As we go through different stages of life, it may not be easy for all of us, especially for Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem are rudely awakened from the nightmare of reality from their dream of innocence. Throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she documents the moral growth of Jem and Scout as they gain a better understanding of the world. At the beginning of the book, Jem and Scout are innocent kids like everyone else. Throughout the story, this innocence is tested, for example, by various events; the Tom Robinson trial. At the end of the book, Scout and Jem realize the cruelty of the world and the effects on different people, for example Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. At first, Scout and Jem are fascinated by a supposed fantasy character named Boo Radley. They don't know who he is and this mystery pushes them to knock on Boo Radley's door and even try to look at him from the window. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As stated by “He said it all started the summer Dill came to us when Dill first gave us the idea to release Boo Radley(3)”, this shows us the Scout and Jem's innocence at the beginning of the story. Conversely, we can also see the immoral values of society instilled in Scout and Jem. The first time we see this is during school, Scout scolds the teacher when Mrs. Caroline gives of the money to Walter Cunningham although Cunningham did not have the financial ability to repay her. According to “All right, ma'am, after a while you will know all the people in the county. The Cunninghams never took anything they couldn't repay: no church hampers and no stamps (20)”, we see the evil values of social classes in Scout when she classifies the Cunninghams as poor and subordinate This example strongly indicates that Scout still has room to mature because she is not articulate enough to control her words. In conclusion, we can see that Scout and Jem are still naive children who have room for edification. About halfway through the story, Scout and Jem begin to mature and realize the class system in their small town of Maycomb. They see this through the Tom Robinson trial and the trip to Calpurnia's church. They see that Calpurnia uses a different style to talk to people about her church. This shows that Calpurnia has a different level of respect for black people and can talk more freely and comfortably with them. According to "He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch's father stood up for Negroes." (77), Scout was called out by Cecil Jacobs because Atticus was defending Tom Robinson. Scout realizes that society is unusually racist and that some people are not as privileged as others. This is reflected in the Tom Robinson trial where the vast amount of evidence given by Atticus shows that Tom Robinson is flawless but the verdict was still guilty due to his race. Scout and Jem witness the injustice of the trial and unfortunately realize that Maycomb is not the same as they thought it was. Apart from this, they meet Mrs. Dubose, a rather irascible old woman. According to “But Mrs. Dubose held us back: “Not just a Finch waiting tables but one in court defending niggers!” (105), we know that Mrs. Dubose is the literal definition of Maycomb. Not surprisingly, he behaves identically to everyone else, harshly berating Atticus for defending Tom Robinson. However, in the end, Atticus instills in Scout and Jem that he admires Mrs. Dubose's courage which she uses to fight her morphine addiction. Halfway through the novel we can see that Scout and Jem are going through a period., 1988.
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