A five-year-old child is the embodiment of innocence and naivety. But over time, this fragility is lost and children must gradually learn to adapt to the outside world and mature by acquiring new experiences that give them wisdom and knowledge. Three characters, Jem, Scout, and Dill in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird living in Depression-era Maycomb County, face the harsh reality of Maycomb's racism and prejudice while maturing by acquiring knowledge, experience and courage. . Children grow up learning many lessons from Atticus or from their own experiences. In his depiction of Jem, Scout, and Dill, Lee reveals their maturation from the children they are to a deeper understanding of their society and its people. Jem's maturity is shown through his understanding of Boo's true courage and personality. A few months later, she dies and Atticus explains why he has Jem read: “[Mrs. Dubose] had his own view of things, very different from mine… I wanted you to see something about him – I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of having the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. . It's when you know you're screwed before you start, but you start anyway and you succeed no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, with her ninety-eight pounds. According to her, she died without owing anything to anyone. She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee 149). Atticus says he's making him read Jem because he wants to understand what true courage is. Mrs. Dubose is addicted to morphine, but she forces herself to stop even though she knows she would die. Unbeknownst to Jem, Mrs. Dubose used ...... middle of paper ...... Gilmer's analogous and inauspicious end to his life unless he stops procrastinating. Through the three children in the development of the story, the author realistically depicts the passage to adulthood in a world afflicted with prejudice and racism. All three characters start out as naive and naive children, but grow up to be intelligent and mature by the end of the novel. Jem discovers true courage and discovers who Boo Radley really is, a person completely contrary to his initial misconceptions. Scout discovers the complacency with which a person can ignore injustices and that people are not always who the population believes them to be. Dill learns that prevarication can lead to a very inauspicious life that can cost a human being their life. As characters grow, they gain new knowledge, learn new lessons, or understand different aspects of life and society..