The Theme Of Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Scout and Jem’s opinion of Boo Radley changes from fear to empathy, and understanding. Throughout the story “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee to lead characters Jem and Scout come to terms with their feelings about Boo Radley. Like most of the kids in the neighborhood both of them are suspicious of the Radley family. Boo Radley had been seen around town sometimes with his mother when he was a child.

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. (Lee 320).

For instance, The reader knows that the narrator is a bad brother when the brother renames him Doodle. The brother says,"It was perhaps the kindest thing I ever did for him because nobody expects much from someone called Doodle" Hurst 8. Renaming a loved one would be an act of kindness but not renaming someone a rude name. He renames him Doodle because his little brother is weak and doesn't do anything; he is invalid. This shows the brother brings him down instead of lifting him up.

This family doesn’t have a lot of wisdom in them, they don’t have the best life, but none of them will work so it really is their fault for their situation. Going from a man like Bob Ewell and a man like Atticus Finch, you can clearly see one main difference,

Dee Ann was left obsessed with what had happened. Every year her husband brings up the names of those involved, hoping he would say them and she would just let it go like nothing happened (Yarbrough 632). Because of this, her inability to let go, Chuckie was often away from home, and Dee Ann feared he was cheating on her. She almost questions his friend, but “if he has looked surprised, it would have worried her, and if he hadn't, it would have worried her more…”

‘I haven’t got one.”’ explains that he either does not have family or he has family who doesn't want him. Dill is a little boy who is a Mockingbird in this book because his family does not want him and he does nothing to hurt others. Another example of a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of a crime he did not commit. The quote, “‘Seventeen bullet holes in him. They didn’t have to shoot him that much.’”

Arthur Radley, also known to Jem, Scout, and Dill as “Boo,” is a mysterious character. He’s the Finch’s neighbor and he never comes out of the house, though there are numerous rumors about him. Arthur raises curiosity in Jem and Scout and they try to communicate with him to understand why he stays in the house all the time, but they’re not successful. One day on their way home from school, Jem and Scout found a ring case in a tree. They found two old Indian-head coins inside that have been polished and taken good care of.

The protagonist dislikes are how her friends do not believe her in the story. Also she does not like when her parents will not let her go cliff climbing because they think it is to dangerous.(question 9) The antagonist is the Raymond Gadney Lucy’s step-father. He does not have any strengths, weaknesses, likes, or dislikes since he only appears towards the ending of the story. He is the antagonist because the ghost of the dead girl Lucy wants people to know what her step-father had done to her.

The governess progressively believes in things around her that are pseudo and assumed. Nobody else at Bly can see the ghosts that she claims even when the children tried to believe her, they just could not see the ghosts she could see. Things slowly but surely fell apart at Bly, and it seemed to start right when the governess made assumptions about the ghosts she had met. The governess had done many things at Bly, but proving her insanity is something she could not

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Arthur aka Boo Radley is a mockingbird because he is a kind recluded person getting harassed by everyone because he’s different but he’s really just a nice person, shy and even protected Jem and Scout from their attacker showing his courage. To begin with, Boo is nice because he gave many things to Scout and Jem through the knothole till his brother Nathan clogged it up with cement because it was “dying” as Scout and Jem thought but really isn’t much proof. “We were walking past our tree. In its knot-hole rested a ball of gray twine”(59) after a bit of talking Jem convinced Scout not to take it yet and leave it waiting to see if someone like Walter Cunningham would take it back. “We went back home.

Brenna Peterson Ms. Drosdick English 9 01/11/2017 Narrative 2 Walkin’ into to school each day is something I hate dearly. The meek whispers of “He’s a Cunningham,” “He ain’t even got shoes,” “Did y’all see what Walter Cunningham was wearin’” ought to be the same questions I hear every day scattered across the schoolyard. I reckon that if my family was just as prosperous as the regular old folks in this town, we would be treated differently.