TIME FLIES Do you remember a time where you could run around and play? A time at your house where you had no worries. In the story To Kill A Mockingbird the silent process of aging takes many of the children’s childhoods. The book tells of racial diversity and the effects of it on a man and his family. There are many different struggles throughout the story. The idea of the kids in the story getting older comes slowly. The story has three children that face different problems in growing up. The kids; Dill, Scout, and Jem slowly realize how challenging becoming mature is. Dill is a friend that is dealing with separation from his friends. He had been going to Maycomb during the summer for years. “They must not know you’re here,” said Jem. “We’d know if they were lookin’ for you.” Dill abandoned his home to be with the Finches. It seems as if he thinks Maycomb is his actual home. Since Dill came to Maycomb he stood out as different. (16) When talk of Boo Radley began, Dill wanted to make him come out of his house. He turned the Finch kids into more adventurous kids wandering closer to the Radley house. Atticus’ kids changed him too though. When they got a few years older Dill had become a little more mature too. …show more content…
She doesn’t understand why her brother is going through changes. “Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with…”. “His appetite was appalling and he told me so many times to stop pestering him…”. Scout is only eight and isn’t even going through changes herself. It is hard to understand something if you haven’t experienced it. She may be younger and a different sex but Scout doesn’t realize that she is actually beginning to change. (69) When Dill comes over to play one summer, Jem tells of how Scout is becoming more and more of a girl. She may be too young or putting in the back of her mind that she is growing up. The struggle to understand is the step before being
TKM Theme Essay Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression in the small town of Maycomb in Alabama. Scout and Jem live in what they think is a good community. From what they know, everyone fits into the community except Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor. They think this until the trial of Tom Robinson, an African American that is accused a raping a white women, takes place. The kids see something they have never noticed about their community before.
He tries to hide under the bed, but you can imagine how that went. “Suddenly a filthy brown package shot from under the bed. Jem raised the broom and missed Dill’s head by an inch when it appeared.” (Lee, 139) After all that ruckus Atticus came into the room and started to sort out how to handle the situation. At the end of the evening, it was decided that Dill could stay in Maycomb and stay with the Finch family until the next day.
After a fight with Jem, Scout found Dill under her bed. He had come to Maycomb because his parents did not
Dill told the story of his journey from Mississippi to Maycomb County, which shocks Scout and Jem. Surprising The Finch Family about his expedition gave him a good story to tell; although, he learns about where he stands. Atticus gives him food and shelter; Dill is happy he is with Scout. Dill grows and matures, understanding that lying and making fun was a bad decision.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird to portray a key coming of age scene where Scout and Jem learn that innocence should not be disrupted by preconceived notions and depravity. After receiving air-rifles as Christmas presents, Scout and Jem are taught by Atticus that “‘it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’” (Lee 119). Scout later confirms the validity of this statement with Miss Maudie. She assures Scout that the statement is true, for mockingbirds do nothing but sing for everyone to hear.
Jem is clearly considering how Atticus is feeling with the trial right around the corner and realizes that it’s better if Scout doesn’t make Aunt Alexandra’s disapproval of Scout become Atticus’s problem. Dill displays knowledge of empathy, though it seems like it was unintentional. Scout asks Dill about why Boo Radley has never ran away from his home and Dill responds with, “‘Maybe he doesn’t have anywhere to run off to…’” (Pg. 163) This quote shows that Dill is thinking from Boo Radley’s point of view and Dill realizes that mostly everybody in Maycomb is afraid of Boo, so he can’t go anywhere else even if he wanted to.
Although this occupied his seven year old imagination, he still held strong to his mind 's pledge to be needed and appreciated. Although this is a highly strong and unlikely inference this could be debated, by the textual evidence of Dill going back to mississippi because through his experiences in Maycomb and through Jem he begins to think and act more like this ten year old boy. As the saying goes’ “Respect your elders.” Although this refers to obeying them Dill kicks it up a notch and follows in Jem’s footsteps through “peer pressure” and social class. Dill feels unwanted as his biological father isn’t in the picture but in the middle of the novel he regains his idea of a family unit when he gets a new dad.
Imagine your child is growing up in a short span, being tainted by the evils of man and the heart of the prejudice. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem Finch are forced to age early when their father takes an unpopular side in the courtroom. His children learn the up and downs of being social outcasts who’s father is a ‘nigger-lover’. Although through the course of their unexpected summer, they absorb many aspects of life that even the adults are oblivious to. As they are progressing through their eye-opening summer, Jem and Scout Finch learn about the power of names in their society, the roles of destructive loneliness, and the loss of their innocence.
Scout’s coming of age moment starts in chapter 3 when she is complaining about her teacher Miss Caroline and Atticus tells her that “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.”. She does not understand her father until much later in the book when she walks Boo Radley home and stands on his porch. She then understands her father’s lesson, claiming that “standing on the radley porch was enough”. Then there is Jem her older brother that comes of age and matures through the book too. He grows in knowledge and bravery.
Quote and page # Paragraph "'Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.' I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime." (Question) page: 2 In this quote it seems like it is very interesting.
Dill is best friends with Jem and Scouts and their goal for the past years was to get Boo Radley out of the house. When Dill first met Jem and Scout he would tell them stories of about his father he did not have. Dill never knew his father growing up and did not have nobody to look up to. Most of his life he was on his own and felt abandon. He would also make up stories of his father to make himself feel better.
He wants Scout to change who she is to fit his idea of what being a woman is about. In Jem’s mind, women and girls should not be opinionated and “rough”, they must be feminine and frail.
In the timeless classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, a young girl, Scout, and her older brother, Jem, learn the true meaning of courage through a series of events that happen in their tired old town, Maycomb, Alabama. In Chapter 10, Harper Lee uses the killing of a mad dog to symbolize how Jem and Scouts ideas of courage change throughout their coming of age. In Chapter 10, Scout talks about how Atticus wouldn’t teach her and Jem how to shoot when they got their air rifles. Scout says that they had to turn to their Uncle Jack who, “...instructed [them] in the rudiments thereof, he said Atticus wasn’t interested in guns.”
Scout changed a lot over the course of this story. She was exposed to many events that led to her gradually changing her way of life. She doesn’t change as much as Jem does or as fast as him, but she still changes. She learns to mature, understand things better, and treat people with respect.
Maggie Jones To Kill a Mockingbird Analysis Essay Being a child, contrary to the beliefs of many adults, is difficult. They must learn how to act and react in certain situations. As they learn these things, their character develops and they come to age. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses character development to illustrate the process in which the main protagonists – Jem and Scout – come of age. When the audience first meets Jem, they learn he is a stubborn, adventurous, young boy with idealistic beliefs.