Examples Of Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Coming of Age

Coming of age is something important. It’s when you start to realize that the world isn’t only about you and you start to think about others. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee they show great examples of coming of age. In chapter 25, the main character, Scout, tries to kill a bug, but her older brother, Jem, tells her not to do it because the bug didn’t do anything to them. The characters in To Kill A Mockingbird start showing coming of age as time goes by and bad things happen to people. The theme coming of age is shown through conflict, characterization, and symbolism.

One change that happens when you are coming of age is that there is more internal/external conflict because you realize that there are …show more content…
Characterization is important to coming of age because it shows how the characters have changed over time. On page 319 of To Kill A Mockingbird Scout says “Jem was the one who was getting more like a girl every day, not I.” This is vital because although Scout isn’t changing, Jem becoming “more like a girl” just means that he is becoming more sensitive and sympathetic. This shows that Jem’s character is changing.

The last change of Jem’s coming of age is portrayed within symbolism. The reason that Jem doesn’t want Scout to kill the roly poly is because the roly poly didn’t do anything to them. “ ‘Why couldn’t I mash him’ I asked. ‘Because they don’t bother you’ Jem answered in the darkness.”(319.) That means the roly poly represents innocence and Jem doesn’t like it when the innocent are harmed. The reason Jem may feel that way most likely has to do with Tom Robinson, a black man who was convicted for nothing, being sent to prison and killed even though he didn’t do anything.

To summarize, To Kill A Mockingbird shows great examples of coming of age. One great example of the coming of age is shown through conflict. Another example is portrayed using characterization. They also use symbolism to show what might be changing people’s minds during their coming of age. If you haven’t read it, To Kill A Mockingbird is a great story to
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