To Kill a Mockingbird

Bonds: Compassion, Sympathy, Understanding, Tolerance In To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout mature from innocence to knowledge as they develop a bond between themselves and those who are different from them. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, an old southern town in the 1930’s, when racial tensions run high and prejudice is at its peak. People in Maycomb consider anyone with a different ethnicity, economic status, or even a different mindset, an outsider and ostracizes them. In the story the Finch children, Jem and Scout, are disillusioned as they experience some of these injustices first-hand through events such as the trial of Tom Robinson and Arthur (Boo) Radley’s life. Although Arthur Radley and Tom Robinson are often thought of as the only outsiders in Maycomb, there are many others who, although not as prominent, are equally as important in the transition for Jem and Scout. They also form bonds to characters such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, and Mrs. Dubose. Calpurnia is an African American woman that works for the Finch family for many years. She was educated by Jem and Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, and leads two different lives as they realize when she takes the kids to her church one Sabbath. There she speaks and behaves completely differently around other African Americans then when she is just around white folk in the Finch’s house. Conversely there is Mr. Dolphus Raymond who, as the kids learn, is not the man he appears to be. He is not always inebriated, but instead drinks coke and only pretends to be under the influence. He does this so that his family will not be made fun of because he is white and he married an African American and had children that were racially mixed. They form a bond because the children see a pleasant man who is not accepted by society in Maycomb because he does not have the prejudice against African Americans adopted by other Caucasians in Maycomb. A third minor character is Mrs. Dubose. She is a morphine