There are many themes in this book, but there are four immediate themes that spring to mind. They are:
To Kill A Mockingbird is about the narrator's growth of awareness. It belongs to a type of novel writing, which describes a character's development from childhood to maturity; it focuses on their identity, experience and education. The narrator is taken from a period of innocence through to a state of comparative maturity.
Chapters 1-11 of the book are the chapters in which the children learn the most about life because they focus specifically on Scout and Jem. Their learning doesn't stop here, and a new lesson is learned about aspects of life in almost all chapters, for example, through their observation of, and participation in, events during and following the trial.
A mature narrator who is looking back on herself as a child tells the story. Scouts naivety and childish view of the world is highlighted by the way that the readers' can often understand events better than Scout. Over the course of this book Scout learns many lessons:
P From Calpurnia that politeness should be shown to all
people even if their manners differ from your own, (like in
Chapter 3). This was when Scout and Jem invited Walter
Cunningham to have lunch with them and he drenches his
dinner with syrup, and Scout doesn't understand what he is
P From Atticus, to control her hastiness in chapter 9 and to
also appreciate the various meanings of courage in chapters
10 and 11. To learn tolerance and to turn the other cheek.
For instance when the children at school tease her and say
Her father is a 'nigger lover'.
P From Aunt Alexandra, the value of being a lady in chapter
24. When Aunt Alexandra is entertaining the Maycomb
Missionary Circle at the Finch home and they are debating
the harshness of the 'squalid lives of the Mruna's', led by Mrs
Merri...