To Kill A Mockingbird Coming Of Age Quotes

To Kill A Mockingbird is a literary fascination about two siblings named Scout and Jem accompanied by their friend Dill, who are in bewilderment as to who and what Boo Radley appears to be. As Scout and Jem grow and mature throughout the story, they start to realize how the world contains people who discriminate and insult others for petty reasons. The story portrays the view of Scout and the reader soon sees how she develops from childish kid to mature teenager. This story is a coming of age novel for many readers, for one of the characters, whose name is Scout, grows up and is shown the world’s true colors. The reader can notice Scout’s mindset alters in Chapters seventeen to twenty-two when stricken with the realization of how unfair it

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem, Scout, and Dill’s innocence is destroyed. They lose their carefree and happy existence through the ignorance and racism in their hometown of Maycomb. Initially, the children believe everyone in Maycomb is friendly. They do not understand the racism occurring in their town until Tom Robinson’s trial. After observing the Tom Robinson trial, the children’s view of some of the citizens in their town change because of the hatred against blacks and the obvious injustice in the courtroom. Robinson is a black man convicted of raping a white girl and despite the evidences being on Robinson’s side, he is found guilty and is sentenced to prison. The trial causes Scout, Jem, and Dill to witness discrimination,

Atticus leaves the children at home and tells them to stay there, but they sneak out and watch the trial anyway. The kids strongly believe Tom will win, like when Jem says, “He’s not supposed to lean, Reverend, but don’t fret, we’ve won it. Don’t see how any jury would convict on what we’ve heard.” (209) Reverend Sykes explains how a white man has never lost to a black man, but the children are still hopeful. After hours of waiting, the jury came back in. Scout explains how “A jury never looks at the defendant if it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson… Judge Taylor was polling the jury; ‘Guilty...Guilty...Guilty’”(211) When Scout and Jem hear the verdict, they are distraught. As they were walking home, “It was Jem’s turn to cry.. ‘It’s not right, Atticus’”(212) It is at this moment that Jem and Scout realize that as much as they want the world to be fair, it is never going to be in favor of them. The morals in Maycomb, no matter how unfair and biased they may be, will not change as the racism and prejudice present in the novel have been in Maycomb for as long as the people living there can remember. This incident is another example of a lesson learned for both Jem and Scout as they see that life is not always perfect, but they have to make out of it what they

Every human-being started out innocent, with a clear mind set, and from that view everything was simple; the line between right and wrong was clear, good and evil, equality and inequality, justice and injustice. However, as time went on this simple way of thinking changed, innocence was lost, and black and white became a million shades of gray. This common coming of age moment everyone experiences, whether it is for the better or worst, is shown within the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Therefore, the book represents the theme that children possess the ability to see people for who they are, without any prejudice or racism, because of their innocence and clear judgement, showing true knowledge of right and wrong, unless tainted by

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts changing perspective of Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley represents a coming of age moment because it demonstrates a breaking away from the childlike imagination that had previously explained all of their questions and superstitions about the Radley’s. A coming-of-age moment is the transition of thinking that occurs when someone learns empathy. At the start of the novel, in many situations, Scout and Jem demonstrate childish behavior and thinking when Jem is taunted into touching the side of the Radley home by Scout and Dill. The book reads, “Jem threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house, slapped it with his palm and ran back past us” (18). From this portion of the novel we can tell that Jem and Scout clearly regarded the Radley home and its occupants with novelty and even fear. They knew very little about the Radleys and what they did know was simply rumours. This is an example of how their original perspective of the Radleys was. Later in the book we see an obvious change in Scouts thinking and a clear coming-of-age moment when we read “Atticus’s arrival was the second reason I wanted to quit the game. The first reason happened the day I rolled into the Radley front yard. Through all the head-shaking, quelling of nausea and Jem-yelling, I had heard another sound, so low I could not have heard it from the sidewalk. Someone inside the house was laughing” (54). Knowing that Scout at the start of the book viewed the Radleys as

Jem starts to mature the most after the case. His [Jem’s] face was streaked with angry tears as we make 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… “It ain’t right, Atticus,” said Jem. No son, it’s not right.” We walked home. Jems opinion on life changes a lot through the Tom Robinson case. He learns that people aren't treated equally just by the color of their skin. From this quote it shows just how much Jem cares about people's equality and how he's maturing. After the case and Tom Robinson's death Jem doesn't do anything to anybody or anything that doesn't deserve it. Like this incident in the story, A rolly polly has crawled in the house by Scouts bed she was going to smash it but then Jem says, “Don't do that, Scout. Set him on the back steps (Lee 319). After Jem says that Scout asks him why he didn't want her to smash it and Jem says, “Because they don’t bother you, Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light.” (Lee 320). These quotes are showing that after the case Jem realizes that you shouldn't hurt things that haven't done anything to

In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem grows from a little boy to an intelligent young man. Throughout the book, he discerns many things that shape his personality. As Jem grows, he learns how bad society is and that not everyone is perfect. Fortunately for Jem, this ends up helping him and he finds out that Atticus is a hero and that he should look up to Atticus. Through Atticus and the trial, Jem loses his innocence by learning about prejudice, bravery, and that the justice system is crippled.

Part of the human nature consists of racial judgment towards others. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, presents themes of gender bias, justice, and social class. But one of the main focuses in the book is racism. Most of the people in Maycomb County show racial judgments, opinions, and comments against African American people, as well as white people. Jem and Scout learn the power of racism and what it does to people, as they experience certain situations. Through the stories of Tom Robinson's trial, Jem and Scouts journey to Calpurnia's church, and Mrs. Dubose's commentary to Jem, the theme of racism remains.

“To Kill a Mockingbird “is a coming of age novel. Discuss this statement, with reference to at least two characters.

Being the older sibling, Jem realizes the long-held values of Maycomb, but only as he matures does he understand what it means to have moral integrity. There are many times in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee in which the reader can see Jem’s maturity and his moral values. The first time Jem starts to understand moral integrity is when he is forced to read to Mrs. Dubose. After her death, Atticus explains just how much she was going through, and this information had a great impact on Jem. Jem furthers his knowledge of moral integrity during the trial. Jem believes that Atticus and Tom Robinson have won because he knows that the evidence was strong. Atticus ends up losing, which causes Jem to realize how much men will overlook evidence and the truth just to go against an African American. Lastly, Jem understands moral integrity while watching and learning from Atticus. Atticus firmly believes in ideas such as Tom Robinson’s innocence. He never gave up or fell to other men’s beliefs during the time of the trial, before it, or after it.

Who are the blue jays and mockingbirds of To Kill A Mockingbird? Set in the early 1930’s of America, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is a coming-of-age book that tells the story of an innocent, naive child becoming an adult through the experience and intake of racism, discrimination, and social injustice throughout the book. Harper Lee’s development, usage and characterization of her characters throughout To Kill A Mockingbird help establish two of her most important themes of the book, which are the presence of social injustice and the coexistence of good and evil.

In the courtroom the defendant relies on the lawyer to defend him prove him not guilty. A well developed speech can change the views that people have and ultimately land a deadly blow on any thought of prejudice that the court has on the defendant.

As Nelson Mandela wisely said “ I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” The story centers around the Finch family and the lessons that both Jem and Scout Finch learn as their father defends a black man accused of rape. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we see the idea of true courage reflected in Jem Finch’s journey. With her words, Harper Lee paints a picture of what true courage as it is, and Jem Finch takes this lesson to heart as he sees examples of true courage in his life.

The verdict of Tom Robinson’s case made young Jem despondent because he was so sure that the jury would have some some discretion and his father would win the case and felt "it ain't right" when they were told he was guilty (284). Jem couldn't wrap his head around about the idea of how the zealot jury's judgement is still clouded by the social norms of society even though there was evidence to prove Tom Robinson’s innocence. As he talks about the verdict of the case with Ms. Maudie he shares how his view of people changed. He "always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like" (288). Jem's view of his great infallible town was crushed because of the case. He is coming to the age of understanding the dark side of society.

What if the world was still the same as it was back during the great depression. What if this was the truth. In To Kill a Mockingbird readers can see how prejudice affected people of color back then, and how it’s not so different from today. In the novel readers will find unfairness in court, hate crimes, and segregation. Today readers can still find these same issues, but in different forms. Prejudice towards race has changed very little from back then to now.