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Maturity In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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Watching your children grow and mature can create life-lasting memories while they're in the innocence of growing up. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how over time scout grows up and gains maturity, confidence, and courage. Two children Scout and Jem Finch live in a town which is very racist. Their father Atticus Finch is a lawyer and he takes a case with a man named Tom Robinson. He does good in the case but due to racism he loses the case. The good thing though is the jury takes a while to make a verdict. So it is a win for Atticus. But throughout the story we see how the presence of this case affects Scout in a good way as she learns new things and matures as she grows older. Harper Lee uses the topic of growing up throughout …show more content…

“Is Jem awake yet?” “Sleeping peacefully. He won’t be awake until morning.” “Oh. Are you sittin’ up with him?” “Just for an hour or so. Go to bed, Scout. You’ve had a long day.” “Well, I think I’ll stay with you for a while.” (Lee 280). Jem broke his arm and Scout offered to stay up with Atticus. Even though it is late at night Scout tries to stay up with Atticus. Atticus insists that she goes to sleep but she stays up while Atticus reads the book. Eventually, she falls asleep but she still tries her best to stay awake.

Scout becomes more confident in herself. In chapter 9 Scout gets in a fight at school with a boy, she does this because the boy says Atticus defends people of color. This shows that she is confident enough in herself to fight. She doesn't like people talking bad about her dad so she does what's right. Even though it was a boy she would do anything to defend her father.

Scout gains courage throughout the book. An example of when Scout showed courage was on the first day of school. Walter Cunningham Jr. didn’t have lunch money but Miss Caroline said that she could lend him the money and he would have to pay her back the next day. When Miss Caroline held out the cash for Walter he shook his head. This happened three times until someone said “Go on Scout and tell her.” (Lee 19). Scout explained to her that he's a Cunningham and that they don't accept anything they can't pay

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In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Calpurnia, and Atticus stand out when courage comes to mind. These characters show courage in many unique ways with different situations. In the early 1930s, in the deep south, racial discrimination was a huge conflict, for example, the Jim Crows Laws were in play, and it legalized segregation between blacks and whites. Courage isn’t always shown in situations, but simply throughout growing up.

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Unfortunately, difficult childhood experiences still define adulthood even today. Harper Lee illustrates how childhoods are being shown as innocent, as well as how they can shape a person's future. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she describes how difficult childhood experiences shape the future of kids; in America today, progress has not been made. Childhood is described as a time when children are young, innocent, and filled with a lack of knowledge when they are being put into these situations. In this novel, Jem and Scout, Jem’s sister, go through many troubles finding the truth about their surrounding racial community to being more mature and grown up after watching a trial about an African American being accused of raping a white woman.

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Scout when her classmates are making fun of Atticus for defending a black man , and Jem when he believed Nathan Radley when he cemented the tree because it was “ill”. Scout hears her classmates saying terrible things about Atticus because he's defending a black man, but she doesn't see the wrong in what her father is doing. Atticus explains to her that it's not really a bad thing, but some people see it that way. Scout is too young to understand prejudice and injustice. Atticus tries to preserve this innocence by raising her to believe that there is nothing wrong with defending a black man.

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Caroline dragged her to the desk by the collar because she had enough of Scout, which shows Lee's description of bravery as standing up for others despite getting in trouble because that is exactly what Scout did. stood up for Walter Cunningham in class because he couldn’t, which made Miss. Caroline irritated and dragged Scout by her collar to Miss. Caroline’s desk to get her punishment of getting hit with a ruler. Another example, is when Francis calls Atticus a N*****-lover Scout stood up for him by punching Francis causing her to get in trouble with Uncle Jack.

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Additionally, from other people’s perspective, Atticus has lost, his innocence because of him defending a Negro. However, it is not true because Atticus is a lawyer and he is doing his job without criticizing him. This incident made Scout ask Atticus that if it is right to defend a Negro. By this, Scout is able to gain the ability to look from new perspectives on how the world works in very early age compared to her brother, Jem and other children. Secondly, Jem is not completely disillusion until a guilty verdict is returned to Tom Robinson at the end of his trial.

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All throughout this book Scout shows how strong she is, for her family, for her friends, and for herself. She acts likes its ok sometimes but, she just wants her family to be happy. “ Aunt Alexandra’s fingers trembled as she unwound the crushed fabric and wire from around me. “Are you all right darling?”

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How Does Atticus Finch Show Courage

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Throughout the book, To kill a Mockingbird, the author displays and defines courage in many different forms. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and a major protagonist of the book, defines courage to be “when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see through it no matter what”(Lee 149). His words suggest that true courage can come from anything, but once it is begun, that idea or object should never be given up on until the end. Atticus Finch shows courage through his will to see through his case and open a path to let litigation prevail. Scout and Jem Finch show courage through perseverance and the will to never falter.

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There was a part in the book when Atticus stood outside Tom Robinson’s jail cell knowing people were going to come to try and kill him. When they did come Dill, Jem and Scout stepped in trying to protect Atticus. That action alone showed courage also on page 205 when Scout recognized one of them as one of the Cunningham’s and started talking to him. “Do you remember me, Mr.Cunningham? I’m Jean Louise Finch.

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When she brought up an incident with a poor kid in her class she started to talk trash, but that’s when Atticus said, “ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 33). This statement stuck with Scout even when her friends were saying racist things, she knew because of her father's

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Courage means the ability to do something that frightens one. Everyone has had a tough time in thier live when they needed to have courage. Scout and Jem are in the middle of a rough time in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee where they live in Maycomb with their father, Atticus. Maycomb is a place that suffers from a lot of prejudice and racism. Jem changed throughout the story as he learned that it’s important to have courage especially when it gets hard.

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When one grows up, it is inevitable they will lose their innocence. Seeing the world through rose colored glasses can only take one so far, and eventually they will have to open their eyes to real issues in their lives. While this happens at different ages for everyone, Atticus in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee believes that his kids should not be sheltered from the real world. As Scout and Jem, Atticus’ children, grow up, especially in a time where Maycomb is so segregated, Atticus teaches his kids real life lessons and to not become like the rest of their town; racist and judgemental. This comes with a cost, however, as the kids “grow up” at an expedited rate.

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Atticus stands his ground and stands up for what he believes is right. Next, courage is displayed when Scout stands up to the mob outside the jailhouse, showing courage can come from unexpected sources. Courage is also displayed through Atticus’s parenting techniques and his trying to teach his

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Development And Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses experiences and language to convey the theme of growing up for the better and worse throughout the novel. Throughout the novel, it is shown that experiences significantly impact people's actions. “Literary analysts tend to praise Lee's depiction of the relationship of mortality to law and justice, but criticism usually overlooks the novel's view of the coming of age years of a tender girl, eight-year-old Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch” (Snodgrass). While inequality and racism are presiding themes within To Kill a Mockingbird, growing up is a topic that is impactful too.

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Miss Caroline instructed Scout to, ”tell [her] father not to teach [her] anymore,” confusing, as well as frustrating, Scout (23). Before this part in the story, Miss Caroline reveals that she is from the northern region of Alabama, and Scout acknowledges that their ways are particularly peculiar up there. As she puts together the pieces of the idea that not everyone is the same, Scout learns how different Miss Caroline is from everyone in Maycomb. Later, as Miss Caroline attempts to spot Walter Cunningham a quarter for lunch, she finds difficulty in getting Walter to accept the quarter, yet doesn’t know why. When Scout finally speaks up to clarify that, ”he is a Cunningham” and won’t be able to pay her back which is why he won’t take it, Miss Caroline just seems to have had enough of Scout already and completely rejects her efforts to be helpful (26).

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