Throughout life, humans go through stages of being babies, kids, and adults which are examples of coming of age. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch goes through a process of coming of age that is reflected in her interactions with other people and the lessons she learns. Scout's improvement throughout the narrative is significant to the themes of emotion, social groups, and justice. Scout is a young, silly child at the start of the book who has no concept of her surroundings. She is not aware of the social abuses of power that occur in her neighborhood, but as she gets older, she notices what has been happening in her neighborhood. As Atticus tells her, "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 30). This quote shows Scout's developing understanding of others. That is one of the ways Scout comes of age …show more content…
First, she fears him, then accepts the tales her neighbors have made about him. As she spends more time with him and gets to know him better, she starts to see him more as a person rather than as a terrifying monster. As Scout reflects on this incident, "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 374). This shows Scout's growth in understanding others. Also, Scout's experiences with the trial of Tom Robinson help her realize the unfairness inside society. She watches how hate and racism seriously harm the lives of innocent people. She writes of the trial, "It was Jem's turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. 'It ain't right,' he muttered, all the way to the corner of the square where we found Atticus waiting" (Lee 284). This quote shows Scout's growing awareness of the unfairness in her
Additionally, after being saved by Boo Radley, Scout walks him home, and as she stands at the porch that had previously been a symbol of fear, she realizes, “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.” (321). Fully seeing the world through Boo Radley’s perspective demonstrates her fully developed
In the book, Scout says,"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. "(Finch, pg.374). This shows how Scout truly matures and learns other people's emotions.
Atticus gives her a tip to understand why people do the things that they do after she has some issues with her first grade teacher at school. “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.” (39). Atticus tells Scout this to help her get along with others better. This takes place early on in the novel, but later in the novel Scout remembers this lesson.
When she realizes this she thought “I was slowly drying up, wondering what idiocy I had committed.” This quote is very important because it shows how scout realizes her mistake without Atticus having to tell her otherwise. In other words, Scout loses innocence by knowing her mistake, of pointing someone out in a controversial way. Another quick example is when scout asks Atticus “what's rape?” In this case, Atticus tells scout the truth and scout loses innocence because of her
Atticus took on the case of Tom Robinson a black man accused of raping a white woman. At this time period in history there was a lot of racial tensions and discrimination especially in the majority racists town of Maycomb. Plenty of people didn’t like the fact that Atticus was defending Tom Robinson so in Chapter 11 when Scout wonders why he is he responds with “This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience-Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship God if i didn’t try to help that man.” (139). Scout is able to recognize the prejudice in her town and also be able to not follow their ways.
Scout puts herself in Mayella’s perspective and feels empathy towards the fact Mayella might feel uncomfortable in court since she has probably not been treated that politely coming from a low-class family. Scout has accompanied Boo home and thinks about his emotions, “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, 321). Scout thinks from Boo Radley’s perspective and sees how he truly cared for her and Jem showing in the end how far she had gotten with Atticus’s advice by changing her view of Boo Radley.
Jem had thought that the Maycomb population was “good folk” and confidently believed that the community members would do the right thing and let Tom Robinson go (Lee 184). However, to Jem’s surprise, most of the jury had voted against Tom Robinson, even though evidence that he was innocent was undeniable. This leads Jem to start questioning the morality of Maycomb and shows Jem how prejudiced and racist Maycomb truly was, essentially creating a loss of innocence in Jem. Due to the results of this court case, Jem starts to lose his trust in people and learns that, in reality, Maycomb was a racist and biased society. Therefore, Jem’s loss of trust in the community and the question of morality edges him to face the reality of how America is in the 1930s, causing him to mature from childhood to
Her retrospect on the view of her neighborhood, cited earlier, explains what she says next: "Atticus was right. You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them" (285). These comments reveal how past events like Atticus's teachings, along with Scout's new perspective of her neighborhood, contributed to Scout's character. Even though she did not wear Boo Radley's shoes and walked around in them, it illustrates that she knows Boo Radley's much more pleasant person, not a squirrel-eating devil, whom she thought he was, but an observant and helpful person. Another example is when Scout gives her retrospect on Boo after her very last sighting and remarks, "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between.
Also, many would even avoid his house: “A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked” (Lee 5). Although later in the novel, Scout understands that Radley is not who he really is, she says, “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 48). This quotation demonstrates indirect characterization since the reader can imply that Boo Radley is a different man than what rumors say about him in Maycomb, which Scout later learns.
On Scout’s first day of school, she runs into some problems with her teacher and asks Atticus if she can stay home, Instead he gives her a valuable piece of advice. “First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. ”(pg.39
Coming of age is a key factor for growth within a person. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird the author, Harper Lee, tells the story of a young girl growing up in the South during the Great Depression. The novel focuses on how coming of age involves recognizing different perspectives of others and realizing what the real world is. The literary element of character occurs when Jem realizes how much injustice came upon the Tom Robinson Trial.
Scout admits she feels fine and Atticus asks her what is wrong. She tells him that her teacher, Miss Caroline, says that they cannot read together anymore because she is too advanced for her age. Atticus responds with, “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 39). Though Scout does not fully understand the concept of this lesson, it slowly comes to her as the book advances. She is able to make many connections using what Atticus taught her, and she truly understands the meaning of standing in another person’s shoes.
Scout is very compassionate fearful. Scout shows her compassion as she was on the Radley porch - she realized that you will never know someone until you see and go through what they are experiencing. “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
Scout is already wise beyond her years, but she continues to grow throughout a series of events in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The most important thing about Scout is her growth throughout events in the book. The context of To Kill A Mockingbird influenced Scout to change her identity and morality throughout her experiences with stereotypes and racism in Maycomb. The first way that Scout changed was by seeing and experiencing stereotypes in gender.
Scout discovered that it was Boo Radley who had saved her brother. She displays her newfound kindness towards him when she says, “You can pet him, Mr. Arthur, he’s asleep”(372). This instance of characterization shows Scout’s character change greatly from being the girl scared of Boo Radley to being the one who makes friends with him. Next, characterization is used to display that Scout changed her perspective on how she sees the world. She displays her knowledge from Atticus when she says, “One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them”(374).