Negro welcomed us as we entered the churchyard-Hearts of Love hairdressing mingled with asafoetida, snuff, Hoyt’s Cologne, Brown’s Mule, peppermint, and lilac talcum” (Lee 135). Thanks to Calpurnia, Scout now understands the difference between a white church and an African American church. Also, to Scout experiencing racial discrimination, Scout had an idea of Cal being “different” or having two different sides. “Calpurnia led a modest double life that never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside of our household was a noble one, to say nothing of her having command of two languages” (Lee

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I sense, rather than saw, that we were being advanced upon.” In this moment, both Jem and Scout are made aware of the perspective of the colored folk. Scout in this chapter has to recognize that Calpurnia interacts differently to the world compared to herself. As stated in the novel,” That Calpurnia lead a modest double life never dawned on me. The idea that she had a separate existence outside our household is a novel one to, to say nothing of her having command of two languages.”

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In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” there are numerous coming-of-age events with Jem and Scout, who are brother and sister. Scout is a different type of girl, she wears clothes that make her look like a tomboy, has her hair cut short to her shoulders and is innocent and naive. Jem is a boy who is starting to spark an interest in things such as football and guns. Scout and Jem grow up in a time of racial discrimination and segregation in Maycomb, Alabama. Yet, have a father who shows them a disparate perspective of thinking.

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Have you unfairly judged someone based on the way they look? In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, one of Scout’s coming-of-age moments is when she judges Mr. Raymond for being intoxicated. However, she realizes that he was just pretending to be drunk. The author, Harper Lee, uses conflict and deception to convey the theme that judging someone without being in their shoes is unjust. Moreover, in the novel, Scout is an arrogant kid who later in the book experiences a coming-of-age moment, and she starts to understand her community more.

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts changing perspective of Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley represents a coming of age moment because it demonstrates a breaking away from the childlike imagination that had previously explained all of their questions and superstitions about the Radley’s. A coming-of-age moment is the transition of thinking that occurs when someone learns empathy. At the start of the novel, in many situations, Scout and Jem demonstrate childish behavior and thinking when Jem is taunted into touching the side of the Radley home by Scout and Dill. The book reads, “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us” (18). From this portion of the novel we can tell that Jem and Scout clearly regarded the Radley home and its occupants with novelty and even fear.

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‘We don’t have any,’ she said” (137). This conveys that Scout does not understand the full extent of segregation. Back then, the different races also had different resources. Due to racism and segregation, Calpurnia’s church did not have access to the same basic essentials provided in Jem and Scout’s church. Calpurnia seems to be aware of the lack of assets and is trying to open Jem and Scout’s eyes to what it is like for her and her peers.

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It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?" (Lee,12) What Lula said to Calpurnia was racist because Calpurnia was trying to bring Scout and Jem to church but Lula stopped them and wouldn't let them in because Calpurnia is trying to take them to church instead of a white person. Racism is all over the book but this shows what it was like back then in the 1930s, Scout's life was affected by racism realizing that people aren't treated the same.

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This aggravates Scout as she comes to learn the hard way on class conflict. In To Kill a Mockingbird it is a conflict of races, black versus white. There is a part in the story where Calpurnia, the family's housekeeper, takes them to her African American church. A black woman named Lula states to Calpurnia as she is bringing Jem and Scout to church, “ You ain't got no business bringing’ white children- they have their church

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