I have just finished To Kill A Mockingbird and it has taught me many lessons and shown me many ways about Scout and her coming of age. Scout went through many experiences dealing with racism, learning about the moral nature of human being.
In the last half of the book, many events occurred dealing with Scout and her questioning of life. Calpurnia, Scout's family's black cook, decides to take Scout and Jem to her "colored" church. This church was called First Purchase because it was bought with the first earnings of freed slaves. When they reach the church, a woman Lula, criticizes Calpurnia for bringing white children to their "colored" church, but everyone else welcomes them, because everyone knows their father who is very friendly with everyone especially the colored people in Maycomb. Their church has no money for hymnals, and only a few of them can read. During the service, a man speaks up for Tom Robinson’s wife, Helen, who does not have a job or money since her husband has been accused of rape. After, Scout learns that Tom Robinson has been accused by Bob Ewell, who is the most unemployed man of Maycomb living with a the poorest, racist family. Even Scout who is just 7 years old doesn't understand why anyone actually believes him. Soon, Scouts dad goes to court defending Tom. Scout gets very interested in the trial and she really wanted to be apart of it so she and Jem sneak into the 'colored balcony' with the towns black citizens. Soon, Atticus solves the case in showing that Mayella, the woman that claimed she was raped, had came onto Tom while her father had caught her so Mayella had blamed Tom to cover her shame. Yet all the white jury still convicted him. Tom soon tried to escape jail in which soon events in him being shot. This had taught Scout about many things. She had been very interested in racism and had saw the events due to it. This made her one of the maybe lucky kids to experience this great coming of age.
The moral voice of To Kill A Mockingbird is spoken by Atticus, because he has experienced and understood evil without losing his faith. Atticus understands that, rather than being split up into humans of good or humans of evil, most people have both good and bad inside of them. The important thing is to accept and appreciate the good qualities and try to understand the bad qualities by being in someone else's shoes to see their life from their perspective. He tries to teach this moral to Jem and Scout.
The title of this book has a very big meaning to it also. At first I didn't get it but as I did research, it explained to me a whole lot of stuff which made me understand the book more. The mockingbird is a huge symbol. In the story, Atticus mentions that killing mockingbirds are a sin because all the mockingbirds do are sing its beautiful songs and not harm anyone. It means that it is a sin to hurt someonne that hasn't done anything. Tom is the mockingbird and it would be wrong if he were tried guilty for not actually committing the crime.
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