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Coming Of Age Theme

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Recommended: Racism In American Literature

JD salinger, and Harper Lee, use their feelings and life stories to create two unique characters who find their way in the world. JD Salinger 's character is Holden and Harper Lee 's, is Scout. The two authors both use similar, and also different styles, on guiding their characters, to maturity. The two authors exhibit the coming of age theme through Character, and setting.

Both Holden and Scout learn their way to the coming of age theme through other characters. Salinger and Lee have examples of this in their writing. First off, Lee uses the time period, of racism, to really be the core of Scouts maturing life. For example, Scout asks her family 's maid, who is black, why she talks differently to negroes then when she talks to Scouts family. Calpernia, the maid, responds “Well, in the first place I’m black.” Later on the passage, Calpernia goes on to explain that she talks differently because that 's the way her people talk. Scout is innocent, to the fact that most white people despise black people, just purely for being black. When she hears Calpernia, talk differently, Scout is getting an inside look at the differences in the two cultures. In addition, Salinger has Holden interact with people he …show more content…

To begin, the two authors approached the coming of age theme in some ways similarly, but also differently. Both characters are put in an environment with people they don’t normally interact with. Scout has never been someplace where there are only negroes, and Holden has never been to a place where he talks to nuns. In addition, the two characters never have any problems with the people they are with. With Scout the negroes accept Scout, and with Holden, he and the nuns get along. On the contrary though, there are differences. In Scouts situation, she has Calpernia there to explain things to her, whereas Holden is on his own figuring things out for himself. Even though there are differences in the two characters maturing process, both end with the same goal, coming

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The Catcher And The Rye by J.D. Salinger is an epic novel where our main character Holden Caulfield faces many challenges that challenge him as a young man such as growing up, rebellion, and love. Holden like most teenagers is rebellious but to an extreme nature. After flunking out of his fourth school the last one being Pencey Prep he refuses to tell his mother and father. In wanting to avoid this confrontation he leaves three days earlier taking a train back to Manhattan. Where he goes on adventure that turns him into a young man.

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee presents a life of Jean Louis Finch, also known as Scout, growing up in a small town. The setting of the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1960’s. Life for Scout growing up appears difficult because of the Great Depression, racial inequality, white supremacy, and peoples’ prejudiced mindset. In the beginning of the book, Scout’s character shows her innocence, her tomboyish side, her adventurous personality, and her ability to question and observe the goodness and evilness of society. By the end of the novel, Scout learns fighting does not fix everything, possessing lady-like characteristics obtain value and holding prejudiced thoughts reflects in every person’s life.

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By the end of the novel during the court scene and Tom’s death, we see the final stages of her development and how far she has come as she can 't stand for Tom’s discrimination which only further proves her power to rebel against something that everyone conforms to. This shows her make her own opinion about racism which creates the exciting environment that we find ourselves in while reading. The novel has many important points and moments which make a lasting impression on us even after reading the novel. One of the biggest ideas which are focused on in this essay is Scout 's development and how it allows her to forge her own opinions. Scout learns to separate herself from the conforming sheep that Maycomb residents are described to be.

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The author demonstrates the problems in the school systems when Scout enters school she is reprimanded by her teacher, Mrs. Honeycomb for reading proficiently. She is commanded to “tell [her] father not to teach [her] anymore” and stop reading outside of school. Lee’s incongruity of the situation alerts her readers to the flaws within the school system. Lee satirizes the church when Scout and Jem are taken to church by Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, when the children’s father is unavailable. At this Christian church, the children are ridiculed for being white.

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Think back to when you were little kid around 7 or so and you had no worries about life or anything. All you would think about is candy and toys and nothing about the world of adults. No worries of the weather or what the grown ups would talk about. Scout’s childhood innocence takes a turn from her care free days to the real world of racism and bad people. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout witnesses the trial of Tom Robinson and how racism is taught to her unknowingly from it.

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Children are very impressionable people. Almost everything around them changes them in some way. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters, Scout and Jem, start out as little kids who spend their days making up stories and playing sill games. Then their dad, who is a lawyer, takes on a case defending a black man who has been charged with rape. Since they live in Alabama, The whole family has to absorb some pretty ugly things, which forces Scout and Jem to grow up quickly, and it gives them a different and more mature view of the world.

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