A coming of age story is one that follows the main character in their journey from a child to an adult. You can see this genre of literature displayed in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The protagonist of the story Jean Louise Finch(“Scout”) makes strides from immaturity to maturity. While doing so she learns life lessons despite the development of the protagonists being met with hardships. Some of the things Scout experiences in small Maycomb County, Alabama is personal insults, racism in the town, and unfairness in the justice system. Over the three year time period in To Kill a Mockingbird Scout comes of age.
At the start of the book, Scout is just beginning school. She is was not like the typical girl at the time of the
…show more content…
Atticus took on the case of Tom Robinson a black man accused of raping a white woman. At this time period in history there was a lot of racial tensions and discrimination especially in the majority racists town of Maycomb. Plenty of people didn’t like the fact that Atticus was defending Tom Robinson so in Chapter 11 when Scout wonders why he is he responds with “This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience-Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if i didn’t try to help that man.” (139). Scout is able to recognize the prejudice in her town and also be able to not follow their ways. Scout is also coming of age with the things she’s forced to hear racists vulgar terms and speech, she asks Atticus what a nigger lover means because she hears it from people in the community when they are talking about Atticus. Atticus is able to answer her back by saying "nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything—like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves.” So Scout learns what this term means but she also had learned to face the reality of the negative opinions and feelings the people in Maycomb against black