Scout's Maturation through the Evil in the World

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Scouts Maturation through the Evil in the World

        Harper Lees, To Kill a Mockingbird is a very complex novel that has many plots and many evils.  Lee tells of an innocent black man accused of rape by a detestable family. She also tells of a man locked up in his house and isolated from the rest of the world. The narrator, Scout, learns about this turpitude, and this ultimately leads to her maturation throughout the story.  The three main heinous acts are the way Tom Robinson is treated, the way Boo Radley is isolated from the rest of the world, and the way Bob Ewell commits the unspeakable.

One of the main evils in the story is the way Tom Robinson is accused and convicted of rape. At the start of the book Scout calls those who are black, ''niggers''. This demonstrates that at the start of the book Scout did not consider black people to be as good as white people. Instead, she listened to everything that the town said about black people. This quote shows that Scout was still rather immature and had a lot of growing to do. When the jury walks in from Tom"s trial, Scout says to herself, 'I saw something only a lawyer"s child could be expected to see, could be expected to watch for, and it was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a shoulder, and pull the trigger but watching all the time knowing the gun was empty'"' (pg. 211). Scout is finally beginning to feel some compassion for Tom Robinson, a black person, after learning of the evil that has been done to him. She is able to realize that Tom Robinson is going to found guilty and feels horrible about it inside.''Naw, Jem, I think there"s just one kind of folks. Folks (pg. 227).' Towards the very end of the book, Scout has finally matured enough to realize the fact that are people are the same and all people should be created equal. She has seen so much evil which has shown her that everyone, including those who are black, have feelings, making them just as good as anyone else. Although what happens to Tom Robinson is tragic, in a way it is good for Scout because it helps her mature and truly believe that 'there"s just one kind of folks. Folks.'  

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Another evil in the story that contributes to Scout"s maturation is the way that Boo Radley is locked up in his house and kept away from the rest of the world. When Dill first arrived, Scout believed Jem"s description of Boo Radley, '"'Six-and-a-half feet tall....a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time (pg. 13). Scout was so naive that she believed anything that anyone said about Boo and never put herself in his skin. Scout was also very small-minded because ...

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