The Significance of Determination in To Kill a Mockingbird In the early 1930s, a black man is being convicted of taking advantage of a young, white lady. Atticus Finch, a lawyer, has become accustomed to defending the black man, Tom Robinson. It’s no easy task when the whole town looks down upon you for it, it takes perseverance, strength of character, and especially, determination. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee implies that the significance of determination is crucial in our lives as it acts as a driving force that pushes oneself regardless of circumstances that may come one way or the other. Lee demonstrates this through her characters such as Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell, as they navigate through the deep-rooted prejudices …show more content…
At the start of the book, Scout doesn’t have the best idea of what the world around her really is, slowly but surely, she learns and listens through things that happen to her throughout the story. Earlier on, Scout still conveys determination, Jem picks on her quite a lot for ‘turning more into a girl’, “I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it's mortifyin',” (Jem, pg 50), but despite Jem picking on her, she went through everything with Jem and Dill. She faced her fears, she went along with Jem to read to cranky Mrs. Dubose for a whole month and was always there when something about the Radleys was brought up, from all these experiences came a lesson to Scout and factored into her maturation. One of the most important exchanges in the book was when Miss Maudie and Atticus explained to Scout why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird (Miss Maudie, pg 119). Scout takes what Miss Maudie told her into account and brings it up wisely in Boo’s defense. “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?,” (Scout, pg 317). As this was said towards the end of the novel, this quote in itself shows how much Scout has grown. She earned a better understanding and became more like her father. All of this was because of determination, the determination she saw from others, and the determination she showed