Growing Up - Innocence to Experience

The larger moral questions of the book are explored from the perspective of children. In a sense, the plot of the story charts Scout's moral education and how she moves from innocence to adulthood. This theme is explored most importantly through the parent-child relationships between Atticus and his children, as he devotes himself to instilling conscience in Jem and Scout.

Atticus guides them to an understanding of the position of other people by repeatedly telling them they should step into another person's shoes and try to see things from that person's viewpoint.
 
 
 
Activities
1
 Harper Lee's novel contains many references to children and children's view of life. What is she telling us about the importance of children and childhood?
2
 Discuss your impressions of the personalities and characters of the two young children growing up in the novel - Scout and Jem Finch.
3
 Trace the children's habit of learning by observing and spying rather than "doing". What pattern can you discern here? Explain it.
4
 In the first part of the novel, it appears that lessons the children learn are about individuals about which there is something to be understood.
(a) What lessons are learnt by Scout and Jem in relation to these people - Walter Cunningham, Miss Caroline and Miss Maudie?
(b) Who teaches them these lessons? Analyse the nature and the effects of this education process.
5
 Explain the significance of the "mad dog" episode in the story, particularly in regard to the relationship between Jem and Atticus Finch.
6 Why does Harper Lee include the episode of Mrs Dubose in the story? Analyse the lessons Scout and Jem eventually understood from the episode. Who taught them these lessons?
7 When Scout thoughtlessly remarks on the impoverished Walter Cunningham's bad table manners, Calpurnia takes her aside and explains: "There's some folks who don't eat like us…but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the whole table cloth you let him, you hear?" (p. 27).
(a) What important lesson is Calpurnia imparting to Scout in this scene?
(b) How is this lesson related to the novel's larger themes?
(c) Why is it significant that it comes, in this instance, from Calpurnia?
8 When Scout complains about her teacher, Atticus tells her that "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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" (p. 33). By the end of the novel, how has Scout come to understand the meaning of Atticus's advice?
9 By the end of the novel Scout claims that there is not much left for herself and Jem to learn. What lessons have they absorbed in the course of the novel? In your answer explore what they learn about themselves and about the society in which they live. Be sure to explore the ways they learn.
 
     
   
To Kill a Mockingbird: An English web site unit devised and developed by George Marotous and Merren Ward.
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