Development Changes Of Scout And Jem

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‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, a novel by Harper Lee and film by Robert Mulligan is told through the eyes of Scout, an unusually intelligent and individual five year old who witnesses her father Atticus, defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. In the film and the novel, the characters Scout and her brother Jem mature considerably throughout the course of the texts. This development change occurs as they learn and discover very important things in ways which they would not experience at school. Through the many events occurring around the town of Maycomb, Jem and Scout fear the ‘mysterious’ Boo Radley, Scout begins to become more feminine, and lastly, they each react differently to the racial prejudice that occurs with Tom Robinson. As they are at different stages in their lives, they each learn and grow at different rates and from different experiences. The children’s desire to learn about Boo Radley contributes to the way Jem and Scout gradually mature throughout the film and the novel. The town of Maycomb has developed a myth that Boo Radley is an insane monster. “People said he went out at night when the moon was high, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them. Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.” p.9 The young characters have an initial interest in the mystery of Boo and begin to obsess about it by attempting to communicate with Boo, and make a game out of the rumours that circulate about the Radley family. This curiosity fades by the end of the texts as they actually meet Boo himself. Jem and Scout both show signs of growing up, understanding that Boo isn’t harmful at all. For example, in the novel when Scout discovers the stranger who saved her was Boo, Harper Lee uses language and points within the narrative structure to show how Scout’s previous
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