Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a perennial favorite of high school students because the story includes many issues people deal with in their own life and that they can associate with. Scout, the narrator, grows up and matures throughout the story just as the readers have through their lives. During the book Scout has to learn about and handle life's ugliness and the hardships that come with it. Everyday Scout encounters the aberrant adults of Maycomb and is confused by their oddities, but is also quite curious of them. Being as young as she is has kept her mind innocent and free of the prejudice known to most all of the inhabitants of her small town. Being white, of a middle-class family, and Christian her and her older brother, Jem, have not yet come in contact with the social injustices that go on everyday right in her own "perfect little town." Injustices like racism, which is still a problem today, is a main issue in the story. Even though Scout must face all these problems, she still finds the good qualities of life like courage, but she finds in it a place she would never expect.
             Scout matures immensely in just a few years. She must go through her childhood with no mother, a busy father, and an aunt that is constantly urging her to change. That is not even mentioning the problems arising from the Tom Robinson trial. Everything that happens to Scout throughout the story contributes to how she views the world. She attends her first day of school and learns about the different kind of people and social classes in Maycomb. Atticus teaches her empathy and that she cannot always solve her conflicts with violence. Both of which are great signs of growth being that many adults do not learn these qualities in a lifetime much less by the time they're seven years old. Arthur "Boo" Radley terrifies Jem, Scout, and Dill while they are still young. They play tricks on Boo, trying to ...