Scout Grows Up Quickly

Scout's Maturation in to Kill a Mockingbird To Kill A Mockingbird addresses many issues that were relevant at the time of its writing and which are still relevant today. The book details the financial woes of the Great Depression. It deconstructs the state of race relations in the United States. Most importantly, however, it provides a tale about growing up and maturing in a society that has a number of deep rooted prejudices and convictions, and which frequently expects people (especially young people) to believe them without understanding them.

This final aspect of this novel is its most important, because it illustrates the maturation process that Scout undergoes while growing up. Scout is able to mature throughout this book by gaining the ability to take another person's perspective to understand why he or she acts as he or she does, without simply accepting society's reasons for those actions. The veracity of this particular thesis is evinced in a number of different ways and in many different events that Scout goes through for the duration of the novel.

Perhaps the most convincing evidence for this thesis is that Scout is expressly told that understanding is predicated on vicariously experiencing the life and livelihood of another by her father, Atticus. In fact, the lawyer tells his daughter, "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" (30).

Initially, Scout is unable to comprehend this advice, and is more apt to judge other people without empathizing with their positions -- which is why she dislikes Miss Caroline (30). This inability on her part, however, merely emphasizes the fact that she is young and not mature enough to fully think for herself about other people and their actions. However, this sagacity from her father sets her in motion to try to understand the viewpoints of others prior to judging them -- which is a sign of maturity.

Perhaps the main way that Scout is able to evince her maturation process is through her interactions with Boo Radley, christened Arthur, and son of Scout's neighbor Nathan. Radley is something of a shut-in who has not been seen in some time. Early on in the book, Scout (accompanied by her brother and her friend Dill), inadvertently tease Boo by play acting a story that is about him (50).

They do so in plain view of him and are not ashamed to do so, because they are still immature and not considering Radley's perspective or how it might feel for them to witness them. Later on, however, Scout is actually able to internalize Radley's perspective which helps her to better understand him. While she stands on his front porch, she envisions some of the major events that have taken place in the story as they must have appeared to Radley from his house.

The fact that she is able to do so demonstrates her maturity, as she realizes "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 Radley's porch was enough" (283). By envisioning Boo's vantage point of watching Scout and her brother receive his gifts, Scout realizes he is not simply some deranged, scary shut-in as society proclaims him to be, but that he is actually a caring sensitive person.

The fact that she is able to come to this realization reinforces the fact that by the end of the novel, she has matured a great deal. Understanding Radley's perspective from his vantage point proves a watershed moment for the young girl, who is then able to make these sorts of connections with other people and other events.

The fact that she is able to do so readily means she has matured past the early stages of the book when she simply took society's values and opinions for her own, and was not able to distinguish them from her own. She indicates her newfound maturity at the end of the novel as well as she explicates the events of a story to her father.

The events of the story eerily parallel those of Lee's novel -- there is a character who is accused of criminal activity yet who is really innocent, a fact that is revealed at the end of the tale, prompting Scout to tell her father "When they finally saw him…he hadn't done any of.