To Kill a Mockingbird Theme of Youth

Are kids just the mini-me versions of the adults they will become, or is something substantial lost – or gained – in the transition to adulthood? And how does that process work, anyhow? To Kill a Mockingbird shows a child’s perspective on adult events, and suggests that while children aren’t just adults in miniature, they also aren’t what adults imagine or misremember children to be. The novel suggests that adulthood is both a gain and a loss – and some of the abilities that disappear – like fairness, compassion, and a critical way of looking at the world – are well worth trying to keep.

1. How does the novel portray children as different from adults?
2. What difference does it make to the novel that it’s narrated from a child’s perspective? How would the book be different if an adult perspective was dominant?
3. According to the novel, what happens in the process of growing up? What factors determine what kind of adult a child becomes?
4. Is identity fixed in childhood, or can it change over time?

The children in the novel reveal what the adults can’t see, through their innocent perspective on events.

The novel’s association of children with fairness suggests that a sense of justice is innate, not learned, and therefore adults must have learned to be unjust.