Scout's Growth In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Throughout life, particularly childhood we learn many lessons about ourselves and others. The book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee reflects this with its many important themes. All through the book Scout grows and finds out more about many parts of her life and the lives of those around her. As we are reading from Scout’s perspective, while we read the book we can see that many of the things Scout learns are things that will continue to be significant themes her whole life. Though there are lots of lessons, there is one theme that is more relevant to the period of her life depicted in the book. Lee shows through perspective, conflict and symbol that while growing up and losing innocence is difficult and sometimes undesirable, it helps us to understand

The clearest way to show Scout’s growth is through her perspective. Since the whole story is told through her point of view, we see how her thoughts change as time passes. Due to her closeness with other, like Jem, though, we are able to see how age affects them or their differences from Scout through their perspectives as well. An example of this is when Scout, Jem and Dill see Atticus be approached by a lynch mob. “I looked around and up at Mr. Cunningham, whose face was equally impassive. Then he did a peculiar thing. He squatted down and took me by both shoulders. ‘I’ll tell him you said hey, little lady,’ he said” (154). From this quote we can tell that due to Scout’s young age and innocence she doesn’t realize how dangerous the situation she’s in is. If she had, it is very likely she would’ve reacted differently as she may have been afraid and not able to be so casual. She also may not have entered the situation, as she recounts “In obedience to my father, there followed what I later realized was a sickeningly comic aspect of an unfunny situation: the men talked in near-whispers” (151). This