To Kill A Mockingbird Coming Of Age Analysis

Harper Lee portrays many messages in “To Kill A Mockingbird”, her famous novel she wrote during the 1960s. She uses the main children; Scout, Jem, and Dill in her novel to express her theme “Coming of Age”. Harper Lee uses children to express her theme because it sends a stronger message of what the children face during their innocent lives. Jem, Scout, and Dill faces racism at different ages, and thinking similar about the corruption leads to them understanding more about their community and the unfairness of the world. Harper Lee uses Scout to show her innocence and understanding of the community to being the opposite which is the corruption of her ideal image of Maycomb. Atticus gives Scout and Jem both air rifles and tells them that, “But

Jem tries to hide himself from reality but Atticus explains to Jem about the violence and how he should stand up against it, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” to teach Jem that you don’t hold courage with violence only, but to teach him that he can have courage even without having to think of or use violence as a way to have courage (Lee 112). Atticus is trying to prepare Jem for the worst when the time comes to defend Tom Robinson who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell and when people will start discriminating Atticus and people around him for defending a black man. After the results of the trial, with Ewell winning the case making Tom Robinson guilty, “It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd.” showing his expression about the trial and why he doesn’t understand the reason the Ewells won but the other people were happy. Jem does not understand the Jury’s verdict and why they favored the Ewells when clearly Tom is innocent from rape and he wonders with, “How could they do it, how could they?” questioning the jury system and the definition of equality (Lee 112-113). Jem questions the innocence of

Dill does experience most or part of the racism at Maycomb and most of it during the trial. During the middle of the trial, Dill couldn’t handle the fact that people are being unfair and went outside to talk with Dolphus Raymond which he criticizes, “Cry about the simple hell people give other people--without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too.” pointing out that people don’t care that others disrespect others as long as it isn’t themselves (Lee 201). He notices during the trial that Mr. Gilmer wasn’t acting the way lawyers should during a case, “I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em that way. You’ve never seen him get good’n down on one yet. Why, when--well, today Mr. Gilmer seemed to me like he wasn’t half trying. They do ‘em all that way, most lawyers, I mean.” emphasizing that Mr. Gilmer wasn’t even worried about the case along with his effort to defend Mayella (Lee 199). The unfair results of this trial made many children lose their innocence because Mr. Gilmer disrespectfulness towards Tom Robinson made Dill feel awful for Jem and Scout for the prejudiced community they live