While Scout, Jem, and her father, Atticus, face many conflicts and unwanted predicaments throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s encounters with Arthur Radley is one of the most influential scenes in the novel where the audience or reader can begin to notice the Scout is actually more concerned than afraid of the well-being and status of Boo Radley, which shows the vulnerability of childhood innocence that subsequently leads to the maturation of Scout over time. In the beginning of novel, Scout merely believes all of the myths and legends that she is told about Boo Radley. Not once does she try to consider whether or not these accusations are actually true, and when she states that,“Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I never saw him. People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows...Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work”, she at first fully believes it (Lee 10). This quote would then thus imply that the only time Boo Radley comes out of his house is to terrorize the people who live around him and be an intruder of privacy. However, …show more content…
Therefore, Scout’s development as a character throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is a key example of a ‘coming of age’ moment. The setting, conflict, and characters of this story all contribute to Scout’s growth and maturity. The setting of the 1930s, the conflict of the Great Depression, racism and segregation, and the main characters of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird all contribute to Scout’s development as the main character by adding obstacles to her life that she must be able to overcome in order to find the answers that she is looking for, which will give her the ability to survive and persevere through the rough circumstances of the dystopian society of her