Growing up

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Growing Up
The novel To Kill a Mocking Bird was authored in 1960 by Harper Lee. The novel features a number of key themes such as growing up. The author uses two characters, Scott and Jem in a variety of ways to develop the theme of growing up. Throughout the novel, Scout grows up in her own way. She does not accept what she sees but questions what she doesn’t understand.
The ability to understand and see things from the point of views of other persons is an integral part of growing up. Scout goes to school and finds herself in a momentary conflict with her own teacher. The teacher is not pleased with her because Scout already can read. Her father, however, is keen to make her see and understand that she needs to develop the capability to get things from another individual`s point of view. He says to her, “if you can 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 his skin and walk around in it ”(Lee,7). Scout’s father, in this statement, is simply trying to make her understand that in order to have a meaningful relation with other people, she would have to open up her mind. The understanding of the point of views of other people is what brings about the meeting of the minds in any situation. Therefore, for Scout to achieve this, she would have to grow up.
In Scout’s journey to maturity, she realizes that she needs to respect the views of other people.

For instance, Tom Robinson`s defense by her father is not popular at all, and she finds herself in situations where she fights a lot since she is not well adapted to handling such issues. When she finds herself in trouble with her uncle, she tries to make him understand the need to listen to children before meting out punishment to them. She says, “Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it-you just lit right into me. An’ in the second place you told me never to use words like that except in extreme provocation and Francis provocated me enough to knock his block off” (Lee, 21).
Additionally, Atticus, Scott’s uncle warns her against acting aggressively. Atticus gives Scott a stern warning after he learns that she engages in fights. Scott says. “Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting any more; I was far too old and too big for such childish things, and the sooner I learned to hold in, the better off everybody would be” (Lee, 20). From this statement, Scout seems to realize that fighting is a not a recommended behavior in the society. Atticus’ warning against fighting serves Scott a big lesson that prompts her to reflect on her actions and change behavior. According to her statement above, Scott takes into account the fact that she has been acting childishly by being involved in unnecessary fights and decides to stop her behavior. Her uncle`s stern warning seems to serves as a deterrent and a turning point that makes her act like a grown.
In conclusion, Harper Lee develops the theme of growing up using Scott as the main character. Scott experiences a chain of events throughout the novel that sharp her life in different ways. She sees things for herself and grows up from experiences as well as from other characters’ point of views. Scott goes through a step by step process in maturing up and gets to understand things through correction by other characters in the novel.

Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Vintage Classics, 2007.