The Differences Between Children and Adults in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example

Being a child is the best part of life. Innocence is present and there are no worries like adults have. Being a child may be the best part of life but as growing occurs so does experience and experience will continue to help through life. Both of these times of life are very different but also, very important in different ways. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it shows how racism, school-life, and poverty are viewed by the children and the adults. Racism is a topic that can be viewed very differently by different people, especially the adults in the town.               

Most of the kids in this town view colored people as equals but, most of the adults don’t. Maycomb, Alabama is a small, southern town where a lot of the adults were raised to dislike colored people and anyone associated with them. These people treat colored people very badly and will not change their views for any reason. In this novel, a colored man is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and when Atticus Finch says he will defend him a man at the courthouse says “ yea, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it” (pg.218). This is wrong of this man to say because he believes Atticus should not defend the man because he is not white. The kids have to deal with things similar to this at school, too.

At school the kids can really be themselves but that doesn't go well in some cases. Some of the kids disrespect their teachers and other students. Some students are good and honor their family and don’t do these things.  Atticus had told his daughter Scout, to not get into anymore fights and when another student named Cecil Jacobs, said “ Scout Finch’s daddy defended n******”(pg.74). Scout almost walked up to him and punched, but she remembered what Atticus said and she did not fight him. These kids have fun at school but they don’t realize that poverty surrounds them.   

In Maycomb, Alabama no one is very wealthy and most are very poor. This affects a lot of families but the kids suffer from it too. The kids don’t realise this though, because they are used to it and have lived like that their whole life. One student named Burris Ewell realised it when his teacher said “please bathe yourself before you come back tomorrow” (pg.27). After she told him that he acted like it didn’t affect him, but the teacher should not have told a student that in front of the class especially, when they are in a town full of poverty. That was very unprofessional of the teacher.

In conclusion, the town of Maycomb suffers from a lot of things. The adults in the town have experience in these things and the children do not but they are learning. The adults also need to learn from the kids that they need to accept more things and not think race makes them better.