Themes Of To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

To Kill a Mockingbird displays important moral values and themes of growing up, courage and prejudice, particularly significant issues during Harper Lee’s time. Hence, I have decided to focus my assignment on what the novel is ultimately trying to display.  
Maturity and growing up are portrayed through the novel. Jem, Scout and Dill had to confront harsh realities of life such as adult hypocrisy, racial tension, human cruelty, death, and in the case of Dill, parental indifference. School education is ironically, shown very little in the book, which tells us that life is what helps us to grow up. An example would be how Jem started out as a playful child and a companion to Scout. His personality started to change as the book progressed. He learned to understand ways of life and learnt tolerance after destroying Mrs. Dubose flowers, since it brought him nothing but grief. In addition, after Mrs. Dubose died, he learns of her struggles as a morphine addict and sees her in new light. Then, there was also Jem and Scout’s experiences with Boo Radley, which allowed them to learn to accept those different from them. Despite being known as the town freak, Boo Radley comes to the children’s aid, showing that rumors were untrue, when Bob Ewell attacks them. They thus gained respect for Boo Radley. Maturity and growing up is shown in many instances in the novel through the children.
Courage is also predominantly portrayed as a theme of the novel. The characters in the novel have different views and show it in different ways in their lives. To Atticus, "Courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what." He was truly a brave man and showed it by taking up Tom Robinson’s case. By doing so, he went against Maycomb, a prejudice town. Despite how his reputation suffered, how he was ridiculed, and how his own sister disapproved of his Act, Atticus remained the maverick and stood up for his morals and ethics. He...