Maturity is not measured by age. It’s an attitude built by experience. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird characters such as Jem and Scout is seen maturing throughout the book because the way they think and feel about someone/something changes as they experience more of the real world. At the beginning of the book, Scout, the narrator, has trouble getting along with people and acted upon the prejudice that existed among her. This was until her father, Atticus Finch, teaches Scout to climb into people’s skin and walk around in it, which allows her to view different perspectives, which helped her get along with people.
Near the end of the book, Scout walks Boo home, and when she stands on his porch she learns his point of view and how he thinks of Jem and Scout. To add, Scout and Jem lived in a time of prejudice, and learned that it is a huge problem in society as they mature. Furthermore, Maturity reveals a lot about one’s personality as their spiritual and mental age selves grows older. All in all, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird shows that being sympathetic, empathetic, and responsible help Jem and Scout mature as people.
Firstly, as a person spiritually grows older they begin to grow mature and thus, learn to sympathize helping people bond on a piritual level. Scout had learned to become sympathetic and started to mature in chapter three. This was when Scout was about to fight Walter but Jem intervenes and invites him to lunch. During the feast: Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He would probably have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing.. he [Walter] put his hands in his lap.
Atticus shook his head at me again… When she [Calpurnia] squinted down at me the tiny lines around her eyes deepened. There’s some folks who don’t eat like us… Yo’ folks might be better’n the Cunningham’s but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you’re disgracin’ ’em’ (Lee 24) At this point of the text, Scout is unable to sympathize with Walter Cunningham and acted immaturely by disrespecting him because he doesn’t eat similar to the Finches. She is unable to understand how Walter would feel before and after the remark.
This shows Scout in her early years cannot sympathize which is the key to become mature and to spiritually grow as a person. After the incident, Atticus teaches Scout to look at things from another person’s point of view. This was a vital lesson in the book because this is when Scout truly starts to mature. This is shown later in the book when Scout sympathized with Mayella: “.. it came to me [Scout] that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world. She was even lonelier than Boo Radley, who had not been out of the house in twenty-five years” (191).
This goes to show that as Scout spiritually grows older she learns to sympathize and therefore mature. All in all, Scout learns to sympathize by growing spiritually older and facing new experiences in life, thus maturing as a person. Secondly, a person can mature by putting other people’s lives, including their feelings over their very own, therefore becoming ore responsible. This is shown in chapter two when Scout takes the responsibility by explaining to Miss Caroline that the Cunninghams don’t take loans as they could never pay it back: “The Cunninghams never took anything they couldn’t pay back” (20).
Miss Caroline got offended by this and so Scout had faced consequences and was about to fight Walter until Jem intervened which shows how responsible he is because he knew Scout would be better of not fighting and later getting in trouble. He understood the consequences Scout would have to face and so took the responsibility to stop the fight. Similarly, Jem had lso shown responsibility when he protected his sister in the Bob Ewell attack and therefore risked his life to save Scout’s, valuing her life over his. This is evident when Jem yells “Run, Scout! Run! Run! ” (261) as he wanted Scout to escape harmless while he defends her.
This shows how Atticus raised and trained Jem to be as he grows older. In conclusion, Jem had always considered Scout’s life including her thoughts and feelings over his own showing how responsible and mature Jem is. Finally, one can be shown maturing when he/she understands or connects with people’s feelings, therefore becoming empathetic. Throughout the book Scout had been shown to be an empathetic character. In chapter 4 Scout had come acr gifts given by Bo0 Radely, evident when she says: “My first impulse was to get it [gum] into my mouth as quickly as possible, but I remembered where I was” (33).
When Scout eats the gum it shows that she had trusted the gifts placed in the tree by Boo. As she realized the gifts were from Boo she found out that Boo was a lonely, isolated soul that wanted to interact with the children. This part of the book of the book shows us that Scout trusted Boo which is vital because trust and empathy go hand in hand as it is an effective platform for ommunication, in addition to that, we also learned that Scout’s trust lead to her understanding of what type of character Boo really is.
Similarly, Scout had empathized with Boo in the end of the book when Scout was on Boo’s porch climbing into his skin. Which is evident when says: “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (279). This showed that Scout had finally understood how Boo felt of the children which in turn shows how empathetic Scout was being to Boo. All in all, Scout being mpathetic to Author Radely shows that she trusts, understands how lonely he is and also understands that Boo thinks of Scout and Jem as his own children.
In conclusion, Scout and Jem mature as their mental age grows older by becoming empathetic, sympathetic, and responsible. To begin, Scout learned to sympathize when she learned to jump into people’s skin after she disrespected the way Walter ate. She than later showed her ability to jump in people’s skin when Scout had pitied Mayella Ewell in the courtroom. Secondly, Jem had showed responsibility when he stopped a potential fight between Scout and Walter. In addition, he also has risked is life to save his sister’s during Bob Ewell’s attempted murder.
Lastly, Scout had shown empathy towards Boo when she trusted him, understood that was a lonely, isolated creature, and lastly when she realized that Boo thought of Scout and Jem as his own children. To reiterate, as one increasingly experiences the real world one would grow as a person and therefore help mould his/her personality. All in all, maturity is important as it allows everyone to understand the society they live in including the prejudice within. To conclude, one can mature by moulding their personality to become more responsible, empathetic and sympathetic.