Jem and Scout’s Transformation
Gem and Scout’s Transformation Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird America, while being the greatest nation, has had its fair share of problems. Governmental Issues, commerce, making money, and also civil rights. The Issue of the treatment of African Americans is one of the larger, pning almost two hundred and fifty years of American history. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, this issue is one of the main topics. In the novel, Gem and Scout learn lessons in morality, being quick to judge, but also keeping strong fundamental values.
Our main characters experience events causing them to shift their views on morality. In the beginning of the book, Scout gets Into fights and Is always quick to retaliate. By the end of the book however she learns that sometimes you must hold your head up high and walk away, This Is shown best by Tactics who even when he gets spitted on in public, still walks away without fighting. This is also shown when Gem breaks down and vandalizes Mrs.. Double’s front yard after her comments about them.
He learns that all actions have consequences and that if you would not have done them in the first place, you would eve been able to avoid them all together. The biggest moral lessons they learn is the sinfulness of killing a mockingbird. Mockingbirds do nothing but create sweet music, they don’t harm anyone, and It would be a sin to kill one. This relates to Tom Robinson because he is a mockingbird in the sense that he didn’t do anything wrong but he is still being punished. Miss Maude says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… Sing their hearts out for us.
That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119). This quote helps explain totes and Scout the importance of accepting others and not hurting those who have done nothing wrong, some of the key themes of the book. These events shape how Gem and Scout perceive the world and alter their opinions about people and Macomb. Gem and Scout learn other important lessons, too. The Finch kids learn from Tactics that you can’t be quick to judge others. As children, they hear rumors and make up things about Boo Raddled. Some of these include eating kittens and squirrels.
One night, Gem, Scout, and Dill try ND communicate with him by looking through his window but when they try and escape quickly, they get shot at and Gem looses his pants on the fence. When Gem returns retrieve his ripped pants he finds them gently folded and sewed. Events Like this shape how they see the Reader’s as not as evil but possibly they just like to be secluded. At then end of the book the children see Arthur, or Boo Raddled, as their protector when he saves them from Bob Lowell. Tactics says, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you limb into his skin and walk around in it” (39). This quote by Tactics really drives in Tactics’ morality and how his teachings and overall behavior Influence not only his children, but the others In the town like the African American community. It helps the kids really realize that everybody is different and to understand people, you must consider all things from their prospective. Gem and Scout still have stayed the same in some ways. Although the kids have gone through many transformations and have matured rapidly, they have still stayed the same in some regards.
Gem is still the example of this is when Scout finds gum in the tree and Gem yells at her to spit it out immediately. Scout says, “Gem had acquired an alien set of values… Several times he went as far as to tell me what to do” (153). This quote shows how as Gem grows up, he still remains protective of his little sister. He only wants what’s best for her NAS sometimes she takes it harshly, when really he is Just trying to keep her safe. Scout is still the innocent little girl who likes to play games and role play.
Overall, they haven’t hanged in a sense of their childlike behavior but instead their look on the world has changed drastically. Gem and Scout have gone through many changes learning empathy and understanding others and have also remained normal kids. They managed to grasp very adult ideas as young children, ideas some adults cannot grasp. Would it be better to have morally strong children who grow not only physically, but also mature mentally, and know the right things to do or would it be better to have children who never grow mentally and live their lives buying into immature and irrational prejudices?
