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Examples Of Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Maturing in a Divided Society
Life lessons in coming of age experiences are important as they shape an individual’s beliefs, values, and character, and prepare them for challenges of adulthood. In Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem learn many life lessons as they come of age through their experiences and interactions with people around them. They do so in Macomb County, a small town in Alabama, that is burdened by social and racial prejudices. Scout and Jem are forced to learn the harsh realities of the world and how to address it through various life lessons. Scout and Jem learn the crucial life lessons of empathy and understanding, the reality of injustice and prejudice in society, and the notion that people are not …show more content…

While Scout is reading Mr. Underwood's editorial she finally understands that, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (275-276). Prejudice is very difficult to overcome, and what Scout realizes is that there is nothing that her father, a very talented lawyer, can do to help a black man who is suspected of a crime. The mere fact that society was prejudiced against black men to begin with, is the verdict. Tom was guilty not because he committed a crime; Tom’s crime was that he was black. When Uncle Jack teaches Scout and Jem how to shoot an air rifle, Atticus tells the kids, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103).The point is that mockingbirds do nothing to harm society or the people that they interact with, so because they have no bad intentions they are effectively innocent. The author is trying to convey that mockingbirds are like people - everyone deserves to be treated the same unless they actually do something wrong like the bluejays. After hearing Atticus say “it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” Miss Maudie responds, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). This quote continues the thought above that mockingbirds deserve respect because they are innocent. They do not cause trouble. In much the same way as people deserve to be treated with respect, even if they are black, if they have done nothing wrong. Social justice in the larger sense requires that people are all treated the same way, unless there is a

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Atticus talks to Jem about shooting the air rifles they got for Christmas. “I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. ”(119) If you look for the deeper meaning, you see that Atticus acknowledges the value of different birds and treats them accordingly.

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that prejudice divides communities and that persecution of innocent people is evil; furthermore; these two minor themes reinforce the major thematic idea that a simple assumption can divide people. When Tom Robinson is put on trial for supposedly raped Mayella Ewell, the racism in Maycomb surfaces and creates conflict. In the novel, a stranger says, “You know what we want,” ‘another man said.’ “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.”(172). Some drunken men want to harm Tom Robinson for the wrong that he did.

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916 Words | 4 Pages

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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Maturation, is a process which displays how a person has evolved in to something more as they grow up in life. To kill a Mocking bird, written by Harper Lee, is a novel about two siblings that live in a cynical town that have an unforgettable childhood full of adventure and life lessons set in the late 1930s. Precocious at the beginning of the novel, but by the end of the book scout has matured and has gained a more clear understanding of thing that occur around her, even though she may still be a young girl she has the mature understanding of a young adult. Her interaction with neighbors and friends and family, her experience with the Tom Robinson trial and her unforeseen meeting with Boo Radley all abetted her maturation.

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Throughout life, humans go through stages of being babies, kids, and adults which are examples of coming of age. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch goes through a process of coming of age that is reflected in her interactions with other people and the lessons she learns. Scout's improvement throughout the narrative is significant to the themes of emotion, social groups, and justice. Scout is a young, silly child at the start of the book who has no concept of her surroundings. She is not aware of the social abuses of power that occur in her neighborhood, but as she gets older, she notices what has been happening in her neighborhood.

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To Kill a Mockingbird a story about the prejudice faced in the 1930s and the daily struggles, A novel written by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is about how racism influenced people in the early 1900s and how scout is learning how people really are and what it is like in the real world. In To Kill a Mockingbird there are many coming of age moments using setting characters for scouts, for example they are shown in chapters 3,6,12. in Chapter 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout gets in a fight with Walter Cunningham because he got her in trouble and Atticus makes her think about what she did. ``folks.

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Courage is not strength or skill, it’s simply standing up for what you believe in and what is right. This is the theme that was enrolled after Jem destroys Mrs.Dubose’s camellias and after she died in chapter 11. This passage also reveals Jem’s coming of age moment. After using conflict, symbolism, and point of view, Harper Lee was able to connect the theme with Jems coming of age moment.

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As verbalized by the diarist Anne Frank herself, “‘Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands’” (Goodreads 1). Coming of age is a process depicted through movies and novels through the Bildungsroman plot line. The protagonist, in this form of a plot line, has to face society and its difficulties. The protagonist inclines to have an emotional loss, which triggers the commencement of the journey itself.

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When people are judged and discriminated because of their color, others tend to ignore the fact that they’re innocent and do nothing to the community. Miss Maudie expresses this when Scout asked why Atticus wouldn’t let them shoot a mockingbird. Miss Maudie explains,“ ‘Your father’s right,’ she said. ’Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.’ ”

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

The only odd thing about this is that Atticus does not want to teach them how to use it or shoot it, but he mentions something really weird “I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird”. This is weird because he does not want to teach them how to shoot, and it is the first time Atticus mentions that shooting a mockingbird is a sin. He is right because they are very equal to humans, and they make humans proud. The mockingbirds they sing bring purity to the hearts of humans.

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704 Words | 3 Pages

Mockingbirds are pure and innocent creatures and killing them would be very cruel. This book is called To Kill A Mockingbird, which in other words to me means, Killing innocence. ‘“Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.’ That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.” This shows that Atticus is trying to teach the children

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415 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the author believes that harming the innocent, mockingbirds, is wrong because they don't do any harm to anything around the people. InTo Kill A Mockingbird the author clearly states Atticus's beliefs towards killing mockingbirds and how it is believed to be a sin. The text states “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit em, but remember, it's a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee, p. 103) This supports the theme because Atticus's way of telling his kids that is explaining to them that they can kill what they want as long as it isn't a mockingbird, this relates to what Harper Lee says about the mockingbirds and how Atticus and Harper Lee believe the same thing. That its a sin to kill a mockingbird Another example from To Kill A Mockingbird that proves harming the innocent is wrong is when Miss Mavdie Arkinson tells the kids about why it's wrong to kill a mockingbird Harper Lee writes “mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… that's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

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517 Words | 3 Pages

The first article I read was “Designing for Distraction”, by James Ludwig. The article discusses creating a workplace that will minimize the distraction in the workplace. Designing the workplace is all about solving the problems that people face with distractions. Most people suffer from having to deal with a lot of distractions in the workplace. People like to seek out what is new out there to improve the workplace.

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Scout and Jem have just received air guns from Atticus for Christmas, and they are learning what they’re not allowed to shoot at. Atticus tells them, “‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’. That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something” (119). This is the first time Scout hears Atticus say it is a sin to do something, which means that Atticus is being serious. We know that he hates shooting, because he has kept his skill as a marksman a secret, so when he tells the children they can try to shoot bluejays but not mockingbirds, he gives the idea that mockingbirds are special.

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