To Kill a Mockingbird Essay PDF

Preview

Summary

Essay on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee prompt on coming of age. ...

Description

ENG1D Ms.Reid

Life Changes and People Grow Up - TKAM Essay With growing up, you gain a lot of knowledge about life. For example, when one grows up they experience many things. These events might be helpful and fun but some might also be brutal and hard. In the novel, To  Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates that the journey to maturity is an important step to understanding the world. Slowly but clearly, Scout Finch learns to control her temper, realize the good in people and stand up for her beliefs.

It is important to know the transition from the past and present. How Scout shows that she has acknowledged what she has done in the past was wrong, was at the beginning of the story when she goes after Walter Cunningham, one of her classmates, for “not having a lunch”. “Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop.” [...] “He didn’t have any lunch,” (Lee, 30). Scout also goes to beat up Dill for “not paying enough attention” to her “I beat him up twice but it did no good, he only grew closer to Jem.” (Lee, 55). However, later in the novel, Cecil Jacobs, another one of her classmates, had said that “Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers”. Scout was ready to fist fight Cecil but Scout realizes that it is childish and she ends up just walking away from the problem. Scout took the negativity, nice and calm “I drew a bead on him,

remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped my fists and walked away, "Scout's a cow- ward!" ringing in my ears. It was the first time I ever walked away from a fight. (Lee,102). Eventually, Scout learns to control her temper and refrain from fist-fights for the right reasons by the end of the novel, as well, she learns about the good in people.

While on the journey to learning how to control her temper, Scout also learns to see the good in people. Harper Lee shows a distinct lesson on the loss of innocence when Scout Finch gradually talks to mysterious Arthur “Boo” Radley, the unsocial neighbour of the Finch’s family. In the beginning of the novel, all Scout’s thoughts are about Boo Radley and how fearful and suspicious he is "Every night-sound I heard from my cot on the back porch was magnified threefold; every scratch of feet on gravel was Boo Radley seeking revenge, every passing Negro laughing in the night was Boo Radley loose and after us; insects splashing against the screen were Boo Radley’s insane fingers picking the wire to pieces; the chinaberry trees were malignant, hovering,

 uring all of this time alive. I lingered between sleep and wakefulness..." (Lee, 75).  D when Scout was scared of Boo she didn’t have a very good reason on why to. Boo showed that he had sympathy because he gave Scout gifts in the knot tree as a way of communication and put a blanket over her when it was cold outside. By the end of the novel, Scout finally gets to see Boo and she even walks with him back to his porch. “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into

the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad. [...] “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough”. (Lee,  373) As time passes by and Scout starts to grow and learn real threats, Boo stops seeming so scary to her and less like a monster more like a neighbour. Scout also displays that the world is not always going to be fair.

One dramatic event can change your perspective on everything in life in just days. When Scout hears the verdict results or to Tom’s death she does not have a lot of reaction. But when she saw how her family members each reacted, she learned through them and how unfair the world was/is “... Senseless killing—Tom had been given due process of law to the day of his death; he had been tried openly and convicted by twelve good men and true; my father had fought for him all the way. Then Mr. Underwood's meaning became clear: 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.” (Lee, 323). Scout knows that Tom Robinson was going to lose for the wrong reasons anyways but she always kept on believing in him.

In conclusion, t he novel, shows an outstanding loss of innocence during such a short time period of the ages of 6 to 9. By the end of the novel, Scout understands the world better, matures and has learned a lot of new lessons during this journey....