Growing up

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Recommended: Change and transformation in the book to kill a mockingbird

Growing up is a challenge that every child has to face at some point in their lives. When a child grows up, he comes to the realization that the world isn’t a pretty place, and everything that seems perfect on top may hide a deeper, uglier truth right beneath the surface. A child loses his blissful naiveté and finally sees the world for what it truly is. First the child is hurt and terrified, but he eventually learns how to deal with the shocking revelation. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a classic example of a Bildungsroman, or a literary genre that focuses on the protagonist’s psychological and moral growth. To Kill a Mockingbird describes two young children’s growth in a society where prejudice is the norm and radical views are frowned upon. These two children, Jem and Scout Finch, are forced to grow up much too quickly due to the jolting events they witness and the people they meet. Fortunately, Atticus Finch, their fair, wise, and levelheaded father, guide the children onto the correct paths in life and help them make sense of the complicated and hypocritical society they live in, Maycomb County, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird marks the progress in these two children’s development as they face new experiences in life. The changes these children go through repeatedly reflect the central theme of the book: the innocence of good people destroyed; good and evil can coexist and things aren’t always what they appear to be.
At the beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout are typical and carefree children who haven’t seen the world outside of Maycomb. Unfortunately, they are exposed to evil much too early in their lives due to their father’s profession as a lawyer. Scout, the younger and more ou...

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...of innocence in good people. The primary symbol in To Kill a Mockingbird is obviously the mockingbird, which is supposed to symbolize an innocent being who gets hurt because of the cruelty and injustice of humankind. By this definition, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are clearly mockingbirds. Miss Maudie and Atticus both have strong views on how wrong it is to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie states, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . they don’t do but one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” It’s wrong to kill a mockingbird because, in short, they are naturally good creatures and they should not be punished because of that. Tom Robinson is a mockingbird because the court ruled him as guilty for a crime he did not commit, all because he wanted to help a poor girl who needed help.

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