Since the first spark of human life, coming-of-age has even occurred at the time of Adam and Eve. Many people think that the only part of maturing is puberty. However, one of the greatest parts of growing up is not, surprisingly, going through puberty. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives. In the National Geographic article “Beautiful Brains” David Dobbs displays how gaining new perspectives during coming-of-age helps individuals to be smarter and more successful. According to Dobbs, “The period’s uniqueness rises from genes and developmental processes...producing a creature optimally primed to leave a safe home and move into unfamiliar territory.” Flexibility is mandatory in coming-of-age because different perspectives change risks taken. In addition, once an animal moves somewhere never before seen by themselves, then they are required to adapt to be able to survive in the conditions they are in. In conclusion, humans are the same as animals in the way they have to adapt and be flexible with their surroundings. Dobbs concludes that “if we smartened up sooner, we’d end up dumber.” Meaning that people would become dumber …show more content…
In the story, Lee shows how Scout is perceiving a different point of view: “I had never seen our neighborhood from this angle”(320). Seeing differences through other people’s perspectives is greatly needed to grow up. Scout had finally “stepped” into Boo’s shoes and had seen everything from Boo’s point of view. Scout points out that she is acting on the impression of Mr. Raymond: “Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too”(Lee 229). Scout realized from what Mr. Raymond and Atticus had told her that black folks get everything worse than white folks. Coming-of-age requires seeing problems through different
The award winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee includes several key components that are exemplary passages of coming-of-age scenes. One of the most significant scenes throughout the whole book is the courtroom scene that describes the trial of Tom Robinson, who has been accused of rape by Mayella Ewell. The outcome of the trial was creating a coming-of-age scene for several characters, including Jem Finch, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, and Dill Harris. In this scene, it is seen that in defense of Tom, Atticus Finch uses ethical, logical, and emotional stances in order to find Tom innocent and continue to fight for justice by being impartial and having no judgement unlike society. Although a strong defense was presented, society still
In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper lee uses the literary elements use the imagery,characterization ,and symbolism to show the theme of coming of age . In the passage when Scout joins her Aunt and other women of Maycomb for a meeting in chapter 24 on pages 228 line 21 and 229 line 34 . All three of the literary elements can be found within this one passage as well as throughout the book. To begin , in the passage harper lee uses imagery to describe Scouts outfits .
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee includes many coming of age moments. For example, I chose the part where Scout walks Boo home. Scout is the narrator of the book and Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley accompanies her in this scene. This is a coming of age example because near the end, Scout talks about how she felt she’d already learned what she needed to be an adult. Today I’ll be talking about literary elements in this passage.
“You can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes” is a saying that will always hold truth to it, even in this day and age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, where two children are living in a racially segregated town in the 1930’s, this is demonstrated a lot. Through the use of point of view and coming of age, Lee proves that you can never understand how someone is feeling without imagining yourself in their perspective.
The passages i have chose today for my coming of age essay was the court scene and the problems after the court scene because there were multiple parts in those 2 scenes where the kids could have possibly observed some experience for coming of age and i will explain every single detail and every little piece of information to show you how and what they observed to coming of age in the future.
When coming-of-age a person will be continually experiencing, and learning new things. As this happens that person will develop and gain new perspectives on life and the world around them. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is found gaining new perspectives while she comes-of-age. In David Dobbs’ article “Beautiful Brains”, he shows and explains how gaining new perspectives is a part of coming-of-age. Developing different perspectives is really what coming-of-age is all about. It causes an individual to see the world in a new light, which widens their knowledge and helps them to fully come-of-age and grow
In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee, the author has used numerous different methods to portray the themes of innocence, maturity and growing up. These themes were put in so that the audience could become more empathetic towards the characters, especially the protagonists. She depicts these themes through characters, events, using symbolism, imagery and contrast located throughout the book.
Scout always vividly remembers, “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). Scout learns a lot about becoming compassionate and sympathetic towards people from Atticus. Scout tries to understand why people act a certain way even if the actions confuses her. Atticus strives to show Scout that, “Nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything… it just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you” (Lee 144). Scout gains the trait for seeking equality and loving everybody the same no matter the race at an early age. From this lesson, Scout disregards any or most insults, and treat blacks the same way as she treats everyone else. The guidance Atticus gives to Scout lets Scout become one step closer to a mature adult, with a little help from
One’s childhood innocence is never lost, it simply plants the seed for the flower of maturity to bloom. It seems that almost every adult chooses to either forget or ignore this childhood vulnerability. But ironically, it was this quality that pushed them into adulthood in the first place. At the peak of their childhood, their post climactic innocence allows room for the foundation of maturity to begin to grow. In the sleepy southern town of Maycomb this is exactly what happens to eight years old Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. In To Kill a Mockingbird the character Scout is forced to surround herself with a very adult situation, when a trial comes to the small town of Maycomb. The trial raises the question that shakes the entire town up, what
To Kill a Mockingbird has a ”coming of age” theme set to it through everything that the protagonists experienced. The events in both the book and movie impacted the characters in both fortunate and unfortunate ways, which made them mature. The youngest protagonists were the ones who mainly experienced this, for the older characters already went through their Coming of Age. Jem had the most Coming of Age experiences in the whole story since he was on the borderline of becoming a teenager and taking on more serious responsibilities. Jem had to take responsibility and take care of his sister when while his father took Calpurnia home.
Growing up is an ability the human species were blessed and cursed with. It comes with aging, aching bodies and a greater awareness of the world. And yet, growing up also comes with an opportunity for us to invent an entirely new version of ourselves. We’re always changing, but the first drastic change in our lives is the coming of age. It’s something that signifies your shift from adolescence to adulthood. However, coming of age is more than just another transition of your life. It’s also about the life events and lessons that will stay with you as one matures. This monumental change in our existence has been found in countless numbers of stories. But, one remarkable example is a novel titled To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In the classic
In chapter 31 Scout is realizing that the rumor about Boo and how everybody described him wasn’t as she imagined. The novel states “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus he was real nice...His hands were underneath my chin, pulling up the cover, tucking it around me. Most people are Scout, when you finally see them” (Lee 323). In other words people shouldn’t believe what other people say about a person until you have met them. After Scout put aside those things, she finally saw and got to know him for who he really was, she considered him as a heart kinded man. This is important because if you do believe what people say you might miss out on the opportunity to make a new friend or role model because you don’t understand that person. In addition, in chapter 3 Scout’s father is explaining how to along with others better by considering their point of view. The text states “First of all,” he said if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into their skin and walk around in it”(Lee 39). In other words, it isn’t until you truly put yourself in someone else’s position that you will be able to understand what that person has been going though. This illustrates the importance of considering others perspectives and a willingness to be open minded about their
Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters develop and mature in unique ways. Boo, who fears talking to others, Aunt Alexandra, who is against people of other races or social classes, and Scout, who is young and is not aware of life’s challenges, constantly suppress their emotions and personality. Their life choices and decisions that they make throughout the book, lead them to be more accepting of others and less prejudice. As the book progresses, Boo, Aunt Alexandra, and Scout learn life lessons and develop into mature adults.
As we grow older, we tend to lose our innocence and our clean state of mind. We lose our ability to see the world as such a peaceful and happy place. We lose the talent to not be frightened of the world around us and the people within it. If we didn’t lose our innocence, the world could either be greater or worse.
Coming of age is an influential part of many people’s lives. They begin to leave behind their innocent childhood views and develop a more realistic view on the world around them as they step forward into adulthood. (Need to add transition) Many authors have a coming of age theme in their books; specifically, Harper Lee portrays a coming of age theme in his book To Kill A Mockingbird. Through the journeys of their childhoods, Jem and Scout lose their innocence while experiencing their coming of age moment, making them realize how unfair Maycomb really is.